West Bloomfield, MI Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

Section 16-25, enacted by Ord. No. 105-A on July 21, 1986, imposes an outright alcohol ban inside West Bloomfield's community parks rather than merely restricting hours or amounts. Subsection (a) bars selling or furnishing any alcoholic liquor to any person within a park's boundaries, reaching a vendor, a caterer at a permitted event, or one person handing a drink to another. Subsection (b) goes further and bars simple possession: a person may not have any alcoholic liquor in the park at all, whether or not it is being consumed, sold or given to someone else.

Because the ban is possession-based rather than consumption-based, an unopened bottle of wine in a picnic basket is enough to violate subsection (b). The section applies to every community park defined in Section 16-16, including Bloomer Park, Sylvan Manor Park, Bloomfield Knolls Park, West Bloomfield Community Sports Center Park and Marshbank Park. The Code cross-references the township's general liquor licensing chapter, Chapter 5, and notes Michigan's own statute on consuming alcoholic liquor in parks, MCL 436.34, as the state-law backdrop for the local ban; the Code's own Section 16-25, not the state statute, is what West Bloomfield police enforce on the ground.

Chapter 16 sets no unique fine for a Section 16-25 violation, so a citation defaults to the Code's general penalty in Section 1-10: a misdemeanor punishable by up to 93 days in jail and/or a $500 fine, with continuing possession over multiple days chargeable as separate offenses.