Beaumont, CA Public Conduct: Outdoor Smoking Restrictions (2026)

Chapter 8.42 of the Beaumont Municipal Code is short, and every term in it is defined. Under § 8.42.010, a "public park" is any park open to the public located within the City of Beaumont, and the definition includes all sidewalks and parking lots located within or on the perimeter of a public park. A person standing in a park's parking lot is therefore inside the ban.

"Smoke" means the gases, particles or vapors released into the air by the combustion, electrical ignition or vaporization of a tobacco product when the purpose is human inhalation, and the definition names tobacco smoke, electronic cigarette vapors and marijuana smoke. "Smoking" reaches past the act of exhaling: it includes inhaling, exhaling, burning, lighting, possessing, holding or carrying any lighted cigar, lighted cigarette of any type, lighted pipe or lighted hookah pipe, and operating an electronic cigarette or any other smoke inhalation device of any kind. The definition also states that smoking marijuana for medical purposes counts. Simply holding a lit cigarette in a Beaumont park is a violation.

The operative rule in § 8.42.020 has one exception, designated smoking areas. The only designation mechanism printed in the chapter is § 8.42.030: persons conducting special events authorized and permitted by the City within a public park can designate a smoking area. The area has to be located so as to minimize the effect of smoking on nonsmokers and adjacent nonsmoking areas, and appropriate receptacles for the disposal of cigarettes and cigars have to be provided. Outside a City-permitted event, the chapter leaves a park visitor no designated area to use.

The chapter reaches public parks only. It says nothing about restaurant patios or sidewalks that are not part of a park.