Hamilton, NJ Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

Section 99-1 of the Township Code prohibits consuming or possessing an open container of any alcoholic beverage "in or upon any public or quasi-public place," and specifically lists streets, alleys, sidewalks, malls, parks, playgrounds, school buildings and schoolyards, public conveyances, parking facilities, and public buildings. Section 99-2 separately bars drinking inside a private vehicle while it is in motion or parked on any such public or quasi-public place, closing the loophole of drinking from a car seat. Section 99-3 carves out three exceptions: consumption on premises properly licensed to serve alcohol; carrying beer in pitchers or unsealed containers sold by a licensed premises while walking it to a lawful place to drink it; and organized functions in a public park, recreation area or public building that have prior authorization from the Township Council, the Alcoholic Beverage Commission, and the Superintendent of the Division of Recreation, subject to whatever conditions those bodies impose.

This article was originally adopted as Chapter 14, Article I of the 1994 Code of Ordinances and has been carried forward into the current codification without amendment to its substantive prohibitions. Anyone charged under this article is prosecuted under the Township's municipal court process rather than through the state ABC licensing system, since § 99-1 through § 99-3 govern individual conduct in public, separate from Article II's business licensing rules for sellers.