Arvada, CO Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

Section 6-4(a) of the Arvada City Code makes it unlawful to possess alcoholic beverages in an open container, or to consume alcoholic beverages, on any public property in the city. The prohibition does not apply on the premises of a business licensed or permitted to sell alcohol by the drink, or where the city manager has granted written permission for a specific use of public property. The city manager can attach conditions to that permission, including requiring the applicant to post funds to cover cleanup costs if the site is left in a mess after the event.

Subsection (b) extends the same open-container and consumption ban to private property that is outdoors and open to the general public, such as parking lots, and to any open container inside a motor vehicle, camper, trailer, or vehicle shell parked on that kind of private property, unless the property owner, agent, or lessee has authorized the alcohol use or the property itself holds a liquor license. Subsection (c) defines "alcoholic beverages" to include any malt, vinous, or spirituous liquor and fermented malt beverages as those terms are defined under Colorado's liquor code, tying the local ban to the state's Title 44 definitions.

The ordinance sits in Chapter 6, the same chapter that requires bars and liquor stores to report disorderly conduct on their premises (Section 6-3) and separately punishes licensees for over-serving minors (Section 6-6). Because Section 6-4 does not set its own fine, a violation is prosecuted under the Code's general penalty, Section 1-5, which applies citywide to any provision that does not carry its own penalty clause.