Environmentalists are cheering the Laguna Beach City Council’s decision to proceed with a ban on the use of balloons of all kinds on public property and the sale and distribution citywide.
The ban approved at the council’s Feb. 21 meeting will take effect at the start of next year. Those who support the effort say they hope it will influence other cities up and down the coast to follow suit. Two coastal communities in San Diego County and at least one coastal city in Los Angeles County already have some form of a balloon ban.
Those found in violation could face fines ranging from $100 to $500, officials said. If a business has four violations in a year, its business license could be revoked.
Education efforts will now ramp up, Councilwoman Sue Kempf said, including posts on social media, messages on the city’s electronic signs on Coast Highway and Laguna Canyon Road, local advertisements and some sort of outreach to local businesses and resorts.
“Full council support of the balloon ban was a no-brainer,” Kempf said. “All of the Laguna Beach City Council members are environmentally conscious and have historically brought forth initiatives to protect our beautiful natural resources. Two years ago, we banned single-use plastics in Laguna Beach, so this is just a continuation of further environmental policies.”
People representing diverse groups brought their concerns with balloons to the council’s Tuesday meeting, saying balloon strings can entangle sea life – especially harmful to sea turtles – and offering firsthand accounts of a sea lion treated at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, which later died and had balloon debris found in its stomach. Others spoke of general pollution from balloons, whether in the ocean, on the beach or caught in trees on land.
“All these balloons are pollution whether they wind up on the land, in the sand or the ocean,” said resident Rich German
He previously gathered 1,500 signatures through his…
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