Bergen County, NJ Public Conduct: Outdoor Smoking Restrictions (2026)

Article III(gg) of the Bergen County Parks System Rules and Regulations reads in full: smoking or vaping and/or the use of any tobacco, cannabis, and hookah products, including the same being used by way of electronic delivery devices at or in any area of the Bergen County Park System is prohibited. The phrase 'any area' is doing real work here: unlike a municipal smoking ordinance that might carve out a distance from a playground or an open-air exception on a golf course, Bergen County's park rule does not create zones where smoking is allowed.

The ban reaches conventional cigarettes, vaping devices, and any tobacco, cannabis, or hookah product, and it separately calls out electronic delivery devices, meaning a vape pen or e-cigarette is covered on the same footing as a lit cigarette or a hookah pipe. That sweeps in every county park and county-run recreation area, including the golf courses, the Bergen County Zoo grounds, and the trail systems at Ramapo Valley Reservation and Campgaw Mountain, along with picnic areas, playgrounds, and parking lots. Because the rule sits among Article III's general prohibited acts, it is enforced the same way as the ordinance's other bans, by Bergen County Parks Department staff on patrol and by the Bergen County Sheriff's Office, both of which have authority to eject a violator from park property outright rather than only issuing a citation.