CITYWIDE — If Rent Control Board member Robert Kronovet has his way tenants who smoke will no longer be able to do so in the comfort of their own homes.
Kronovet, a landlord and real estate broker, said Friday he will sponsor a ban on smoking in all apartments that share common floors or ceilings with at least one other unit. That includes patios and balconies.
Kronovet said he will introduce the ban at the Dec. 3 meeting of the board.
Residents have approached the City Council and other elected officials about expanding the city's comprehensive smoking ban to include apartments. Smoking in common areas of apartment buildings such as laundry rooms is already prohibited under a ban passed by the City Council earlier this year. The ordinance established a method through which residents can challenge a neighbor who smokes in a common area, allowing them to seek damages of at least $100 in Small Claims Court.
The minimum damages increase to $200 for a second violation that is committed within one year, and to $500 for the third offense within the same period.
Kronovet wants to apply those same fines, and the process to levy them, to smoking indoors after hearing from numerous tenants about negative health impacts caused by second-hand smoke wafting into their units from nearby apartments.
Under Kronovet's proposal, landlords would be able to designate smoking areas as long as they are more than 20 feet away from operable doors and windows used by the public.
"In a nutshell, smoking in multi-family units has become in many people's view a health issue, a public safety issue and unfortunately the burden has not been on the smoker to find places where their habits don't offend others," Kronovet said. "In our country one has individual freedoms as long as those freedoms do not interfere with the rights of others … ."
The surgeon general released a report in 2006 that concluded there is no risk-free level of exposure to second-hand smoke, which is the smoke that individuals breathe when they are located in the same air space as someone puffing on a cigarette.
Smoking is already prohibited in the city's parks, beaches and on portions of the Santa Monica Pier. Smokers are also prohibited from lighting up on the Third Street Promenade, at bus stops and inside restaurants and bars.
Kronovet wants to explore banning smoking in condos as well, but is not sure if the Rent Control Board or City Council would have the jurisdiction to do so. He hopes the conversation on Dec. 3 leads to a new rent control regulation or ordinance at least covering multi-family units.
When the City Council approved the ban covering common areas there was some concern amongst members and the highly influential political party Santa Monicans For Renters' Rights (SMRR) about the possibility of landlords using violations as a way to evict tenants. This led the council to create tenant protections in the ban, meaning that tenants cannot be evicted because of smoking, but instead fined.
"We've heard complaints from people who experience second-hand smoke indoors, in their homes and also on adjacent patios and that certainly is a cause for concern, but at the same time, people need to have a roof over their heads and housing needs are also paramount concerns," said Councilman Richard Bloom, a sponsor of the ordinances expanding the smoking ban.
"When it comes to living spaces, we need to be very careful and move in a slow incremental way."
Patricia Hoffman, co-chair of SMRR, also expressed concerns about any expansion of the ban being used to evict tenants.
"SMRR's concerns are about grounds for eviction, and all except for one or two of us who happen to smoke, I am not one of them, are looking forward to a smoke-free California, but we just don't want to have any additional grounds to evict tenants."
Wes Wellman, president of Action Apartment Owners Association, which represents about 500 landlords in Santa Monica and the Westside, said he would welcome a ban on smoking in apartments because of concerns for his tenants' health.
"The previous ordinance passed by the City Council [covering common areas] was a weakened, politically correct, half-measure where the council majority sought to avoid alienating the smoking portion of their voting, renter base, while at the same time giving the appearance of protecting public health," Wellman said.
"If it is important to protect the public in common areas, how much more important is it to protect them inside their apartments," he added. "You cannot hermetically seal an apartment. If someone smokes in an apartment and has anyone adjacent to them, that tenant will be a victim of second-hand smoke."
As far as any concerns about neighbors suing other neighbors over smoking, Wellman said, "the litigation is less of an impact than saving lives."
Kronovet wants a ban to mirror one passed in Belmont, Calif., home to perhaps the nation's strictest law, effectively outlawing lighting up in all apartment buildings. He also is not in favor of allowing current tenants any leeway, instead forcing smokers to quit lighting up in their apartments immediately rather than phase it in over time.
"There should be no smoking on the premises, no ifs, ands or butts."
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