Wilmington, NC Public Conduct: Outdoor Smoking Restrictions (2026)

Section 6-9 defines "smoking" as using or possessing a lighted cigarette, lighted cigar, lighted pipe, or any other lighted tobacco product, and it reaches four categories of city property: city buildings (offices, restrooms, indoor walkways, stairwells, entrances, break rooms, lobbies and work areas owned, leased or occupied by the city), city grounds (any unenclosed area the city owns, leases or occupies), city parks (any tract of land or body of water that is part of the city's parks, trails, paths, walks, lakes, golf courses, swimming pools, playgrounds, recreational areas and greenways), and city vehicles (passenger-carrying vehicles the city owns, leases or controls and assigns to employees, agencies or facilities for official business).

Subsection (b) makes it unlawful for any person to smoke while on or in any of those four categories. The ordinance carves out one exception in subsection (c): smoking is not unlawful inside the confines of a private vehicle while that vehicle is on city grounds or in a city park, so a driver parked at a city lot or park lot may smoke inside the car itself. The section's title was amended by Ordinance No. O-2018-48 in 2018 from "Smoking prohibited in municipal buildings and vehicles" to its current, broader title covering grounds and parks, reflecting the expansion of the ban beyond indoor spaces and city fleet vehicles to outdoor city-owned land generally.