CITY HALL — Residents turned up en masse in City Council Chambers on Tuesday to weigh in on a proposal to ban smoking in certain areas in Burbank.
At press time, the council had not made a decision on the ordinance, but had just begun its deliberations after more than three hours of public testimony.
The proposed ordinance was crafted in response to documented concerns that second-hand smoke imposes negative impacts on non-smokers, said principal city planner Michael Forbes.
"Studies have found that concentration of second-hand smoke in some areas can be comparable to indoor concentrations in some cases," he said.
As proposed, the ordinance would prohibit smoking in several targeted areas in Burbank, including all city facilities and parks; all pedestrian areas of Downtown Burbank; the Chandler Bikeway; restaurant outdoor dining areas; and public transit stations.
The ordinance has a provision to set up designated smoking areas in places where limits are placed on smoking, with the exception of outdoor dining areas, where designated smoking areas would be specifically outlawed, he added.
Under staff's proposal, enforcement would be conducted by the Burbank Police Department, Forbes said. A violation would be a misdemeanor charge, though city attorneys could choose to prosecute the matter as an infraction on a case-by-case basis, he added.
Resident and former smoker Robert Phipps, who submitted a position paper to the council seven months ago urging a smoking ban, encouraged the council to pass the ordinance in order to promote public health. Contentions from smokers that the ban would limit personal freedoms are misinformed, he said.
"The smokers say we are trying to take away their rights," he said. "Not true — they have voluntarily relinquished them when they chose to live in a society."
But some ordinance opponents maintained that limiting personal behavior infringed upon basic rights.
Resident Shelly Herman argued that while he personally did not care for smoking, he was weary of attempts to abrogate people's freedoms, even for the best of reasons.
"We as the city of Burbank should not use the strength of public government to micromanage the behavior of others," he said.
