CARLSBAD – Carlsbad would become the latest city in the county to enact a beach and park smoking ban if it passes a proposed prohibition this week.
The City Council will consider it the measure at its meeting Tuesday.
A city ban on smoking on beaches would have little effect, because almost all of Carlsbad's six miles of ocean front – from Batiquitos Lagoon in the south to Pine Avenue in the north – is in the state parks system.
Brian Ketterer, a state parks superintendent who oversees Carlsbad and South Carlsbad State beaches, said the state does not enforce local bans.
“We would leave that up to Sacramento to make that decision for us,” Ketterer said. “We haven't gotten a directive.”
The city has jurisdiction over its stretch of beach north of Pine Avenue. The ban also would affect city parks and trails.
A staff report says the city would depend on people to voluntarily comply with the law, and police would enforce it as part of their routine patrol duties or in response to complaints.
A group of Carlsbad High School students first proposed the ban three years ago. The city's Parks and Recreation Commission took up the suggestion last year and recommended that the council adopt an ordinance.
The idea lay dormant until April, when Michael Caraglio, a brother of one of the students who first proposed the ban, wrote the commission to ask why the measure hadn't moved forward. His sister, Angela, has graduated and left for college.
As a result of Michael's prodding, the commission revived the recommendation and sent it to the City Council, which directed staff members in May to draft a prohibition.
“All of the hard work that my sister and I put in along with other groups all paid off,” Michael, a 16-year-old Carlsbad High junior, said Friday. “It's going to make Carlsbad a better place.”
City staff members recommend the ban based on health hazards from second-hand tobacco smoke and beach litter from cigarette butts.
Solana Beach made national headlines in 2003 when it became the first California city to ban smoking on its beaches.
Most cities in the county, including San Diego, ban smoking on beaches and in parks. The county and Unified Port of San Diego have similar prohibitions.
Michael Burge: (760) 476-8230; michael.burge@uniontrib.com
