Smoking Ban Outside Pasadena Public Libraries Gets Initial Nod from City Council

The Pasadena City Council approved on first reading a proposed ordinance that will ban smoking on the grounds of all the city’s 10 public libraries during the Council’s  Dec. 15 meeting.

The ordinance will expand the scope of the city’s Tobacco Use Prevention Ordinance (Chapter 8.78 of the Pasadena Municipal Code) that requires smokers to remain at least 20 feet away from entrances and exits of public libraries.

It will close loopholes that prevent the smoking ban from being enforced on the grounds of some Pasadena libraries.

In February 2004, the city council adopted tobacco control policies that amended the Tobacco Use Prevention Ordinance to include smoke free public parks, tobacco retail licensing, and conditional use permit policies that restricted tobacco-only retail stores from establishing and operating within 1,000 feet of sensitive-use locations.

As a consequence, all public parks, including parking lots, became smoke free.

“Amending the Tobacco Use Prevention Ordinance to ban smoking on the grounds of all public libraries will improve the environment for library patrons and offer greater protection from the exposure to secondhand smoke,” said city Steve Mermell, Assistant City Manager/Acting Director, Public Health Department in his letter to the city council proposing the ban.

He noted the grounds of three of the city’s 10 libraries (Allendale Branch, La Pintoresca Branch, and Villa Parke Community Center Library) are already 100% smoke free because they’re located on designated parkland.

The other seven branches, including the Pasadena Central Library and Lamanda Park Library, aren’t smoke free because they’re not located on designated parkland.

Mermell said his staff received many complaints from residents who were exposed to second hand smoke while entering the main entrance to the Lamanda Park Library.

He said the layout of the Lamanda Park Library building and the grass area in front “means this restriction isn’t sufficient to eliminate the impact on library users who are exposed to secondhand smoke in order to enter the main entrance of the library.”

As the result of the vote, the City Council directed the City Attorney to prepare and return within 60 days an amendment to the Tobacco Use Prevention Ordinance to prohibit smoking on the grounds of all public libraries.