Prince William County, VA Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

Sec. 1(a) bars anyone from possessing or drinking alcohol on public elementary or secondary school grounds during school hours or school and student activities. Subsection (b) extends that ban to after-hours use as well, prohibiting drinking by individuals and serving by organizations on school grounds outside school hours or activities, with a single carve-out for a religious congregation using wine for sacramental purposes only. Subsection (c) separately bans possessing or drinking alcohol in county parks or recreational areas unless the Department of Parks and Recreation has authorized it in writing, meaning a permitted event, a wedding reception at a county facility, for example, can serve alcohol lawfully where an unpermitted picnic cannot.

Subsection (d) carves out performing arts facilities licensed by the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority's Board of Directors, letting a licensed venue's lessee serve alcohol in board-approved areas. The ordinance does not create a general open-container ban on county sidewalks, streets or unpermitted public property outside these two categories; drinking on a public street in Woodbridge or Dale City that isn't a school or a park is not reached by this section at all. No specific penalty class is written into Sec. 1 itself, so a violation defaults to the county's catch-all Class 1 misdemeanor under Sec. 1-12(b), the provision that applies whenever an ordinance declares conduct unlawful without naming its own misdemeanor class.