Lighting up cigarettes and other tobacco products at bus stops and city-run parks and beaches would be illegal come Jan. 1 under bills the City Council passed unanimously on Wednesday.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell said he expects to sign both bills, assuming they clear routine legal reviews.

The bills were initially scheduled to take effect upon the mayor’s approval, but the Council pushed back the enforcement date to Jan. 1 to allow time for public education and for parks and transportation officials to put up signs about the new laws.

City Parks Director Toni Robinson estimated installing signs at the city’s 293 parks would cost about $500,000 while Transportation Services Director Michael Formby said putting them up at about 4,000 bus stops, some with shelters, will cost about $100,000. Both Robinson and Formby said city attorneys don’t think signs are necessary for enforcement to begin, however.

The Council earlier this year passed a bill banning smoking at eight major parks, including Kapiolani Park, Kuhio Beach and Sandy Beach. But city attorneys determined that language in the bill allowed the city to enforce the law at only one beach, the makai side of Ala Moana Beach Park, because it is owned by the city. The others are on state lands.

Bill 25, the parks bill approved Wednesday, eliminates that problem.

The bill exempts golf courses. The state Health Department submitted testimony opposing exclusion of golf courses, and also urged Council members to clean up other language in city law that allows smoking in restaurants and bars while state law prohibits it in such establishments as well as all enclosed workplaces. State law takes precedence over city law.

A majority of those testifying on the bill supported it, citing environmental and health concerns.

Suzanne Frazer, a co-founder of the group Beach Environmental Awareness Campaign Hawaii, said the bill would "protect the environment as well as the health of the people of Oahu and visitors."

Stuart Coleman of the Surfrider Foundation said cigarette butts remain the largest number of pieces of litter the organization’s volunteers pick up at its monthly beach cleanings.

"Scores of children go to the hospital each year for ingesting them. Pets also swallow these things," he said. "It’s going to be a great thing for the public and beach-goers to not have to breathe the secondhand smoke."

But there was also a smattering of those against smoking bans.

Michael Zehner of the Hawaii Smokers Alliance said he was "appalled" by the smoking ban at beaches and parks. While the bill does allow for the city to designate areas for smoking in its parks, only four currently have them. He also questioned how the city would enforce the bill.

The debate on Bill 28, banning smoking at bus stops, fell along similar lines.

Zehner said it makes no sense for people to not be allowed to smoke at a bus stop when there’s no one else around.

But Kapahulu resident Rose Pou said she is a bus rider who knows from personal experience.

"I go to the bus stops," she said. Secondhand smoke "makes me sick."