Meriden, CT Public Conduct: Outdoor Smoking Restrictions (2026)

Chapter 153, Article IV, Smoking and Use of Tobacco Products Around Municipal Buildings, adopted by the City Council on July 17, 2017, creates a buffer zone around every City-owned or leased building. Section 153-15 defines MUNICIPAL BUILDING as any building or structure the City of Meriden owns or leases, and defines SMOKING the same way Chapter 151 does for parks: inhaling, exhaling, burning, or carrying any lighted or heated cigar, cigarette, pipe, or plant product intended for inhalation, including hookahs and marijuana, natural or synthetic, plus vapor from an electronic smoking device.

Section 153-16A then bans that conduct within 25 feet of the doors, windows, and air intakes surrounding a municipal building, though § 153-16B exempts the Hunter Memorial Golf Course and the Augusta Curtis Cultural Center from the article entirely. Every municipal building must post at least one conspicuous sign stating the prohibition under § 153-17, and a designated smoking or tobacco-use area may be set up outside the buffer for employees, vendors, contractors, and visitors under § 153-18, where no penalty applies. City of Meriden police officers enforce the ban by citation under § 153-19.

Section 153-20 lays out a graduated fine schedule matching the park ordinance: a warning for a first offense, $25 for a second, $50 for a third, and $99 for a fourth or later offense, each issued on a City-prescribed form. Together with the separate park smoking ban in Chapter 151, this article means most City-controlled outdoor property in Meriden, buildings and parks alike, carries a smoking prohibition backed by escalating police citations.