James City County, VA Outdoor Cooking: Smoker Rules (2026)

Section 9-2 defines a regulated "recreational fire" as an outdoor fire where the fuel is not contained in an incinerator, outdoor fireplace, portable outdoor fireplace, barbeque grill, or barbeque pit, and which has a total fuel area of three feet or less in diameter and two feet or less in height. Because a barbeque grill or barbeque pit is written directly into that exclusion, using one to cook, whether it's a kettle grill, a gas grill, or an offset smoker, falls outside the recreational-fire category entirely and outside the 25-foot structure and combustible-material clearance that section 9-3(2)(a) applies to recreational fires.

The county's other open-burning restrictions target different fuel: household debris burned in a barrel, yard waste burned in piles, land-clearing debris, and construction waste, none of which describe routine grill or smoker cooking. That leaves grills and smokers effectively outside chapter 9's location-based restrictions as long as the fuel stays contained in the appliance itself. This isn't unlimited, however. Section 9-3(2)(g) still lets the fire official order any fire extinguished, grill fires included, when atmospheric conditions or local circumstances make it hazardous or objectionable, and a permanently installed, gas-piped outdoor kitchen appliance is a different matter from a portable grill: connecting new gas piping to a permanent outdoor cooking installation still requires inspection and a certificate of inspection before hookup under section 4-13, and any structural work tied to a built-in smoker or outdoor kitchen falls under the building permit and inspection requirements of chapter 4 rather than the fire prevention code's open-burning provisions. A portable charcoal or propane grill or smoker used for ordinary backyard cooking needs neither of those approvals.