Hawthorne, CA Outdoor Cooking: BBQ & Propane Rules (2026)

130 lists conduct that is unlawful in any public park, and subsection T is unambiguous: no person may set up or operate a propane barbecue device to cook food in a park, and the sole carve-out is for events the city itself sponsors. This sits in a broader unlawful-conduct list that also bars unpermitted open fires except in designated picnic stoves (subsection G), so Hawthorne treats propane grilling as categorically off-limits rather than something that can be permitted case by case. The ordinance applies specifically to public parks under the parks and recreation department's jurisdiction; it does not by its terms regulate propane grills on private balconies or in multifamily common areas, which fall instead under the fire code and any HOA or lease rules.

135, added in 2010, which lets the city attorney or city prosecutor pursue a violation as a misdemeanor, an infraction, or a civil administrative citation. 040. The section also sweeps in anyone who causes, permits, aids, abets or conceals a violation, and it declares a violation of subsection T to be a public nuisance in its own right, which opens the door to nuisance abatement remedies on top of citation.