Starting next year, smoking or vaping inside apartments, condos, or other multi-family housing in Carlsbad, Calif., will be illegal, the city council decided Aug. 20.
In a 4–1 vote Tuesday, city leaders approved a smoke-free ordinance for multi-unit housing in the coastal city of 115,000 people, about 35 miles north of San Diego.
The new law, which will go into effect Jan. 1, 2025, covers all smoking and vaping, including marijuana used for recreational and medical purposes.
Although medical marijuana is legal in California, the city can prohibit its use in some places, according to Carlsbad City Attorney Cindie McMahon.
“The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and its state counterpart do not require a reasonable accommodation for anything that poses a health and safety risk to other parties,” McMahon said at Tuesday’s council meeting.
The city expects landlords and property management companies to enforce the new rules by including them in future lease contracts instead of the city hiring more code enforcement or police officers to respond to citizen complaints.
Councilwoman Melanie Burkholder, a mental health counselor and former U.S. Secret Service agent, voted against the measure.
“It feels like to me an overreach of the city,” she told other councilors at a meeting July 30, when the ordinance was introduced. “I don’t think we should be property managers or landlords to that extent. It just sounds like the city’s telling someone how to live their life.”
Many residents and property owners agreed.
Condo owner Cheryl Knebel was one of many private citizens to oppose the plan.
“I am strongly against this idea,” Knebel wrote to the City Council. “I am a nonsmoker but challenge the restriction on smoking inside a privately owned residence. I understand that smoking is awful for those who live next door. I wouldn’t like it. However, as a homeowner no one should be able to dictate what I do inside my residence as long as it is legal.”
Shiella McNulty, also a nonsmoker, said the ordinance goes too far.
“I’m a lifetime nonsmoker and I would love to never smell pot or cigarettes burning near me again!” she wrote to the City Council. “It’s disgusting! However, this proposal goes too far from a societal perspective. ... Do we really want to squeeze our neighbors again when they are addicted to a substance that apparently gives them some relief or enjoyment? In their own home?”
Councilwoman Teresa Acosta supported the new rules, along with the mayor and other councilors.
“I am in support of it, and I think it is one of the things we need to do as leaders, is to stand up for the health of residents,” Acosta said in the July 30 meeting. “Especially knowing this is not just a toxic issue, but also deadly. We need to watch out for smoking in multi-family units.”
The idea is not new. In 2011, former California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law giving landlords the right to make their properties smoke-free.
According to Mike Strong, the city’s assistant director of community development, 84 California cities and counties have adopted no-smoking policies for multi-unit housing.
City staff was directed in 2023 to develop a no-smoking ordinance. Staff consulted with the Public Health Law Center at Mitchell Hamline School of Law—a national nonprofit law group based in St. Paul, Minn.—which created a model smoke-free housing template for California cities and counties in 2020.
The city expects to get up to 10 complaints per month about violations once the ordinance goes into effect, Strong told councilors July 30.
The ban applies to apartment buildings, condos, townhomes, senior assisted living facilities, long-term health care facilities, and single-family homes licensed as care facilities.
Not included in the ordinance are hotels, motels, mobile home parks, campgrounds, single-family homes, and accessory dwelling units, sometimes referred to as mother-in-law units built behind single-family homes.
Smoking and vaping any substance will also be off-limits in rental housing parking lots, playgrounds, halls, and other common areas.
The ordinance allows landlords to designate a smoking area as long as it is 25 feet from housing units and other amenities.
