Haverford, PA Public Conduct: Outdoor Smoking Restrictions (2026)

Article V of Chapter 126 of the Haverford Township Code, the Tobacco-Free Parks and Playgrounds Ordinance, was adopted 2-10-2020 by Ord. No. 2894. Section 126-33A designates all areas of Township parks and playgrounds where children are or may be present as tobacco-free and prohibits the use or smoking of any tobacco product in any form. Section 126-33B requires signs to be posted delineating the tobacco-free areas.

The reach of the article is set in § 126-32. It covers the public parks and playgrounds of the Township of Haverford, including all parks and playgrounds owned, used or leased by the Township, as well as those jointly used by the Township and others. That joint-use language brings in a field or playground the Township shares with a school or another body.

The definition of smoking in § 126-32D is broad. Smoking means the burning of, inhaling from, exhaling the smoke from, or the possession of a lighted cigar, cigarette, pipe or any other matter or substance which contains tobacco or any other matter that can be smoked, or the inhaling or exhaling of smoke or vapor from an electronic smoking device. That wording reaches vaping as well as cigarettes, and it covers a lit cigarette held but not puffed, because possession of a lighted product counts.

The tobacco-free rule sits alongside a separate smoking rule for Township facilities. In the building rental procedure, § 126-30J states that smoking is prohibited at all Township facilities, which covers the Community Recreation and Environmental Center, the Grange, Nitre Hall and Skatium named in the rental article. The general park regulations in Article I also forbid lighting or permitting a fire to burn in a park except in fireplaces provided for such purpose.

This row covers parks, playgrounds and Township facilities only. The article does not itself address restaurant patios or private property.