Reducing cigarette sales in the Springs

The Sonoma County Health Services Department will present a proposed ordinance March 3 to the Board of Supervisors that would put a cap on, and eventually reduce, the number of tobacco and e-cigarette retailers in the Springs.

The ordinance calls for requiring tobacco and e-cigarette retailers in Sonoma County’s unincorporated areas to obtain a county issued license and pay a fee. The retailers would be required to renew their licenses and pay fees annually. The fees would pay for enforcement and compliance activities in order to prevent youth from purchasing tobacco products. As of this writing, the proposed annual fee hasn’t been decided, but it’ll likely be in the range of several hundred dollars.

The license would be held by the business owner and would not be transferable to a new owner or new location. This is how we eventually reduce the number of tobacco/e-cigarette retailers in the Springs. The proposed ordinance calls for no more than one per 2,000 residents. It also calls for no tobacco/e-cigarette retailers within 1,000 feet of schools. The Springs currently has four close to schools and more than one per 2,000 residents. The current tobacco/e-cigarette retailers would be grandfathered in and allowed to get licenses. However, when one of these owners sells or closes his business, the next owner may not be able to get a license because the county wouldn’t issue any new licenses in the Springs until the total number declines to fewer than one per 2,000 residents. New licenses also wouldn’t be issued for locations near schools.

I am the chair of the Sonoma County Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Advisory Board. The reason this ordinance is needed is because nearly 90 percent of smokers started by age 18. Adolescents become addicted to nicotine before they’re old enough to understand the harms. Sonoma County needs stronger tobacco sales enforcement because 70% of our 11th graders report that it’s “fairly” or “very” easy to obtain cigarettes.

Meanwhile, e-cigarettes have become a major public health concern. California’s State Health Officer, Dr. Ron Chapman, last month issued a health advisory, which said: “E-cigarettes contain nicotine and other harmful chemicals, and the nicotine in them is as addictive as the nicotine in cigarettes. There is a lot of misinformation about e-cigarettes. That is why, as the state’s health officer, I am advising Californians to avoid the use of e-cigarettes and keep them away from children of all ages.”

Please express your support for this ordinance by contacting all the county supervisors. The Sonoma City Council is also considering a tobacco retail license ordinance. Both jurisdictions need to have these ordinances and work together to prevent Sonoma Valley’s youth from smoking.

Packed house at vacation rental meeting

County Permit and Resource Management Department staff was not prepared for the turnout or the public reaction at the vacation rental ordinance update meeting February 9 at La Luz’s Booker Hall. Nearly 200 people attended. They were standing out the front door and the back patio. I heard people left because they couldn’t get in. This was at 3:30 p.m.

Imagine if the meeting had been held in the evening when working people being impacted by vacation rentals could attend?

In addition to the venue being too small, the meeting’s format was not what attendees expected. People came to give public testimony. Instead the room was organized in a series of tables for people to get questions answered, such as, How to get a permit? Who do you call to complain? At the one table intended for public input, we were given a set of small colored dots to stick on a map of vacation rentals. Green meant everything was O.K./improvement/benefit; blue stood for parking and traffic impacts; red was for noise; and yellow was for loss of permanent housing and community character.

The PRMD Deputy Director leading the meeting, Jennifer Barrett, responded to the disappointment in the format by allowing people to speak during the first 30 minutes. While there were a few vacation rental owners and managers in the crowd, most people were there because they’re unhappy with the negative impacts vacation rentals are having on their neighborhoods.

PRMD staff plans to have an updated proposed vacation rental ordinance before the Board of Supervisors this summer. Meanwhile, the county is taking comments via a website: sonoma-county.org/vacationrentals. If you have a complaint about noise at a particular vacation rental, or suspect a vacation rental maybe operating without a permit, Senior Code Enforcement Inspector Jim Maertz told me e-mail him at Jim.Maertz@sonoma-county.org.

Gina Cuclis has been a resident and community activist in Boyes Hot Springs since 1990. She also represents Sonoma Valley on the Sonoma County Board of Education. Reach her at ginacuclis@gmail.com.