Austin, TX Public Conduct: Outdoor Smoking Restrictions (2026)

Sec. 10-6-2 makes it an offense to smoke in a "public place" or "in a park," in any enclosed area of a City-owned building or workplace, or within 15 feet of an entrance or openable window of an area where smoking is banned. "Park" is defined broadly in Sec. 10-6-1(6) to cover outdoor land under Parks and Recreation Department control, including athletic fields, nature preserves, golf courses, and swimming pools, so the outdoor park ban applies regardless of whether the space is enclosed. A "public place," by contrast, is defined in Sec. 10-6-1(7) as an enclosed area the public is invited into, so an open-air restaurant patio that is not part of a park is not automatically covered unless it falls within that 15-foot buffer from a doorway or window.

Sec. 10-6-3 lists the exemptions: a private residential dwelling unit, hotel or motel rooms designated for smoking (capped at 25 percent of rooms under Sec. 10-6-4), retail tobacco stores, certain nursing-home rooms, an outdoor workplace area outside the 15-foot buffer (but that exemption "does not apply to a park"), licensed bingo halls with ventilated smoking areas, fraternal-organization events, and businesses holding a restricted permit issued on or before November 2, 2004. Parks carve out three more: filming-only smoking areas permitted by the Parks and Recreation Department, golfers on the course between the first tee and the last green, and temporary designated smoking areas at special events that the Parks director recommends and City Council approves. Operators must post "No Smoking" signage at every entrance under Sec. 10-6-8 and remove ashtrays from no-smoking areas.