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

Division 1 of Chapter 34, Article IV bans two distinct acts. Sec. 34-152 makes it a misdemeanor for any person to drink an alcoholic beverage, defined in Sec. 34-151 as any liquid containing one-half of one percent or more alcohol by volume, in any public place, unless expressly permitted under an ABC license or elsewhere in the code. Separately, Sec. 34-153(a) makes it an infraction to possess an open container of alcohol in a city building or on public property, again absent an ABC license exemption.

Sec. 34-153(b) adds a second, narrower infraction: possessing an open container while on, or on the posted parking lot or adjacent public sidewalk of, an off-sale retail liquor store licensed under Business and Professions Code Div. 9. That rule only applies once the licensee posts a notice, in a size and design approved by the police chief, reading "NOTICE: POSSESSION OF OPENED ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTAINERS ON THESE PREMISES IS PROHIBITED BY LAW. CAL. PENAL CODE Section 647E. " If a licensee ignores the chief's written directive to post that notice for 30 days, the premises is deemed a public nuisance.

Property owners generally, not just liquor stores, may also post the same notice to trigger the rule on their own property, though it never applies to a private residential parking lot adjacent to posted premises. Sec. 34-154 clarifies the whole division yields to state law and only reaches conduct not already preempted.