Port St. Lucie, FL Outdoor Cooking: Smoker Rules (2026)

Sec. 82 bars starting a fire in any city park or recreation facility except in park grills, privately owned grills brought by visitors, or other designated places or areas the Parks and Recreation Department has approved for recreational cooking, such as fire rings, barbecues, and cook-outs. That gives smokers, charcoal grills, and portable barbecues a lawful path as long as they sit in one of those approved spots rather than directly on the grass or pavement. The director or designee has standing discretion to prohibit fires at any specific location, even an otherwise approved one, whenever necessary to protect park or facility property, so a posted no-fire notice at a particular pavilion or field overrides the general permission.

Every fire, whatever its source, must be continuously attended while burning, and the person who started or used it must fully extinguish it before leaving the immediate vicinity, a duty that applies equally to a small hibachi and a fire ring. The section's closing sentence targets cleanup specifically: dumping hot ashes or fire from picnic grills onto grass or plants is prohibited in every city park, and hot ashes may be deposited only in specified areas or designated receptacles, meaning a user must locate an ash bin or approved disposal spot rather than tipping a grill out on the lawn. Sec. 82 traces to the original 1980 parks code and was last amended by Ord. No. 22-82 in 2022.