New Hanover County, NC Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

Code of Ordinances Sec. 38-33 reaches every public building the county owns, leases, operates, occupies, manages or controls, and specifically names county parking decks as covered space. S. 18B-101(4), meaning liquor, wine, malt beverages and other intoxicants alike, not just distilled spirits. Deputies or code enforcement staff who find alcohol possessed or used in violation may seize it and destroy it outright under subsection (b); there is no return-to-owner process written into the section. Subsection (c) draws a firm line around county parks and gardens: unfortified alcoholic beverages (beer and unfortified wine, as opposed to liquor or fortified wine) may be consumed there, but only consistent with whatever rules the parks and gardens department has adopted for that specific park, so a posted picnic-area rule can still shut it down even where the county-building ban does not reach.

The only way around the building-and-deck ban itself is prior written authorization from the county manager, useful for a permitted reception or county-sponsored event held inside a county facility. New Hanover County adopted the current version by ordinance on June 17, 2013, replacing an earlier code section. The rule sits in Chapter 38, Article II, Offenses Against Property, alongside the county's firearms-posting and graffiti sections, underscoring that it is enforced as a property-control measure tied to county buildings rather than a general public-drinking law for streets or sidewalks countywide.