Brookhaven, GA Public Conduct: Outdoor Smoking Restrictions (2026)

Chapter 13, Article II of the Code of the City of Brookhaven, Georgia is titled Clean Indoor Air, but its reach extends outdoors. Section 13-20 prohibits smoking in all public places, outdoor recreational public places, common areas and places of employment within the city, except as the article allows. Section 13-19 defines an outdoor recreational public place as any outdoor area open to the public that is used or intended for use as a recreational area, regardless of any fee or age requirement, and lists parks, picnic areas, playgrounds, athletic or sports fields, golf courses, walking paths, hiking trails, bike paths, swimming pool facilities, water parks, skateboard parks, stadiums, amphitheaters and the outdoor areas of concert venues and theaters.

Smoking is defined to include carrying any lighted or heated cigar, cigarette, e-cigarette, oral smoking device or pipe. Section 13-22 adds a 20-foot rule: no smoking within twenty feet of any outside entrance, operable window or ventilation system of those places, or within twenty feet of any service line such as an ATM, food vendor or movie ticket line. Parking lots are open to smoking except within 20 feet of an entrance, window or ventilation system, or where the person in control has posted compliant No Smoking signs.

Section 13-21 separately bans smoking in vehicles owned, leased or operated by the city. Section 13-23 lists the exceptions: private residences other than childcare, adult daycare or health care uses, designated hotel and motel smoking rooms limited to 25 percent of the rooms, retail tobacco stores, outdoor areas of places of employment unless declared smoke-free, and restaurants and bars closed to anyone under 18 that employ no one under 18. Sections 13-25 and 13-26 require No Smoking signs at every entrance and let any law enforcement or code enforcement officer issue a citation.