Charcoal and wood smokers are treated as cooking, not open burning, so IDEM's burn ban does not apply. Use clean wood or charcoal, keep the smoker outdoors and attended, and avoid creating a smoke nuisance for neighbors. Multifamily combustible-balcony limits apply.
Backyard smokers and grills in Lake County are cooking appliances, so they are not governed by IDEM's open-burning prohibition (326 IAC 4-1), which targets waste and recreational fires. You may use charcoal or clean wood as fuel. The main constraints are nuisance and fire-safety: a smoker must not create a persistent smoke nuisance drifting into a neighbor's home (the same nuisance standard Lake County applies to recreational fires), and the Indiana Fire Code restricts open-flame and charcoal cooking on combustible balconies or near the openings of apartment buildings. Keep the unit outdoors, a safe distance from structures, attended, and fully extinguish coals when done.
Excessive smoke drifting onto neighbors can be cited as a nuisance under local ordinance; charcoal/open-flame use in prohibited multifamily locations is a fire-code violation.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
Lake County, IN
Backyard composting of yard and food scraps is allowed in Lake County and encouraged by the Lake County Solid Waste Management District. A compost pile must ...
Lake County, IN
Lake County has no county-wide ban on artificial turf for residential yards. Installation is governed mainly by local zoning and stormwater rules and, in dev...
Lake County, IN
Native-plant and prairie landscaping is allowed in Lake County, but it must still comply with local rank-vegetation and detrimental-plant rules. Intentional ...
Lake County, IN
Collecting rainwater is legal in Indiana and Lake County imposes no barrel ban. Rain barrels for outdoor irrigation are unrestricted, though any barrel or ci...
Lake County, IN
Lake County, Indiana sets no county-wide day-of-week lawn watering schedule. Northwest Indiana is not a drought-rationing region, and outdoor water use is go...
Lake County, IN
Indiana law makes property owners destroy detrimental plants. IC 15-16-8-1 lists Canada thistle, Johnson grass, Columbus grass, bur cucumber, and shattercane...
See how Crown Point's smoker rules rules stack up against other locations.
Help us keep this page accurate. If you notice an error or outdated information, let us know.