Framingham, MA Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

Adopted January 5, 2021 as part of the City's consolidated General Ordinances and amended April 30, 2024, City Code § 198-4 makes it unlawful to drink any alcoholic beverage, as defined by MGL c. 138, § 1, on any public way, any way the public has a right to access, any place the public can enter as an invitee or licensee, in a park or playground, or on private land without the owner's consent. The ban covers open containers as well as active drinking anywhere in the city, not just downtown or near Framingham State University.

The sole carve-out lets a vendor sample and sell wine and beer at an event on City property when the Board of License Commissioners, the city's liquor licensing authority under MGL c. 138, has issued a license for that specific event under MGL c. 138, § 15F. Officers who catch someone drinking in violation must seize the alcohol and hold it in safekeeping until the underlying charge is finally adjudicated in court, at which point it goes back to whoever is legally entitled to it, not necessarily the person cited.

Chapter 198 sets no separate dollar fine of its own, so a violation falls under the City's default ordinance penalty in § 1-2: $25 for a first offense, $100 for a second, $200 for a third, and $300 for every offense after that. The City may instead resolve a case through noncriminal disposition under MGL c. 40, § 21D, as § 1-3 allows, with the Mayor or a designee enforcing it. Framingham Police handle enforcement on the street, while the Board of License Commissioners oversees the narrow event exception and any related licensing conditions.