Commerce City, CO Public Conduct: Outdoor Smoking Restrictions (2026)

Section 7-1014, Smoking prohibited, adopted by Ordinance No. 1851 in 2011, states a general rule and then narrows it. Subsection (a) makes it unlawful for any person to smoke in or on park property, and section 7-1000 defines park property broadly to include all city parks, trails, open space, recreation facilities and the Buffalo Run Golf Course. Subsection (b) exempts two categories from that ban: the Buffalo Run Golf Course itself, and any areas of park property that are designed and intended for the parking of automobiles.

Both exemptions carry a caveat built into the same sentence: they apply "unless specifically posted otherwise at the site," meaning the city can override either exemption at a particular park by posting a no-smoking sign for the golf course or a parking area. This park-specific smoking ban sits outside chapter 12's separate rule on electronic smoking devices, section 12-6011, which instead bars smoking of any kind, including vapor devices, inside any building owned and operated by the city rather than on outdoor park grounds. Because the smoking ban is a standalone chapter 7 provision rather than part of chapter 6's nuisance article, it does not carry the civil infraction classification or the abatement machinery that governs weeds, brush or vegetation encroachment; instead, a violation defaults to the citywide general penalty in Section 1-5, a fine of up to three hundred dollars, imprisonment of up to ninety days, or both, with each day of a continuing violation a separate offense.