Peoria County, IL Public Conduct: Outdoor Smoking Restrictions (2026)

Section 7.3-27(h) of the Peoria County Code carves out two outdoor no-smoking zones at the courthouse. The first covers the area immediately outside the Jefferson Street entrance, defined to include the steps, the wheelchair ramp, and the ground between the steps and the entrance itself. The second covers the Main Street entrance plaza, bounded by a line running between the planting beds nearest and parallel to Jefferson Street, the planting beds and steps nearest and parallel to Main Street, and the courthouse building itself. Both zones were added to the courthouse conduct article by a 2003 amendment.

A second, broader smoking rule sits in Article III of Chapter 7.3, the County of Peoria Smoking Policy adopted by resolution on June 9, 2005. Section 7.3-41 bans smoking in any public place the county owns, naming the courthouse, the jail, and the Bel-Wood nursing facility as examples, and Section 7.3-40 borrows its definitions of 'smoking' and 'public place' directly from the Illinois Clean Indoor Air Act, 410 ILCS 80/3. Because that Act's definition of public place reaches enclosed areas primarily, the entrance-specific outdoor zones in Section 7.3-27(h) stand as the clearest textual ban on lighting up in the open air right outside the building doors.

Enforcement of the two rules runs through different penalty clauses. A violation of the Section 7.3-27(h) entrance bans falls under Section 7.3-39's reference to the county's general Section 1-10 penalty, up to $1,000 per offense. A violation of Section 7.3-41 is instead classified as a petty offense under Section 7.3-42, the dedicated penalty section written for the 2005 smoking policy.