Evanston, IL Public Conduct: Outdoor Smoking Restrictions (2026)

Section 8-18-5 of the Evanston City Code lists the places where smoking is prohibited, and several entries apply outdoors: beaches, playgrounds and tot lots, public parks, polling places, public meetings, and sidewalk cafes licensed by the City. Ordinance 9-O-26, adopted February 23, 2026, is the latest amendment to that list. The same section covers business premises, libraries, museums, arcades, bingo facilities, gymnasiums, schools and colleges, healthcare facilities, and public transportation facilities, including buses, taxicabs, limousines and the ticket, boarding and waiting areas of public transit stations. Common areas in apartment buildings, condominiums and housing cooperatives are on the list as well. Restaurants and performance entertainment venues are listed too, subject to Section 8-18-7.

Section 8-18-6 adds a buffer. Smoking is prohibited within twenty-five feet of any entrance, exit, window that opens, ventilation intake, or other means by which smoke can infiltrate an enclosed area in which smoking is prohibited. Because businesses, healthcare facilities and schools appear on the Section 8-18-5 list, the 25-foot line follows their doors and openable windows out onto the sidewalk.

Section 8-18-3 defines smoking as inhaling, exhaling, or carrying any lighted or burning smoking materials, and it adds the release of gaseous vapors from e-cigarettes. Matches or lighters used for nonsmoking purposes and incense burned in a religious ceremony fall outside the definition.

Section 8-18-7 exempts four categories from both Section 8-18-5 and the 25-foot rule: private residences (except licensed childcare, adult care, healthcare facilities, and home businesses open to the public), hotel and motel rooms designated as smoking rooms, retail tobacco stores already operating when the ordinance took effect, and private clubs or lodges. No more than 25% of guest rooms in a hotel or motel can be smoking rooms, and smoke from any exempt place still cannot infiltrate areas where smoking is prohibited.

Property controllers can go further. Section 8-18-8 lets an owner, operator or manager declare an entire establishment, facility or outdoor area nonsmoking, and Section 8-18-14 lets an employer, owner or occupant designate a nonenclosed area, including outdoor areas, as smoke-free by posting conspicuous signs. Section 8-18-2 leaves the fire code's own smoking restrictions untouched.