San Bernardino County, CA Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

0501 targets open-container drinking right outside off-sale liquor stores in the unincorporated county. ), the licensed parking lot immediately adjacent to it, or a public sidewalk immediately adjacent to that licensed and posted premises. The section defines 'posted premises' as the licensed retail area, its adjacent parking lot, and the adjacent public sidewalk, but only where clearly visible notices tell patrons and passersby that the open-container rule applies; the ordinance carves out an exception for a private residential parking lot that happens to sit next to the posted premises.

Subdivision (b) puts a matching duty on the licensee: every retail package off-sale licensee must install and maintain signage, visible to patrons and to anyone on the adjacent parking lot or sidewalk, notifying them that subdivision (a) applies. A licensee who fails to post that signage is separately guilty of an infraction. The ordinance dates to Ordinance 3391, passed in 1990, and sits in Division 2 (Public Morals, Safety and Welfare) of the County Code. Because the restriction is keyed to whether the required signage is up, enforcement in practice depends on the store having posted its notice; unposted premises fall outside subdivision (a)'s reach even though the licensee is still separately obligated to post it.