Chesapeake, VA Public Conduct: Skateboarding Rules (2026)

Sec. 74-20 of the city code prohibits playing "on a street or highway, other than on the sidewalks thereof, where the posted speed limit is greater than 25 miles per hour within the city," and separately bars using "roller skates, skateboards, toys or other devices on wheels or runners, except bicycles, mopeds and motorcycles" on any highway or street where play is prohibited. A second clause forbids anyone riding a bicycle, skateboard or similar device from attaching themselves or the device to a moving vehicle on a roadway. This section dates to a November 12, 1985 ordinance amending the 1970 Code.

A separate, narrower rule targets the seat of city government: Sec. 74-20.1, adopted July 12, 1994, makes it "unlawful for any person to ride on a skateboard, roller skates, roller blades within the Chesapeake Municipal Civic Center Complex or within 50 feet of any other city building at any time." Unlike Sec. 74-20, this ban has no speed-limit trigger and applies around every municipal building citywide, not just the civic center campus, and it runs continuously rather than during business hours only.

Neither section carries its own stated fine, so both fall back on Chapter 74's general penalty at Sec. 74-39, which makes an unspecified violation of the traffic chapter a traffic infraction. Enforcement in practice rests with Chesapeake police officers on patrol or stationed at the municipal complex, since the prohibition is self-executing and does not require posted signage the way many other parking and traffic rules in this chapter do.