Acorn Urban Park was one of the parks included in the pilot program.

Montgomery Parks / Flickr

Starting tomorrow, residents will no longer be allowed to drink in select Montgomery County parks.

Montgomery Parks, part of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, announced Wednesday that they will be suspending the pilot program, started during the pandemic, that permitted drinking in 13 Montgomery County parks.

The pilot will end on July 1, the day Maryland’s state of emergency ends. The emergency declaration offered counties and local boards more flexibility when it came to liquor laws.

The pilot started in September 2020 as a part of MoCo Eat’s Picnic in the Park Program, an effort to encourage residents to purchase take-out from local businesses and eat at socially-distanced picnic tables throughout the county. It was originally set to expire on May 31, with the option to extend the pilot through another year. With Maryland’s state of emergency lapsing, a spokesperson for Montgomery Parks says the group no longer saw a need for the pilot. The Maryland-National Park Capital and Planning Commission is also a body that oversees both Prince George’s County and Montgomery County, making it uniquely subject to state laws.

“The pilot was launched as a means to support local restaurants by allowing patrons to get take-out / delivery (including alcohol) to enjoy responsibly in our parks (as an extension of outdoor space),” says a spokesperson. “With the end of the COVID-19 State of Emergency issued by the State of Maryland, we find there is no longer this need to allow alcohol in parks. We are still encouraging park visitors to support local restaurants by ordering food to picnic in our parks.”

While some residents had concerns about public drinking leading to car accidents, underage drinking, and excessive noise at the pilot’s inception, Montgomery Parks Director Mike Riley wrote in a statement that there were zero reported alcohol-related incidents at the parks during the pilot program. Data on park attendance isn’t available, but a Montgomery Parks spokesperson says that generally, the county saw an increase in park usage throughout the pandemic.

With social activity regulated to outdoor meet-ups and take-out cocktail sales permitted across the region, local alcohol regulations have evolved over the past year. In D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser has proposed a slew of liquor law changes, one of which would create “commercial lifestyle centers,” where people could purchase a drink from a business and carry it through a designated area. (These already exist in some parts of Northern Virginia). But for now, in D.C., drinking in public parks remains illegal.

Montgomery County Councilmember Evan Glass says that utilizing outdoor space in innovative ways was a boon to some residents’ mental and physical health during the pandemic, and he’d like to see the park program stay. The Montgomery County Council voted recently to extend the Open Streets program through summer, which closes roadways to make room for bikers, pedestrians, and streateries.

“Given that so many people have enjoyed the experience and there has been not one problem, I think this is a program that should continue,” Glass says. “We need to continue innovating, and providing government services in the 21st century as people want to enjoy them.”

Residents were equally disappointed to see that the program was ending.

Sen. Cheryl Kagan, who represents Gaithersburg and Rockville, tweeted about the program, hinting that a change to Maryland’s state liquor laws could be in her legislative future.

There may still be some opportunities to cheers in a park — like a beer garden at Germantown’s SoccerPlex or a “yappy hour” at the Elm Street Park. Take-out cocktails are here to stay for awhile, too; on Thursday, a new law will go into effect in Maryland, authorizing delivery and take-out alcohol sales for restaurants until 2023.

Filed Under: montgomery county, pandemic,