Baytown, TX Outdoor Cooking: Smoker Rules (2026)

Sec. 58-106 governs service buildings, recreation buildings, and community service facilities at manufactured home parks, and subsection (b) specifically addresses outdoor cooking equipment: cooking shelters, barbecue pits, fireplaces, woodburning stoves, and incinerators must be located, constructed, maintained, and used so as to minimize fire hazards and smoke nuisance both on the property where they are used and on neighboring property. The section flatly bans open fire except in facilities provided for that purpose, prohibits leaving any open fire unattended, and bars burning any fuel or material that emits dense smoke or objectionable odors.

This sits within Chapter 58's manufactured home park regulations, which also require every park to maintain fire hydrants within 500 feet of any home or structure (Sec. 58-109(d)) and portable fire extinguishers approved by the fire marshal in service buildings (Sec. 58-109(b)). Baytown's general code does not carry a separate, city-wide backyard grilling or smoker ordinance outside this manufactured home park context; Sec. 58-106(b) is the specific quotable rule governing outdoor cooking equipment on file. Park owners and residents remain subject to the fire marshal's authority under Sec. 58-108 for gas and fuel oil systems feeding any cooking equipment, including required manual shutoff valves and approved caps on gas outlets.