Foster City Reconsiders Smoking Ban in Ownership Units

Paul Stewart, SAMCAR Government Affairs Director | September 30, 2014

While the City Council of Foster City approved a smoking ordinance on a 3-2 vote, they withheld approval of a previous section wherein all ownership units are exempted. The Council is seeking to ban smoking in one's own house as pertains to townhomes and condominiums resolved within 30 days. How that resolution will come about, however, is in question.

SAMCAR members be aware… you may receive a Call for Action to contact the City Council in Foster City as well as attend the public hearing at which the smoking ordinance will be finalized. (Single family homes are already exempt and apartments have never been exempt from the ordinance.) SAMCAR is also considering an outreach campaign to ALL home owners in Foster City. (Imagine having to tell someone who just paid $800,000 for a townhome in Foster City—a bit less than the median home price of $1,280,000—that they are barred from smoking in their own home?)

The ordinance not only applies to rental housing, but includes leased properties. The Council also changed the distance for a smoking ban at main entrances of defined structures from 20 feet to 50 feet and added that a change of ownership triggers a full smoking ban for non-residential properties.

TAGGED: Common Interest Development, Foster City, Private Property Rights, Smoking, smoking ban

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