Rowan County, NC Curfew Laws: Park Curfew (2026)

Rowan County's parks and recreation ordinance, adopted in 1976 and amended in 2014, sets fixed hours for every park under commission jurisdiction. unless the person holds a permit issued under Section 16-29. Section 16-28 makes the rule effective across all county parks, sites and other recreational areas, and Section 16-26 defines 'commission' as the county parks and recreation commission and 'park' as every designated park, parkway, site or recreational area under its jurisdiction. A permit issued under Section 16-29 authorizes the holder's presence only on the exact terms stated; violating a permit condition is grounds for the commission to revoke it and forfeit any fees paid, and the permit holder and any agents or employees who broke the terms remain jointly and severally liable for resulting damages.

The curfew sits alongside other Chapter 16 rules covering the same county parks, including a ban on soliciting alms or contributions (Section 16-50), a ban on gambling and disorderly conduct (Section 16-43), and restrictions on fires and lighted cigarettes (Section 16-42). Because Chapter 16 carries no penalty clause of its own, a curfew violation falls back on the Code's general penalty in Section 1-7: a fine of not more than fifty dollars or imprisonment for not more than thirty days, or both, with each day of a continuing violation treated as a separate offense.

The curfew governs only the parks the county commission operates in unincorporated Rowan County; Salisbury, Kannapolis, Spencer and the county's other towns each set their own park hours under their own codes.