DEL MAR — With minimal public input, City Council recently adopted a regular ordinance banning alcohol on public property from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend and introduced an amended regulation addressing city fire codes.

An increase in alcohol-related problems on city beaches prompted council to adopt the alcohol ban as an urgency ordinance in May, giving residents a chance to weigh in on the matter at the June 2 meeting.

Of the nine people who offered input, only one opposed the ordinance and advised council to seek a more creative solution. Tom Golich, a Del Mar property owner and former Solana Beach City Council member, provided just that by suggesting an age limit for drinking on the beach. Golich said he and a small group of people have gone to the beach every Friday night for the past 20 years to enjoy a bottle of wine and watch the sunset.

“The group that I’m with or neighbors in the area (are) probably not the ones that are going to get rowdy,” Golich said. “I think you’re actually targeting a certain audience as far as this ordinance goes and it’s not the over 55 crowd.”

Councilman Carl Hilliard said he looked into a possession ban that would limit the amount of alcohol allowed on beaches and other public property. Jennifer Lyon, interim city attorney, and Pat Vergne, community services director and chief lifeguard, said both suggestions would be difficult to enforce.

“We hate the erosion of rights,” Hilliard said. “But I don’t see any alternative.” Council members said they will evaluate the ordinance and its impacts after Labor Day.

At the June 2 meeting, City Council was expected to also adopt updated fire codes that address roofing materials, eave protection and sprinkler systems. An ordinance introduced last month prohibited wood or shake shingle roofs on any home after 2013. It also required eave protection and sprinkler systems in all new residential construction and existing homes undergoing a remodel that costs more than 50 percent of the value of the house.

Additionally, the ordinance required eave protection on all homes in an area referred to as the Wildland Urban Interface, or WUI, by 2013. However, council members chose to eliminate that requirement, resulting in a second reading and adoption of the ordinance June 16.

As a WUI resident, Councilman Henry Abarbanel said he supported that requirement. “From the point of view of protecting my neighborhood and my own home … I’m totally convinced that (eave protection) is a very smart thing to do,” he said. “Whether or not I’m required to do it, I’m going to do it as soon as I can afford it, which I hope to be relatively soon. And I would strongly encourage every resident, whether they live in the WUI or not, to go ahead and do it.”

Resident Laura DeMarco said she had concerns about the fuel load in Crest Canyon and home sprinkler systems decreasing water pressure and supplies. She also asked about using new technologies, such as chemical fire retardants.

“We do need to take a holistic approach, and we’ve already started in that direction with inspections, with the removal (and) thinning of the amount of fuel that is on Crest Canyon and … improving water pressure,” said Dismas Abelman, deputy fire chief. “We have improved the water supply.”

“There are products out there that should be explored,” Abelman said of firefighting technology. “We should use all the tools at our disposal.”

He did not encourage using external sprinklers to slow the spread of fire. “One of the misconceptions is the fire department making its last stand as the fire blew up on them,” he said. “We don’t make a last stand. We don’t put the fire out. The fire goes out when Mother Nature presents us with a series of conditions where we can then go control it.

“I’ve sat on a very large diameter hose line flowing it at a very large wall of fire coming my way and it was laughing. The fire was laughing at the amount of water I was putting on it, which was over 200 gallons a minute. A residential sprinkler system blowing into that isn’t going to do anything.”

Finally, after receiving recommendations and a cost estimate of more than $1 million to implement a quiet zone at the railroad crossing on Coast Boulevard, council members agreed to put that project on hold due to funding constraints.