Eden Prairie, MN Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

Section 9.38 of the City Code bars possessing or drinking beer, wine or liquor from an unsealed container anywhere on a street or other public property in the City of Eden Prairie, using the definitions of those beverages found in City Code Chapter 4. City parks fall inside the ban unless a particular park has been sign-posted to permit it, and any other public property is covered unless the Council has specifically granted permission or a license for that spot and occasion. The ordinance carves out one narrowly written exception for motor vehicles: an unsealed container kept in the trunk of a car equipped with one, or kept somewhere other than the area normally occupied by the driver or passengers if the vehicle has no trunk, does not violate the section.

A glove compartment or other utility compartment counts as part of the passenger area for this purpose, so stashing an open container there still violates the ordinance. A companion provision, City Code § 9.39, applies the identical unsealed-container rule to privately owned parking lots that have been clearly sign-posted against alcohol possession and consumption, with the same trunk exception. Both sections trace to the same 1982 enactment. Because Chapter 9 carries a general misdemeanor penalty in City Code § 9.99 for any violation of a Chapter 9 section unless the section states otherwise, and Sections 9.38 and 9.39 state no separate penalty, an open-container violation on Eden Prairie streets, parks or a posted private lot is punishable as a misdemeanor.