Onslow County, NC Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

Section 12-27 of the Onslow County Code of Ordinances prohibits selling or attempting to sell any beer, wine, whiskey, or other intoxicating liquor or beverage inside the confines of any county park, and separately bans possessing or consuming such beverages, or their containers, in a park. The ban is close to absolute: the only exception written into the section covers tax parcels 037810 and 018788, which are exempt only when the alcohol is served at an event that was scheduled and contracted before the county took ownership of those two parcels.

Every other county park and recreation site is covered with no permit process to authorize alcohol, unlike the permit exceptions the same chapter builds in for commercial activity, meetings, or aviation. The rule sits alongside other park-conduct sections in Chapter 12, Article I: Section 12-23 separately bars carrying firearms or air guns in a park except for department employees or law enforcement, and Section 12-25 requires any fire be confined to designated spots and supervised, showing the alcohol ban is part of a broader set of park-safety restrictions the county parks and recreation department enforces uniformly across its facilities.

Under Section 12-3, this prohibition, like the rest of Chapter 12, Article I, applies within and upon every park, site, and recreational area under the department's jurisdiction, countywide.