South Fulton, GA Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

City Code Sec. 15-3003 makes it unlawful for anyone to open or drink from a bottle or other alcoholic beverage container on the premises of a business licensed under the alcohol chapter unless that business is licensed for on-premises consumption, and that ban does not apply to city-sanctioned events run by a city department, agency, board or commission or specifically approved by city council. Separately, the ordinance bars possessing an open container while operating a vehicle or riding as a passenger in one: a container counts as being in the driver's possession unless it belongs to a passenger or sits in a locked glove box, locked trunk, or another locked or secured non-passenger area, and it counts as a passenger's possession only if it is in that passenger's physical control.

The code also prohibits opening or consuming any alcoholic beverage within 100 feet of a retail package store, or within that store's property lines, whichever distance is greater. Exceptions exist for passengers of a contracted vehicle-for-hire or bus whose driver holds a valid Georgia (or other state) chauffeur's license, passengers of a self-contained motor home longer than 21 feet, and any open container that no longer holds an alcoholic beverage. The definitions section covers alcohol, alcoholic beverage, distilled spirit, fortified wine, malt beverage, open container (any container immediately capable of being consumed from, with a broken seal, closed but not sealed, or open) and wine.

Sec. 15-3003 was adopted by Ord. No. 2018-005, § 1, on February 13, 2018, when South Fulton carried Fulton County's inherited code into its own chapter 15.