Chicago looks likely to start an indoor smoking ban in restaurants and bars and almost all indoor areas next Spring. Businesses that can prove conclusively that they’ve suffered more than a 15% drop in revenue will be able to get a temporary stay of the ban as long as they provide an adequate non-smoking area
With several concessions — but only a precious few to restaurants and bars — Health Committee Chairman Ed Smith (28th) is forging ahead with a vote on the ordinance he championed. Sources said the alderman is confident he now has up to 11 of 14 votes in committee and well over 26 needed for full Council approval.
Instead of demanding an immediate ban, Smith and a coalition of anti-smoking advocates led by the American Cancer Society have agreed to a six-month phase-in with an effective date of April 1 — two weeks after St. Patrick’s Day. Instead of banning smoking within 25 feet of building entrances, the protective ring would extend for just 10 feet to allow smoking at sidewalk cafes.
Smoking would be permitted in public walkways and non-enclosed outdoor spaces like Millennium Park, Taste of Chicago and Navy Pier. And Chicago would follow New York’s lead by creating a “hardship exemption” for restaurants and bars that have the gross receipts to prove sales have dropped by 15 percent after one smoke-free year.
Those restaurants would qualify for a one-year “non-renewable” exemption when smoking would be permitted, but only if they create a designated smoking area composed of “no more than 25 percent” of the establishment’s total square footage that’s “physically separated” from all other areas with a “self-closing door.”
