Waynesville, MO Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

Section 720.110 of the Waynesville Municipal Code defines a public place broadly, as any public street, highway, alley, sidewalk, thoroughfare or other public way of the City, or any parking lot, and then bans two separate things there: drinking or ingesting any intoxicating liquor, and simply possessing or controlling an unsealed glass, bottle, can or other open container of intoxicating liquor. The open-container rule follows a person into a vehicle: no one may possess an unsealed container in or on a motor vehicle while it is being operated, parked or standing in a public place, and the ordinance goes further by presuming that whoever is operating the vehicle is in possession of any open container inside it, whether or not they are physically holding it.

That presumption puts the burden on a driver to show an open container in the car is not theirs to control. The section carves out exactly one location: the Waynesville City Park is not covered by this public-place prohibition, so alcohol consumption there is governed by the City's other Chapter 720 rules rather than the open-container ban. The overall Chapter 720 penalty in Section 720.140 applies here, since Section 720.110 sets its own violations under the heading Miscellaneous Offenses without a separate penalty clause of its own.