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

04, "Offenses Against Public Peace and Decency," and applies inside Hanford city limits, not to unincorporated Kings County. Subsection A splits the ban into two prongs. The first prohibits drinking on "any public street, sidewalk or other public way," covering streets, alleys and city-owned pedestrian ways regardless of whether the container is open or sealed, because the ordinance criminalizes the act of drinking, not simply carrying an open container. The second prong extends the ban onto private property that is open for public use, such as a store parking lot or shopping-center walkway, unless "the owner or his agent or any person in lawful possession thereof" has given express permission to drink there.

That permission clause lets a business authorize on-site drinking, for a sidewalk cafe or a permitted outdoor event, and take its property outside the ordinance; without that sign-off the same public-facing lot is treated the same as a public sidewalk. Subsection B sets the penalty: a violation is an infraction punished under subsection (b) of Government Code § 36900, the state's standard municipal-infraction fine ladder, capping fines at $100 for a first offense, $200 for a second offense of the same ordinance within one year, and $500 for each additional offense within that year.

02, so the drinking ban and its private-property permission carve-out have been in continuous force since the mid-1990s recodification. Hanford Police officers cite on complaint or on-view, most often along the downtown Courthouse Square corridor and in Civic Center Park.