artment buildings, making it one of the first cities in the world to take such draconian measures against secondhand smoke, local TV station NBC 11 reported Wednesday. The Belmont City Council passed the ordinance on a 3-2 vote Tuesday night declaring secondhand smoke a public nuisance and extending the city's current smoking ban to include individual apartments in multi-unit, multi-story residences. Smoking will be permitted only in designated outdoor areas of multi-unit housing.
Though Belmont and some other California cities already restrict smoking in multi-unit common areas, Belmont is the first city to extend secondhand smoke regulation to the inside of individual apartment units.
Smoking will still be allowed in single-family homes and their yards, and units and yards in apartment buildings, condominiums and townhouses that do not share any common floors or ceilings with other units.
The ban will not take effect for an additional 14 months after the ordinance is passed, so that one-year lease agreements will be unaffected.
Under the new ordinance smoking will not be allowed in indoor and outdoor workplaces, or in parks, stadiums, sports fields, trails and outdoor shopping areas.
Smoking on city streets and sidewalks will still be permitted.
