Title
Towing and Booting Businesses Ordinance Amendment
Action
Action:
Approve the Community Safety Committee recommendation to adopt an ordinance amending Chapter 6 of the Charlotte Code entitled "Towing and Booting Businesses."
Body
Committee Chair:
Council member Claire Fallon
Staff Resource(s):
Rich Austin, Police
Richard Perlungher, Police
Explanation
* In 2003, the City Council enacted a Towing and Booting Businesses Ordinance (Ordinance). The City Council amended the Ordinance in February 2011 and set fees for services and implemented signage requirements for the nonconsensual towing and booting of vehicles from private parking lots.
* On June 12, 2014, the North Carolina Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion in the case of George King d/b/a George's Towing and Recovery v. Town of Chapel Hill. The Court held that municipalities do not have the authority to impose a fee schedule or otherwise cap fees for nonconsensual towing from private lots. The Court did uphold the ordinance's notice and signage provisions and the requirement that towing companies accept cash, debit cards, and at least two major credit cards.
* The proposed Ordinance amends the following language:
* Booting service will be defined as "any person or other entity, whether licensed or not, that engages in or who owns or operates a business, which engages, in whole or in part, in the booting or immobilization of motor vehicles for compensation."
* Exempts driveways, lawns or yards, of property owned or leased as a family residence from the definition of a private parking lot.
* Requires that wheel locks be manufactured as well as designed to immobilize a motor vehicle.
* Removes fee caps for services from the Ordinance.
* Requires that the maximum amount of fees and charges for the following be posted on signs:
o booting or immobilizing a vehicle by use of a wheel lock;
o securing a vehicle to a tow truck by a hook, chain, cable or similar device;
o ...
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