TEMECULA - The city is taking smoking bans where they have never been before: into people's apartments.

The Temecula City Council voted 5-0 to pass a set of smoking restrictions Tuesday that will clamp down on smoking in public places, businesses' outside areas and inside apartment buildings.

While the two ordinances have passed, they are required to return to the council for a second reading before they can be enacted. If all goes as the council has planned, the residents who live in and work in Temecula will have about six months before they would have to start conforming to the new restrictions.

The council contends the measures are not aimed at punishing nicotine users, but rather to protect the public from secondhand smoke.

With Tuesday's vote, Temecula has trailblazed a new path in smoking regulations and is now the first city in the county as well as the state to extend restrictions to certain rental units. Officials in Belmont, near San Francisco, are considering similar stringent regulations of tobacco use, which would include all rentals, vehicles and public areas. However, that city is yet to adopt their plan.

In comparison, Temecula's ordinances are a bit more lax, as they require only 25 percent of apartment buildings and senior living homes to designate smoke-free areas - both inside and outside. There is a five-year window for existing properties to comply, but the restrictions are immediate for new rental property developments.

The ban does not include condominiums, single-family homes or owner-occupied dwellings - a distinction that concerned one rental property owner who spoke during the evening's public meeting.

"The basic idea is very good," said Robert Oder, who owns Mira Loma Apartments. "But I think this should apply to everyone, and it could apply to everyone."

Oder said there has to be some courtesy given "to people's quiet enjoyment in their homes," and that he feared the law would open the floodgates to litigation.

City Councilman Jeff Comerchero wanted landlords to submit plans to the city outlining how to meet the benchmarks within one year of the laws' adoption to optimize the success of the measures.

"This ordinance will never be perfect, but it is a noble cause," he said. "We are looking at the greater good, rather than the inconvenience to some."

Tobacco retailers, theatrical productions, private residences, businesses that do not cater to minors and hotel/motels are exempt from the new laws. The use of chewing tobacco is not effected.

Smoking will be prohibited in public parks, shopping centers and common areas of businesses.

City Councilman Ron Roberts asked that the language of the ordinances be tightened to better reflect the penalties of violating the smoking bans as well as a clear fine schedule, but was otherwise in support of the measure.

"I don't see a ground swell of opposition saying we shouldn't do this," Roberts said to the dwindling crowd at the public hearing where only three people spoke - Oder, his wife and a nonsmoking proponent from Corona. "I think if anything, this will help us tighten existing state laws."

The idea of a smoking ban was first floated by the City Council in August. Temecula Mayor Chuck Washington and Councilman Mike Naggar were directed to serve as a subcommittee to propose versions of smoking bans.

Naggar said the smoking bans would be self-policing and similar to anti-littering laws. The revised penalties will be brought back by Temecula City Attorney Peter Thorson at the next scheduled City Council meeting May 8.

The two proposed ordinances would prohibit smoking in:

- Indoor public areas and private areas accessible to the general public and/or employees.

- Outdoor public areas accessible to the general public and/or employees, with certain exceptions.

- Locations that are adjacent to or share ventilation systems with the above locations.

- 25 percent or more of all new apartment units designated as nonsmoking.

- 25 percent or more of all existing units designated as nonsmoking within eight years of the effective date of the ordinance.

- 25 percent or more of all existing senior housing designated as nonsmoking within five years.

- Designated nonsmoking units including balcony, patio and outdoor yard areas.