Council to Vote on Smoking Ordinance Revisions

Fremont’s smoking regulations may soon see many revisions in an effort to reduce secondhand smoke.

City councilmembers will review proposed amendments to the city’s smoking ordinance at its Tuesday meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. at city hall, 3300 Capitol Ave.

If adopted, the revisions would be the first since 1993, which is when the city last updated its smoking regulations.

The proposed amendments call for the banning of smoking in additional areas, holding landlords accountable to restrict smoking of tenants of multi-housing units, to announce secondhand smoke as a nuisance and to clarify the “reasonable distance” of a smoking area to a non-smoking area.

City officials announced at the council’s Nov. 20 meeting that the planned revisions:

• Ban smoking in public areas during public events, such as on streets during community festivals.
• Measure “reasonable distance” as 25 feet away from building entrances, windows and intakes.
• Hold employers accountable for providing a non-smoking environment for employees
• Define the duties of landlords of rental units and states that landlords must provide prospective tenants “a copy of a document describing each smoking and nonsmoking unit with a diagram depicting the location of smoking and nonsmoking units.”

Councilwoman Suzanne Chan, who shared that she lost her father due to lung cancer, has led the effort to revise the city’s smoking ordinance.

The projected changes also come after city received an overall grade of "D" in a recent analysis conducted by the American Lung Association. The “D” ranking was the city’s average grade in three categories: smoke-free outdoor protection, smoke-free multi-unit housing and reducing sales of tobacco products.

Also at Tuesday’s council meeting:

• Mayor Elect Bill Harrison will be sworn into office. Chan and incoming councilman Vinnie Bacon will also be honored during a swearing in ceremony.
• City staff will present an update to the city’s 2012-13 budget and present year-end results of the 2011-12 fiscal year.

For more information or to download the council’s meeting agenda, click here.

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