Durham, NC Outdoor Cooking: BBQ & Propane Rules (2026)

Section 10-235 sets special housing-code rules for "rooming houses, boardinghouses, bed and breakfast inns, residency hotels and other similar buildings", a narrower category than ordinary apartment buildings, which are governed by the general dwelling-unit standards in § 10-234 instead. Subsection (m), "Cooking," first requires that every covered establishment have a kitchen accessible to all rooming units meeting the § 10-234(a)(2) cooking-facility standard, and it flatly prohibits cooking inside any individual rooming unit. " The exception is narrow, it covers only permanently installed gas grills with stationary piping and a grade-level tank, not portable propane tanks or charcoal kettles moved close to the building for convenience.

Because this rule lives inside § 10-235 rather than § 10-234, it does not, on its own text, extend to ordinary multifamily apartment buildings or condominiums; those structures fall under the general Housing Code standards, which do not include a grill-distance rule. Violations of the ten-foot rule are handled through the same administrator inspection and complaint process that applies to the rest of the Housing Code, since § 10-235 explicitly imports § 10-234's fire-and-safety standards for covered establishments.