San Clemente moves to ban smoking at beach entrances

By FRED SWEGLES / STAFF WRITER / The Orange County Register

SAN CLEMENTE – This summer, when you visit the city’s shoreline, you may find that the ban against smoking on the sand now includes the entry to the beach close to where you parked your car.

The City Council, on a 5-0 vote Tuesday night, introduced an ordinance outlawing smoking at beach entrances.

It’s hardly a first in Orange County. Laguna Beach includes stairways, boardwalks and walkways to the beach within the city’s smoking ban on the beach, said Lifeguard Capt. Tom Trager.

Huntington Beach’s smoking ban is even broader – it includes the city’s beach parking lots, “anywhere from the curb line on PCH,” said Lt. Claude Panis of Huntington Beach lifeguards.

The state doesn’t ban smoking on its beaches.

The question of including beach entrances in San Clemente’s smoking ban came up in December, when the city opened a new stairway that leads down a 75-foot coastal bluff to the city’s El Portal beach entrance.

Beach-goers often spend time atop the bluffs, socializing or checking the surf, and some smoke.

“The complaints are that there are a lot of people who are smoking on the stairs as people are trying to walk by … also, as people are trying to exercise,” said Pam Passow, assistant director of beaches, parks and recreation.

It will take one more vote of the council – possibly on March 1 – to adopt the ordinance, which then would take effect 30 days later.

The new ban also would apply to trail entrances. By far, the most popular public trail in San Clemente is the 2.3-mile beach trail, which parallels the beach at the bottom of the coastal bluffs, linking North Beach with Calafia Beach….read more

Photo Credit: Della Huff