Highlands County, FL Curfew Laws: Park Curfew (2026)

Section 7-4 of the Highlands County Code regulates conduct in every county park, defined as land owned, leased or maintained by the county or a municipal service benefit unit and designated a public park by the Board of County Commissioners. Subsection (k), "Hours of use," closes a county park to the public before sunrise and after sunset unless the county has posted different hours for that specific park. The only people exempt from that closure are park personnel, law enforcement officers, and anyone using the park solely to launch or trailer a vessel.

Where the county has posted hours for a particular park, the same subsection requires anyone present outside those hours to hold a valid camping or vessel-launching registration issued by the county engineer or the engineer's designee; without one, being in the park outside posted hours is treated the same as being there before sunrise or after sunset. 00, imprisonment in the county jail for up to 60 days, or both. The same section separately bars alcohol, fireworks and explosives, unauthorized weapons, dumping, vandalism, unauthorized fires, and smoking or vaping in a county park, so a person cited after hours can also be exposed to those provisions where applicable.