Muskegon County, MI Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

Muskegon County's Parks Ordinance treats alcohol as a default-prohibited item rather than a lightly regulated one. Section 10(1), adopted June 14, 2022, bars a person on county park property from possessing any alcoholic beverage of any kind except at specific locations and at specific times by making application per established County procedures, and being granted a permit by the County Board of Commissioners. The rule reaches possession, not just drinking, so carrying an unopened container into an unapproved area of a park is itself a violation if no permit covers that location and time.

Unlike most of the ordinance's other permission requirements, which the Director, Parks Manager or another designee can grant administratively, an alcohol permit under Section 10 must come from the County Board of Commissioners itself, making it the most restrictive approval path anywhere in the ordinance. Applicants apply through the county's established procedures, identifying the specific park location and specific dates or hours for which permission is sought; a permit granted for one location and time window does not authorize alcohol anywhere else in the county park system or at any other time.

The section sits in the ordinance's general conduct chapter, immediately after the fire and public-conduct sections, and its penalty tracks the rest of the ordinance. Muskegon County Parks and Recreation staff and Sheriff's Office deputies enforce the alcohol rule under the authority in Sections 1 and 21, and possession without a Board-issued permit can result in removal from the park in addition to the ordinance's misdemeanor charge.