Photo: Paolo Neo, via Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain

Del Norte County supervisors followed in the Crescent City Council’s footsteps Tuesday and banned smoking in apartments, duplexes and other multiunit housing complexes.

Unlike the Council’s 4-1 vote more than two years ago, however, the Board of Supervisors unanimously supported an ordinance prohibiting smoking inside multi-unit housing dwellings.

Supervisors made their decision without discussion after representatives of the Tobacco Free Del Norte Coalition pointed out that, while families choose to live in a tobacco-free home, they’re often exposed to second-hand smoke from neighboring units.

One representative, First 5 Del Norte Director Amira Long said her mother smoked cigarettes starting when she was a young teenager and during three pregnancies. Long said she weighed 1 pound 12 ounces when she was born and spent her first three months in an incubator.

Those effects lasted well through childhood, Long said.

“Dad stopped smoking when I was 5,” she said. “Mom started smoking outside, but didn’t quit altogether until I was well into adulthood. Had they been educated back in the 70s, they would not have to carry around guilt about my childhood struggles. I would not have to be a resiliency success story. Wouldn’t it be nice for our community’s kids if they didn’t have go through that?”

According to Denise Doyle-Schnacker, also a member of the Tobacco Free Del Norte Coalition, Crescent City has one of the strongest smoke-free multi-unit housing ordinances in California.

The county has modeled its ordinance on Crescent City’s. Its ordinance prohibits smoking in all units of an apartment, duplex, assisted living and long-term health facilities. Smoking includes the use of cannabis, synthetic tobacco and electronic smoking and vaping devices.

The ordinance will require every lease a tenant signs after July 1 to include a ban on smoking inside their unit. It also allows landlords to establish sanctioned outdoor smoking areas 25 feet from playgrounds and other areas designated for physical activities.

The ordinance does not include mobile home parks or single-family homes with accessory dwelling units, according to the county’s staff report.

Earlier in Tuesday’s meeting, during the Board’s discussion about the 6th Cycle Housing Element, Amber Wier, project director for NorCal4Health, which is part of the California Health Collaborative, praised the county for addressing health in its document.

However, she urged supervisors to tweak a statement in the report stating that the county “shall encourage new housing developments to be smoke-free.”

“I’d like more clarity on the ‘encourage’ part,” she said. “It would be nice if (it says), ‘the county shall establish local policies for smoke-free multiunit housing.’ This not only helps with equity for the children and seniors that are living in possibly second-hand smoke situations 24-7, but it also addresses preserving the supply of your housing as well because it’s easier to keep housing than make new housing.”

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