LOS ANGELES (CBS) — The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to do away with old rules that prohibited football games and Frisbee flying on county beaches.

Previous restrictions related to beach sports — which included a prohibition on playing football on the sand — were loosened last week to allow football, Frisbee, sailboarding, kiteboarding and paddleboarding.

According to Santos Kreimann, director of the county Department of Beaches and Harbors, erroneous reports last week that anyone tossing a football or a Frisbee could be fined $1,000 incited public outcry.

“It went viral within minutes,” said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. He said his office was inundated with complaints from as far away as London.

Though the board already approved the updated policies, Supervisors Don Knabe and Michael Antonovich wanted Kreimann at today’s meeting to publicly clarify the rules,

Knabe went one step further, asking staffers to rewrite the ordinance to clearly state that football, Frisbee and similar sports are OK, unless the safety of other beachgoers is in danger or a lifeguard demands the activity stop.

“While I appreciate the clarification, I’m concerned that misunderstandings will continue,” Knabe said. “Given the fact that no tickets have been issued in 40 years … allowing such activity should be the rule rather than the exception.”

Knabe said he discussed the changes with lifeguards and they agreed that an updated ordinance was in order.

It was unclear how long it would take for county lawyers to make the changes, which would then be codified by a vote of the board.

Today’s vote in support of the rule change was unanimous.

(©2012 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)