Chesapeake, VA Curfew Laws: Park Curfew (2026)

Chesapeake City Code Sec. 50-28 does not set one citywide closing time; instead it requires that, barring unusual and unforeseen emergencies, every park stay open to the public daily during hours the parks, recreation and tourism department designates and posts on-site, so operating hours are set and displayed park-by-park rather than fixed in the ordinance itself. That posted-hours structure works together with Sec. 50-25, which lets the director declare any park, or any section of a park, closed to the public at any time, temporarily or on a recurring schedule, and applying to some uses or all uses; entering an area marked 'closed to the public' or ignoring a posted closure notice is a separate offense in its own right.

Sec. 50-24 bars unauthorized fires and dropping lit matches or cigarettes in parks, and Sec. 50-26 bars gambling except at authorized outdoor events, both enforced on the same schedule as the posted hours. Sec. 50-29 sets one penalty for the whole park-regulations chapter: any violation, whether it is being present after posted closing, entering a closed area, or breaking another chapter 50 rule, is a Class 1 misdemeanor, the top misdemeanor tier under Virginia law. The chapter derives from a 1976 city ordinance and was renumbered by Ord. No. 92-O-149 in 1992.