Anoka County, MN Public Conduct: Outdoor Smoking Restrictions (2026)

Chapter III, Section 1(k) of Ordinance No. 2018-1 makes it unlawful to use any form of tobacco product, including e-cigarettes, in or around Anoka County park facilities, and it lets the Parks Director designate additional locations within the county park system where the same ban applies. The rule sits inside the same section that bans hard liquor, underage drinking, and glue-sniffing in parks, showing the ordinance treats tobacco and vaping the way it treats other substance use it wants kept away from park visitors and children in park facilities.

"Park" is defined in Chapter I to mean any land or water area, and all trails and facilities on it, that is under the jurisdiction, control, or ownership of Anoka County and designated by the Board as a unit of the Anoka County Park System, so the ban reaches trailheads, picnic shelters, beaches, and buildings, not just indoor spaces. Because the ordinance is a park-conduct ordinance rather than a countywide clean-air law, it has no reach outside the park system: it does not reach a sidewalk in the city of Anoka or a restaurant patio in Blaine, smoking outside the park system is governed by whatever separate city or state rule otherwise applies there, not this county park ordinance.

Enforcement authority runs to any peace officer, including the Anoka County Sheriff, plus the Park Services Manager and other authorized park employees, who under Chapter VIII, Section 1 may issue a warning or eject a violator from the park in addition to any citation.