Cities weigh balloon ban to protect coast
Environmental advocates are celebrating in Laguna Beach — but it won’t be with balloons.
The hilly seaside city known for stunning ocean views and rolling bluffs is weighing a plan to ban the sale and public use of balloons to curtail the risk of devastating wildfires and eliminate a major source of trash floating near the community’s scenic shores.
The Laguna Beach City Council is expected to vote Tuesday on the proposal to ban in public the popular mainstay of birthday and graduation parties, whether inflated with helium or not. The move in the community of 23,000 people 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles comes as several California beach cities have limited balloons and the state enacted a law to regulate the types made of foil.