Gilroy, CA Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

Section 16.28 defines "intoxicating liquor" broadly, covering any alcoholic beverage above one-half of one percent (0.5%) alcohol by volume and all spirituous, vinous, and malt liquors, so the ban reaches beer and wine as well as spirits. The prohibition covers both drinking in public and simply possessing or controlling an open container there, and it applies on any public street, sidewalk, alley, or mall, on school grounds, and on any parking lot open to public use regardless of whether that lot is owned by the city or by a private business, such as a shopping center lot.

Gilroy carves out exactly one exception: a person or group that has applied for and been issued a special events permit by the city may drink in the permitted area during the permitted event. Outside that permit, the Gilroy Police Department can cite or arrest anyone drinking or holding an open container in a covered public place, and every violation is charged as a misdemeanor rather than a lesser infraction. The section's cross-reference in the Code also bars intoxicated persons from taking part in licensed bingo games under § 5A.13, showing the city treats public intoxication and open containers as connected offenses.

The rule traces back to Ordinance No. 76-22 in 1976 and was last amended by Ordinance No. 94-3 in 1994, so its wording and misdemeanor penalty have stood for three decades of enforcement in Gilroy.