The Chapel Hill Town Council will hold a special meeting at 7 p.m. Aug. 22 to discuss how to respond to a Durham judge’s ruling that voided the town's towing and cell phone ordinances.

The meeting will be in the Council Chamber at Town Hall, 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Council members will consult with Town Attorney Ralph Karpinos about “ongoing litigation and to consider changes to ordinances governing towing,” Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt announced in a news release Monday night.

Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson sided Aug. 2 with a lawsuit filed by George’s Towing & Recovery. The lawsuit argued the towing rules, implemented May 1, unconstitutionally regulated trade, while the cell phone ban was pre-empted by state regulation of cell phone use. The cell phone ban was scheduled to go into effect June 1 but stalled when Hudson issued a preliminary injunction in May.

The town has until Sept. 7 to appeal Hudson’s ruling.

Town officials received a Durham judge’s order today rejecting Chapel Hill's towing and cell phone ordinances. (To read the order, scroll to the bottom of this post and clock on document.)

Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt said mid-morning that he had not yet read the order, but the Town Council could decide Monday whether to hold a special session to consider an appeal. The town has until Sept. 7 to file with the Court of Appeals.

“We don’t have a towing ordinance right now, and to me, that’s a problem,” Kleinschmidt said.

Durham Judge Orlando Hudson ruled Aug. 2 that the Legislature’s regulation of cell phone use while driving pre-empts Chapel Hill’s cell phone use ban.

Hudson also ruled that the town’s towing ordinance constitutes “regulating trade,” which is unconstitutional under state law.

“Plaintiff's rights will be violated by the enforcement of the Defendant's towing and cell phone ordinances,” the judge wrote.

By Tammy Grubb

The Board of Aldermen will meet at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the OWASA Community Room, 400 Jones Ferry Road. (The meeting will be held at OWASA until after the May 8 election, since Town Hall is being used as an early voting site.)

The board will hold public hearings on several items, including a proposed application seeking state Community Development Block Grant funding for a public sewer on Roberson Street. The aldermen have approved building the sewer line in response to last year’s failure of the private sewer line serving multiple businesses in the 100 block of East Main Street. The $238,600 project will extend an existing OWASA sewer main from Maple Street to Roberson Street. The town is requesting 70 percent of the funding from the state program and has asked the county to help provide local funding for the project through the quarter-cent sales tax for economic development.

Other public hearings scheduled for Tuesday will deal with changes to the town’s land-use ordinance regarding compact car and bicycle parking requirements.

The board also is scheduled to talk about OWASA’s draft protocol for when the utility can tap its local allowance from Jordan Lake in times of severe drought and discuss the possibility of additional regulations on predatory towing from privately-owned parking lots.

The Town Council unanimously approved a new towing ordinance Monday night designed to prevent predatory towing and increase accountability and enforcement from tow truck operators.

The new rules will require more signage around private lots downtown that lets drivers know they can be towed.

The council also voted to increase the tow fee to $125, up from $100, and place it on the town's fee schedule, so it can be reviewed each year. That vote was 6-3 with Council members Laurin Easthom, Penny Rich and Donna Bell dissenting.

I'm writing about one proposed bill that could change relations between motorists and bicyclists in North Carolina, and about a second bill that would put new limits on towing operators that remove cars from private parking lots.

If you've had experience with either of these issues, I'd like to hear from you. Please e-mail me and let me know how I can contact you. [See updates, added 5/10/10, below.]

1) With NCDOT reminding North Carolinians during Bicycle Safety Month that "bicyclists share the same rights and responsibilities as other drivers," legislators are considering a proposal to put new restrictions on groups of bike riders when they share the highways with car drivers. ... [MORE]

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.