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

The prohibition sits inside the Park Commission's Restricted Uses and Areas section and works narrowly and broadly at once: it is not a blanket smoking ban across every acre of the park system, but it applies at any County Park Playground or Recreation Area the moment children are present, which in practice covers essentially every playground during normal park hours. The rule does not set a buffer distance in feet the way some municipal smoke-free-park ordinances do; instead it turns on the presence of children rather than a measured perimeter, so a smoker standing near a swing set or slide is in violation the instant children are using or approaching the equipment, regardless of how far back the smoker believes they are standing.

The rule reaches every kind of smoking, not just cigarettes, since the Rules use the unqualified word smoke. It sits in the same paragraph grouping as the ban on unauthorized drones and radio controlled aircraft, both enforced by the Park Rangers who patrol the system from sunrise to sunset, 365 days a year, and who can direct a smoker to leave the playground area. Because Mercer County parks host reserved picnic areas, group-use permits for 50 or more people, and public playgrounds, the smoking restriction functions as the county's parkland answer to a municipal smoke-free-park law, grounded specifically in this park document rather than in the county's general code.