The regulations, if approved next week, would set Glendale among a growing movement among Los Angeles County cities — including Santa Monica, Burbank, Calabasas and Los Angeles — to restrict second-hand smoke beyond basic state regulations.
Pasadena is also considering an anti-smoking ordinance, and the Los Angeles City Council is close to strengthening its own to include outdoor dining areas.
“I don’t want to become the smoking capital of Southern California,” Councilman Dave Weaver said.
Smoking would also be banned in 80% of all hotel rooms and within 20 feet of any area where smoking would be prohibited.
In previous public hearings, restaurateurs and local business leaders fought the ordinance as too intrusive and a potential blow to their bottom lines during an already weak economy, but Judee Kendall, executive director for the Glendale Chamber of Commerce, telling the council the ordinance was acceptable.
There was no resistance on the dais, despite heated debate over the merits of imposing the strict rules in previous public hearings. Councilman Bob Yousefian, who has previously argued that car pollution was a more potent public health threat than second-hand smoke, called for a 20-foot smoke-free perimeter around all Glendale school campuses.
Still, anti-smoking advocates did not get everything they wanted in the draft ordinance.
About a dozen speakers called on the City Council to force landlords to at least set aside a certain proportion of their apartments as smoke-free.
