Lancaster, CA Public Conduct: Outdoor Smoking Restrictions (2026)

Section 8.32.040(A) prohibits smoking and tobacco product use in the Unenclosed Areas of four categories of place: Recreational Areas (a term the code defines to include "parks, picnic areas, playgrounds, sports fields, walking paths, gardens, hiking trails, bike paths, riding trails, swimming pools, roller- and ice-skating rinks, skateboard parks, and amusement parks"), Service Areas (including areas near ATMs, bus stops, ticket lines and cab stands), Places of Employment, and any other public place while it hosts a public event such as "a farmer's market, parade, craft fair, festival, or any other event open to the general public." The ban does not reach streets and sidewalks used purely as pedestrian or vehicular thoroughfares, unless another provision or law separately prohibits it there.

Section 8.32.050 adds a buffer: smoking is barred within a "Reasonable Distance" of twenty-five feet from any doorway, window, opening or vent leading into an enclosed area where smoking is prohibited, and within twenty-five feet of any unenclosed area where Section 8.32.040 already bans it, except while a person is actively walking through on the way elsewhere. That buffer doesn't apply to unenclosed areas of private residences, except when used as a child care or health care facility.

Property owners retain the right to go further: Section 8.32.040(B) confirms nothing in the chapter stops any person, employer or nonprofit from banning smoking on any part of property they control, even where the chapter itself would otherwise allow it.