In San Rafael, California, any residence that shares a wall with another residence is now subject to an in-home smoking ban. That means that when you’re inside your own home, if it shares a wall with another residence, the city forbids you from smoking — even if you own the property. As much as 44% percent of the city’s housing could be affected, according to Governing.
The fact that the ordinance applies uniformly to multi and single-unit residences sets the San Rafael rule apart from similarly stringent smoking bans, Woodbury said. “The distinguishing feature is the shared wall.”
Smoking bans in multi-unit dwellings aren’t unheard of. Indeed, just 40 miles away the city of Belmont has a smoking ban passed in 2009 that was at one point considered arguably the strictest in the nation, but it didn’t extend to all dwellings that share a wall with another residence.
Woodbury cited public health benefits as well as a UCLA study that found property owners could save $18 million a year in cleaning costs from apartments occupied by smokers.
I don’t smoke. I don’t like smoke. But to tell someone they can’t smoke inside a home they own is a classic case of government overreach. If a landlord wants to impose a no-smoking ban for renters, that’s fine since the owner is setting the rules and the renter can choose to enter into the contract or not. The usurping of ownership rights — private property rights — is an entirely different issue.
