Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton is reminding Occupy Chapel Hill members to obey the law when they protest a local condominium board’s decision to remove a nonprofit serving area Latinos and Burmese immigrants.

“Just a quick reminder that the Abbey Court Condominium is private property,” Chilton said in a memo sent to Occupy members. “The Town Commons, Jones Ferry Road and the other streets and sidewalks adjacent are public spaces where anyone is welcome to conduct a march/protest. The Carrboro Police Department will be on hand to deal with traffic issues only.”

The homeowners association board voted 2-1 this week to give the Chapel Hill and Carrboro Human Rights Center until March 1 to find a new home. The board said the nonprofit, which runs an after-school program and offers other services, was violating its rules by operating programs in a residential setting.

Occupy Chapel Hill has a small encampment outside the Franklin Street post office and plans a 3:30 p.m. march on the Jones Ferry Road complex this afternoon. A march last month against the Nov. 13 police raid to remove occupiers of the old Yates Motor Co. building drew more than 100 people and briefly blocked traffic.

“It seems likely that if protesters cross on to Abbey Court's property that Abbey Court management will ask to have trespassers removed from their property,” Chilton said in his email. “If that happens, then as government officials we have a sworn duty to uphold North Carolina law. In that event, I promise you the Carrboro Police will respond in as calm and measured a way as possible. I want both protesters and police officers to be non-violent.”

Chilton, who supports the goals of the Occupy movement, reminded members that police “are a part of the 99% too.”

“Please bear in mind that when they carry out their job, they are only trying to feed, clothe and house their families, just like the rest of us. I guarantee that many of Carrboro's police officers share our concerns about how Abbey Court (or the whole world for that matter) is run, but that doesn't mean they can violate their sworn oath to uphold the law.”

Residents of Abbey Court condominiums on Jones Ferry Road say drugs are being sold there.

Carrboro Town Manager Steve Stewart, Police Chief Carolyn Hutchison and town department heads met with residents and management Wednesday night.

Some of the residents who attended have lived in Abbey Court for five to 10 years, according to a memo from Hutchison.

“They spoke out against the men who drink and urinate at the bus stop, in breezeways, at the tennis court, near the dumpsters, and in other areas of the complex,” she wrote in the memo, which was distributed to the town’s police officers and Board of Aldermen. “They acknowledged that many of the people who hang out in the area do NOT live at Abbey Court. They worry about their children, their grandchildren, and their wives who witness this unlawful and nuisance behavior. They want to improve the community so that their kids can play outside. They asked for our help.

Hutchison told officers to continue to ride through Abbey Court regularly and do some stationary and foot patrols there, especially in the area of the A building and in the parking lots. 

“From Friday afternoon through Monday morning, they say they suffer through loud music coming from cars in the parking lots and car horns used to “call” people from apartments to the parking lots,’ she wrote. “They are concerned, too, that there is drug dealing occurring. They are also sick and tired of the people who loiter and drink and trash the area of the bus stop. Please take enforcement action against such criminal behavior every time enforcement action is warranted.”

The management at Abbey Court condominiums has ceased directing its towing contractor to place immobilizing boots on the wheels of unauthorized vehicles after a tenant ran over his own foot last week because he didn’t realize his car had been booted.

“He opened the door to see why the car was not moving and didn’t realize the car was in reverse,” according to a police incident report. “The car lurched backwards and ran up on the curb, pulling [the driver] underneath.”

Emergency medical responders treated the victim at the scene for minor injuries.

The apartment management had been booting and towing vehicles that did not have valid parking permits. They wanted to make sure all vehicles parked in the Abbey Court lot belonged to residents there and met appearance standards.

Tar Heel Companies will relax the "conspicuous damage" portion of its new parking requirements at Abbey Court Condomiumiums.

In a story in Wednesday's News & Observer, President Ken Lucas says the media has overemphasized that part of the new policy, which management implemented two weeks ago to reduce crowding at the complex on Jones Ferry Road. (Read a resident's support for the new policy here."

PRESS STATEMENT

The Old Well Homeowners Association dba Abbey Court Condominiums responding to criticism from media sources and officials of the Town of Carrboro regarding the parking policy at Abbey Court Condominiums emphasizes that the rules regarding appearance of vehicles has been relaxed. The decision to do so was made more than a week ago. However, continuing media coverage of the towing policy emphasizes the appearance issue as the main source of objections.

Kenneth A. Lucas, President and CEO of The Tar Heel Companies of North Carolina, Inc., managing agent for Abbey Court stated “We would ask that anyone who has been denied a parking permit due to a vehicle appearance issue revisit the office at Abbey Court. We will be reassessing any vehicle that has been previously denied due to an appearance issue. The policy regarding the need for vehicles to be properly registered to residents remains unchanged.”

Those seeking parking permits will still need to provide appropriate documentation that they are a leaseholder or authorized occupant at Abbey Court Condominiums along with registration information on each vehicle. Rules limit the number of parking permits that can be issued to each condominium to two per two bedroom condominium and three per three bedroom condominium. Lucas further stated “Many that have been denied stickers are not leaseholders nor authorized occupants. We must remember that more than 212 residents have been issued permits and feedback from those residents has been very positive.”

We're giving you another avenue to voice your views about local issues. On Sunday we launched a feedback feature we call "Agree or Disagree?" that asks you to send us a brief comment on the editorial each week. If we get some good responses we'll print some in the following Sunday's paper.

Here's last Sunday's editorial. Agree or disagree?

Tensions climb at Abbey Court

In the week-plus since the ugly situation at Abbey Court flared up, things have only gotten worse.

The management of the condominium complex, which rents mostly to
working-class Latino residents, initiated the dispute by enforcing a
policy that requires vehicles parked in the complex's parking lot be
free of "conspicuous damage."

Abbey Court has imposed an
absurdly strict interpretation of the rule, towing its own residents'
cars away from the spaces outside their homes, presumably on the basis
of "conspicuous damage" that consists of nothing more than common wear
and tear -- minor dents, scratches, windshield cracks, faded paint and
so on. The policy also calls for towing vehicles that don't have proof
of title, insurance, registration and so on -- documentation that some
residents may not have.

Desperate residents, not surprisingly, have objected. On several occasions crowds have gathered to protest, to try to stop the towing or to hurriedly move their cars before they can
be hauled off. Thursday night Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton arrived at
Abbey Court to find about 100 people engaged in a tense standoff with a
tow truck operator.

Chilton has been active in trying to help the residents. He has directly urged Abbey Court to suspend the towing policy; the answer he got, he said, was no. Truth is, there's only so
much the town can do. Abbey Court is a private enterprise and, as
Chilton told the crowd Thursday night, the town doesn't have much
authority over the management's parking and towing policies.

It does, however, have authority over housing codes. Enforcement of the
housing codes is complaint-driven -- that is, the town doesn't
arbitrarily conduct inspections of existing structures, but it will
investigate if it receives a complaint about a specific building.

Chilton told the crowd that Thursday night, too, essentially inviting anyone
with concerns about the condition of their units at Abbey Court to file
a complaint. At least one resident responded by lodging a formal
housing code complaint. Chilton has asked the town staff to respond as
quickly as possible and, if code violations are found, to act
accordingly.

Abbey Court's position is that it is merely enforcing a policy designed to prevent overcrowding of the lot and to keep the neighborhood looking nice by removing unsightly vehicles.

Give us a break. It's one thing to prohibit junked cars or abandoned heaps.
What Abbey Court is doing is something else entirely.

Some might criticize the town for involving itself in a private business's
affairs. From where we sit, though, elected officials serve the public,
and when they see members of the public --especially those with limited
resources -- being treated unfairly, they have not only the right but
the responsibility to act.

Agree or Disagree?

We've told you where we stand on this issue. Now we want to know what
you think. Send a comment of 50 words or less with the subject line
"Agree or Disagree" to editor@nando.com, or just respond in the comment boxes here on the blog. We'll print a selection of responses in the paper, and post all of them online. Thanks.