New Britain, CT Curfew Laws: Park Curfew (2026)

Section 17-53, titled 'Loitering after certain hours,' sets New Britain's default park closing time at thirty minutes before sunrise to thirty minutes after sunset. Anyone entering or remaining in a park outside those hours violates the section unless in an area specifically designated, lighted and authorized for after-hours use by the parks and recreation department. Recreational facilities with lighting, the ordinance names baseball and basketball as examples, may stay open until 10:00 p.m., after which a fifteen-minute exiting window runs until the lights shut off at 10:15 p.m.; the remainder of the park closes on the standard sunrise-to-sunset schedule.

Walnut Hill Park is carved out entirely: it will remain open at all hours to the general public for proper use, though its parking lot and the Rose Garden and WWI Monument areas still close on the thirty-minutes-before-sunrise-to-thirty-minutes-after-sunset schedule, and violators there face the same fine as elsewhere. Pedestrian and vehicular through-access is guaranteed at all times at three specific parks: Stanley Quarter Park, Walnut Hill Park and Willow Brook Park, so those routes cannot be blocked by the general closing rule. Anyone found in a park during its closed hours is subject to a $100 fine under both the general provision and the Walnut Hill Park carve-out.

The section derives from the 1970 Code § 2-235(q) and was last amended by Resolution No. 33846-2 on June 6, 2017, and cross-references the city's general loitering and trespassing rules at § 16-61 et seq.