Albemarle County, VA Curfew Laws: Park Curfew (2026)

Sec. 11-101 requires the hours during which each county park is open to the public to be posted at the park's entrance, and it lets the county executive amend those hours from time to time; the code does not fix a single countywide closing time, so hours can differ park to park and season to season. The section makes it unlawful for any person to enter or remain in a park after its posted closing hours without the specific permission of the director of parks and recreation, and it separately bars leaving a vehicle parked on any roadway, parking area, or other park property after closing, except in an area designated for that purpose, such as a campground.

Sec. 11-102 backs this up by making it unlawful to enter any closed part of a park without permission of the park manager or the director. Sec. 11-103 sets the enforcement and penalty for the whole parks chapter: any violation of the chapter's use and conduct rules, including the closing-hours rule, is a class 1 misdemeanor, the most serious misdemeanor class under Virginia law, unless state law otherwise punishes the conduct. The county executive, the director of parks and recreation, or, in their absence, the employee in charge of a park, has authority to enforce the chapter and to expel a violator, and the director may bar a violator's reentry for a reasonable period after a hearing. These sections trace to a 1979 ordinance and were carried forward in Ord. 98-A(1), adopted August 5, 1998.