Santa Ana, CA Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

Sec. 10-33 reads, in full: no person shall drink any alcoholic beverage on any street, park, in any automobile, in any public place or in any other public place within the city, except in establishments or business places properly licensed for the consumption of alcoholic beverages under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act of the state. The ordinance dates to the city's 1952 Code and was last amended by Ord. No. , which governs the on-sale licenses that create the exception. Because the section names 'any automobile' separately from 'any public place,' it reaches drinking inside a parked or moving vehicle on a public street even though the vehicle itself is privately owned, not just open-air consumption in parks or on sidewalks.

The prohibition is citywide and applies to every public street, park and public place without any designated 'alcohol-free zone' map to check before organizing an event with alcohol; instead, event organizers use the special-event permit process (Sec. 6(g)) to get city manager authorization to serve alcohol at a permitted gathering on public property. Absent that kind of permit, the only lawful place to drink in public in Santa Ana is on the premises of a business that holds the applicable state ABC license.