Beverly Hills : Smoking Code Revision OKd

The City Council has approved a revision in the city’s ordinance regulating smoking in restaurants so that existing eating establishments are not required to physically separate smoking and non-smoking dining sections with walls or ventilation systems.

The revision, approved Tuesday night, came after restaurant owners had argued that physical separation would be too expensive and would jeopardize the ambiance in their restaurants. New restaurants, however, will be required to meet the strict standards in the ordinance.

The council’s tough anti-smoking ordinance, which gained national attention when proposed in March, 1987, originally banned smoking in all restaurants with 50 or more seats. But revisions made by the council this March allowed restaurant owners to install walls and ventilation systems that would divide their establishments into equally sized smoking and non-smoking sections.

Under the revision, restaurants that remodel or reconstruct more than 50% of their floor area will have to comply with the stricter requirements governing new restaurants. Additions of new dining or bar areas that exceed 25% of a restaurant’s previous floor space would make an eating establishment subject to the more stringent requirements.

Additionally, air filtration requirements will not be as strictly enforced for existing restaurants as for new or remodeled restaurants.