Mendocino County, CA Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

86, adopted in 2000 under Ord. No. 4066, responds to what the Board of Supervisors called 'an increasing problem with people drinking intoxicating liquor in public areas' in the Historical Preservation District of the Town of Mendocino, a designation defined in Code Sec. 010. Sec. 020 defines 'intoxicating liquor' broadly to include any alcoholic beverage over one-half of one percent alcohol by volume, capturing beer and wine as well as spirits. Sec. 030 then makes it unlawful to drink or consume intoxicating liquor on any public street, public roadway, public alley, public parking lot or public sidewalk within that Historical Preservation District, so the ban tracks the district's boundary rather than the whole unincorporated county.

Two exceptions apply under Sec. 16, is exempt, and the chapter does not reach beach areas or the Mendocino Headlands, which belong to California State Parks and fall outside county jurisdiction. Sec. 050 sets the penalty at an infraction under the County Code's general infraction schedule, Sec. 85 party-host misdemeanor does. Because this ordinance is drawn narrowly to the Town of Mendocino's historic core, it does not reach other unincorporated communities such as Boonville, Laytonville or Gualala, and it is a separate, narrower rule than the county's general public-nuisance and noise ordinances found elsewhere in Title 8.