Bonita Springs, FL Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

Article III of Chapter 4 of the Bonita Springs Code, titled Consumption, sets three separate prohibitions in Section 4-49. Subsection (1) bars drinking or consuming an alcoholic beverage on a semi-public parking lot or on a public street, sidewalk, parkway, beach, or parking lot located in the city. Subsection (2) bars carrying or possessing an alcoholic beverage in those same places unless it is in the original package with the seal unbroken. Subsection (3) bars possessing an open container while operating a vehicle or riding as a passenger in or on a vehicle being operated.

Section 4-48 supplies the definitions that decide where the rule reaches. Alcoholic beverages means distilled spirits and all beverages containing one-half of one percent or more alcohol by volume. A public beach is any beach within the city boundaries that is below the mean high water lines, is owned by the city, has a right of customary public use or a public easement, or is the foreshore of tidal navigable waters between the high and low water marks and owned by the state. A semi-public parking lot is any area where motor vehicles are parked by the public in conjunction with a business, enterprise, commercial establishment, office building, or apartment building, so a store, office or apartment lot is covered even though it is privately owned.

Section 4-50 lists the exemptions. The article does not apply to a person picking up empty beverage containers to collect the deposit or taking part in a litter control campaign, to a licensed distributor or vendor transporting an open container solely for commercial purposes, to wine held by a minister, pastor, priest, rabbi or other religious leader for use solely during religious services, to an open container carried in a locked glove compartment, trunk or other non-passenger area of a motor vehicle, or to a carrier holding a valid state license to sell alcoholic beverages.

Section 4-51 sets the penalties, and Section 4-20 separately routes violations of the licensed-premises rules in Article II to the general penalty in Section 1-15.