About 10 children filed one-by-one before the Morro Bay City Council to tell members why they wanted smoking banned from city parks, but it wasn’t enough to convince three council members.

The final vote was 3 to 2 against tightening the city’s smoking regulations. Morro Bay already prohibits smoking on beaches and piers and has a 25-foot buffer zone around park play areas. If the new regulation had passed it would have relegated smokers to park parking lots.

Before the public hearing, children from the Estero Bay Youth Coalition asked council members to protect their parks and their lungs from smokers.

But a majority of council members said the new rule would have been unenforceable and unfair. Although they were quick to point out the dangers of smoking, they worried the new rule would strain the already stretched police force and create criminals out of otherwise law-abiding citizens.

There was one change added: Cigarette butt disposal containers will be placed at park entrances.