West Des Moines, IA Outdoor Cooking: Smoker Rules (2026)

City Code § 4-3-4 amends International Fire Code section 308.1.11, Open-Flame Cooking Devices, to add a hard distance rule for multi-unit housing. No barbeque grill, smoker or other device that produces ashes or embers may be operated or stored within 20 feet of a multi-story building, and the ordinance names apartment buildings and condominiums specifically as the buildings the rule protects. The 20-foot line applies to storage as well as active use, so a resident cannot park a charcoal grill or offset smoker against the exterior wall of an apartment building between cookouts even if it is not lit.

The same amended section separately bars storing cooking devices or propane cylinders inside a living unit and caps propane cylinders at one 20-pound tank per unit, but those storage and cylinder-count rules are distinct clauses from the 20-foot operating distance addressed here. Multi-story is the trigger; the rule does not reach detached, single-story one and two-family homes or townhouses, which fall outside the apartment and condominium category the section targets. The West Des Moines Fire Prevention Bureau, established under City Code § 4-3-2 to enforce the amended Fire Code, is the agency that inspects for and cites this distance violation, typically during routine multifamily property inspections or in response to a complaint from a neighboring unit.