Southfield, MI Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

Southfield City Code § 9.153, Consumption in public, sets three overlapping bans inside Chapter 115, Alcoholic Liquor. First, no alcoholic liquor shall be consumed on the public highways, with no exception. Second, in public parks and places of amusement not licensed for on-premises consumption, only beer and wine may be consumed; hard liquor is barred even there. Third, and most broadly, no alcoholic liquor shall be consumed in any public place, or in any place open to the general public, expressly including any parking area and any store or business open to the public that is not licensed to sell alcohol for on-premises drinking; an owner or operator of such a place who permits the drinking is separately liable.

The section is written as a continuation of an earlier version, tracing back to former § 9.152 under Ordinance No. 959 as amended by Ordinance No. 1328, and is now enacted under MCL 436.1915. It sits alongside § 9.152, which separately bars anyone from furnishing an unlicensed venue for paid drinking or drinking in an unlicensed food establishment. Chapter 115's general penalty, § 9.158, classifies a violation of § 9.153 as a minor offense; a licensee who violates the chapter faces up to 90 days in jail, a $500 fine, or both, while the section directs courts to distinguish casual, one-time violations from habitual or commercialized ones.

Southfield Police Department officers enforce the ban citywide, including in the parking areas and street frontage around Southfield Town Center and other commercial districts, where open-container drinking in a parking lot falls squarely within the any public place language.