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

Title 5, Chapter 8, Article 3 of the Modesto Municipal Code prohibits smoking in enclosed public places such as restaurants, retail stores, service lines, restrooms and common areas of apartment buildings, and separately bans it outdoors within 100 feet of any hospital entrance or exit and on all real property the City of Modesto owns as parks or trails. 103 sweep broadly: "smoke" covers gases or vapor released by combustion, electronic ignition, or vaporization for human inhalation, expressly including tobacco smoke, cigarette smoke, marijuana smoke, and e-cigarette vapor, and "smoking" covers lighting or possessing a lit pipe, cigar, cigarette, hookah, e-cigarette, or any device generating smoke from tobacco, marijuana, or any other weed or plant.

501: private residences (unless used as child or health care facilities), retail tobacco stores, up to 50 percent of hotel and motel rooms, private club events closed to the public, and bingo halls in a separated enclosed room. Business owners, operators, or managers may voluntarily declare their entire premises nonsmoking. 601 requires "No Smoking" signs or the international no-smoking symbol posted conspicuously at building entrances, and every restaurant must post a sign at each entrance. The outdoor parks-and-trails prohibition was added later than the original 1994 ordinance, reaching its current scope through amendments effective December 24, 2015 and April 7, 2017.