Manchester, CT Public Conduct: Skateboarding Rules (2026)

Article III of Chapter 292, adopted September 9, 2003, targets the trick-riding and grinding that damages Town infrastructure rather than riding itself. Section 292-5A makes it unlawful to use a skateboard, bicycle, roller skates, roller blades or scooters on curbs, handrails, handicapped ramps, stairways, benches, picnic tables, walls, bleachers, running tracks, decorative surfaces, and any other vertical elements located on Town-owned property, a list broad enough to cover most municipal furniture and architectural features that skaters use for tricks. The Manchester Skateboard Park is expressly carved out as the one place the restriction does not apply, giving skateboarders a legal venue in town.

Section 292-6 sets a flat $25 fine for any violation of the article, a lower, specific penalty than the Code's general $100-per-day default at Section 1-2, showing the Board of Directors chose a lighter, targeted sanction for this offense. Because the rule is property-based rather than a blanket ban on skateboarding, riding a skateboard on a normal sidewalk or street in Manchester is not itself a violation of this article; it is the use of curbs, handrails, benches and similar surfaces on Town-owned property, or the vertical elements the ordinance lists, that triggers the fine. The article sits within Chapter 292's broader Town Property provisions, which also govern park curfew hours and handball court use in Charter Oak Park.