The City Council in Calabasas, Calif., has voted to require that at least 80 percent of apartment buildings be permanently designated as nonsmoking by Jan. 1, 2012. Landlords are required to submit reports detailing the number and location of the units beginning in July.
The law prohibits smoking on all residents? balconies, porches, and patios. Landlords must create designated smoking areas. Residents who violate the ordinance could have their leases terminated. If a landlord receives two written complaints from different individuals about a tenant?s smoking, the tenant may be evicted.
Tara Banister, executive director of the California Apartment Association?s Los Angeles chapter, said her organization reversed its opposition to the smoking ban. Banister noted that around 90 percent of units in the city would experience resident turnover in the four-year period, making it easier for landlords to comply.
Enterprise CEO Testifies
Doris Koo, president and CEO of Enterprise Community Partners, testified in February before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on the housing crisis and its negative effects on communities. Koo called on Congress to invest in stabilizing lowand moderate-income neighborhoods that have large numbers of foreclosed homes.
Koo recommended that foreclosed properties be put into the hands of local agencies, nonprofits, and socially minded entrepreneurs who would help preserve communities, preventing the erosion of tax bases and property values of neighboring homes and apartment buildings. She outlined a proposal for a Neighborhood Stabilization Fund that would be developed by Enterprise and the Center for American Progress.
