Ada County, ID Outdoor Cooking: BBQ & Propane Rules (2026)

Section 5-2-7-3 of the Ada County Code covers commercial barbecue pits, the kind used at restaurants, catering operations, and other commercial cooking sites rather than backyard grills. Subsection A requires that any commercial barbecue pit operate within the limits set by whatever permit the appropriate authority issued for it, so an operator cannot simply install a pit and start cooking without the permit's terms controlling placement and use. Where the pit is used for commercial cooking inside a building, it has to be constructed as commercial food heat processing equipment in accordance with the Ada County building code, tying the fire code requirement to the building code's equipment standards.

Pits sited outdoors have a different, materials-based rule: they must be built of concrete or other approved noncombustible material, since an outdoor commercial pit sits closer to fences, patios, and neighboring structures than an indoor cookline. Subsection A2 sets the outdoor setback at 10 feet from combustible materials, walls, and roofs, a tighter but still meaningful distance given that these pits see sustained commercial-volume heat rather than an occasional backyard fire. Subsection A3 requires portable fire extinguishers at the site of a commercial barbecue pit, sized and placed in accordance with the uniform fire code the county has adopted.

The section was adopted by Ordinance 577 in March 2005 and amended by Ordinance 744 in February 2010, and it sits directly alongside the county's recreational and warming fire rules in the same chapter, chapter 7 of title 5, which governs incineration, open burning, and commercial barbecue pits together.