Gaithersburg, MD Public Conduct: Outdoor Smoking Restrictions (2026)

Section 15A-8 of the parks chapter prohibits smoking and vaping in or on public property except as specified below. The city must post signage at every park and public building entrance stating the prohibition, and the city manager may waive or relocate that signage only where posting at an entrance is not feasible. The only carved-out exceptions are for tobacco products, and only at two named historic rental venues: the Wells-Robertson and DeSellum House at One Wells Avenue, and the Kentlands Mansion at 320 Kent Square Road, where the director may allow tobacco use if a full ban would disrupt a social or cultural event. The city manager may also designate a limited outdoor tobacco-use area for city employees or to keep a city program running. Crucially, the code states outright that this exception does not apply to cannabis products, so none of those carve-outs permit marijuana smoking or vaping anywhere on city property.

Chapter 18A extends the same prohibition beyond parks: Section 18A-2(d) bars smoking or vaping on any land, building, facility, public area or part of a building owned, leased or controlled by the city government, including areas the city temporarily controls during a public event such as a festival or street fair. Section 18A-2 also separately bans smoking in enclosed public areas of private businesses, though its companion section, 18A-7, reaches only the indoor premises of eating and drinking establishments, not outdoor patios. The rules are additive to state and Montgomery County health regulations and to any stricter fire-code restriction under Section 15A-8(c).