Tuscaloosa, AL Public Conduct: Outdoor Smoking Restrictions (2026)

Chapter 13, Article VI regulates smoking only in enclosed public places, and its definitions make that limit explicit: a restaurant is defined as the indoor area of any establishment in the city licensed by the city as a restaurant licensee, and a municipal facility means those enclosed areas of any building complex or facility owned, leased, operated, or controlled by the city. Sec. 13-93(a) lists exactly what is prohibited: smoking on a bus or public passenger carrier not in interstate commerce, in an elevator outside a private residence, in a service line or at a meat, produce, or check-out counter, in a municipal facility, in a theater's spectator area outside a dinner theater, in a municipal agency facility, and in a restaurant. None of these categories reaches outdoor areas such as parks, sidewalks, or restaurant patios, and Sec. 13-95 lets an owner set aside indoor smoking areas separated from nonsmoking space, provided they carry proper signage, ventilation, and ashtrays, with exceptions carved out for stage performers and private social functions in an otherwise-public hall.

Owners must post the international no-smoking symbol at every covered location under Sec. 13-94, and any on-premises alcohol licensee that is not also a licensed restaurant must post a SMOKING or NO SMOKING sign at every entrance. A restaurant that also holds an on-premises alcohol license may permit smoking from 10:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. the next day if it posts that exception at its public entrances. Because the article's own savings clause, Sec. 13-98(b), states it does not repeal or amend any other ordinance prohibiting smoking, any future outdoor restriction would need a separate ordinance, and none currently exists in this Code.