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

in 2019 under the City's police power granted by Article 11 of the California Constitution. 03(a) bars smoking or using a tobacco product on "any beach located within the City of Pacifica" or on the Rev. Herschell Harkins Memorial Pier, known locally as the Pacifica Pier. Subsection (b) makes clear the ban reaches every part of a beach, expressly naming sand, grassy areas, parking lots and picnic tables, so it is not limited to the shoreline itself. 02, defines "beach" as the land lying between State Highway 1 and the ordinary tide line of the Pacific Ocean, plus any pier or waterfront structure on it, and defines "smoking" broadly to include lighted or heated cigars, cigarettes, pipes, electronic smoking devices, and cannabis or any other weed or plant product intended for inhalation, so the beach and pier ban reaches vaping and cannabis smoking as well as tobacco.

Subsection (c) separately bars disposing of smoking waste or tobacco waste on a beach or the pier except in a designated waste container. The City Manager or a designee must post "no smoking" or "smoke free" signage with letters at least one inch tall, or the international no-smoking symbol, under subsection (d), but subsection (e) makes clear the absence of a sign is not a defense to a citation.