Is a North Carolina restaurant's parking lot a 'public vehicular area' for purposes of the Motor Vehicle Code when the restaurant is closed for the night?

Plain-English summary

An Assistant District Attorney in the 17-B Judicial District asked the AG a recurring DWI-prosecution question. North Carolina's Motor Vehicle Code applies a number of offenses (notably DWI under G.S. 20-138, but also reckless driving, speeding, no-insurance, and others) to driving on a "public vehicular area" as defined in G.S. 20-4.01(32). That definition includes various private parking facilities that hold themselves out for public access, like supermarket lots, drive-in theaters, and restaurant parking lots. The DA's question was specifically about restaurant parking lots after closing time: does the parking lot stop being a public vehicular area when the restaurant is closed?

The AG said no, it does not stop. Two reasons.

The statutory text doesn't say so. G.S. 20-4.01(32) defines public vehicular area to include grounds and premises of any service station, drive-in theater, supermarket, store, restaurant, office building, or any other business, residential, or municipal establishment providing parking space for customers, patrons, or the public. The text contains no temporal qualifier; it does not say "while open" or "during business hours." So as a matter of plain reading, the lot is what it is, whether the business is presently open or closed.

The safety purpose cuts the same way. The Motor Vehicle Code provisions that hinge on the public vehicular area definition exist to protect lives and property from dangerous driving. A drunk driver in the closed restaurant's parking lot at 2 a.m. can endanger others (other drivers, pedestrians, parked cars, the restaurant building, the driver himself) just as much as a drunk driver in the same lot at 8 p.m. The AG's framing: "The character of the premises does not change so that a person could commit a violation of G.S. 20-138 while the business is open, but not while it is closed."

So in 17-B and statewide, DWI charges (and similar Motor Vehicle Code charges that rely on the public vehicular area concept) could be brought for conduct on a restaurant parking lot after the restaurant closed for the night.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1982. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

The public vehicular area definition has been amended and reorganized in G.S. 20-4.01 multiple times since 1982 (the current subsection numbering differs). The basic principle (that public vehicular area is a property-character determination, not a business-hours determination) has been repeatedly confirmed in NC case law, but anyone working a current DWI case should consult the current statute and the current Court of Appeals/Supreme Court opinions on PVA scope.

Common questions

Q: Does this apply only to restaurants, or to all the listed property types?
A: The AG's reasoning is generic. The statutory text lists service stations, drive-in theaters, supermarkets, stores, restaurants, office buildings, and other business/residential/municipal establishments providing public parking. The temporal-irrelevance rationale should apply across all of them. Closed-hours conduct on a gas station lot, a strip mall lot, or an office building lot also falls within PVA.

Q: What about a parking lot that is closed off after hours with a chain or gate?
A: The AG did not address that scenario specifically. The intuitive reading is that a physically restricted lot that no longer holds itself out for public use may have left the PVA definition for the time it is closed off. But the AG's reasoning would be pressure-tested in that fact pattern, and the analysis would likely turn on whether the lot still "provided parking space for the public" in any meaningful sense.

Q: Does this mean any private parking lot is a PVA?
A: No. PVA requires the lot to provide parking space for customers, patrons, or the public. A purely private parking area (e.g., an employee-only lot behind a locked gate, a residential driveway) is treated differently.

Q: Why does this matter beyond DWI?
A: A long list of offenses depend on the public vehicular area definition: reckless driving, speeding (where applicable), driving with no operator's license, no liability insurance, fictitious tag, and more. Whether the conduct happened on a PVA determines whether the offense can be charged at all in many cases.

Background and statutory framework

The opinion is short because the analysis is straightforward. Two statutory pieces did the work:

• G.S. 20-4.01(32). Defined "public vehicular area" to include public roads and a broad list of private premises providing parking space for customers, patrons, or the public. The list specifically named restaurants. The statute contained no temporal limit.
• G.S. 20-138. The DWI statute, which (then and now) reached driving on public vehicular areas as well as public highways.

The interpretive principle was the statute's safety purpose. North Carolina case law and AG opinions have repeatedly applied a safety-purpose reading of the Motor Vehicle Code to fill statutory ambiguity in favor of coverage. A reading that turned PVA on business hours would have created a gap (drunk driving permitted nightly in the parking lots of closed businesses) that the legislature plainly did not intend.

The AG also implicitly applied the in pari materia principle: the definition serves a body of statutes whose purpose is safety, so it should be read to serve that purpose, not to defeat it.

Citations

• N.C.G.S. § 20-4.01(32) (definition of "public vehicular area")
• N.C.G.S. § 20-138 (driving while impaired; reach to public vehicular areas)

Source

• Landing page: https://ncdoj.gov/opinions/motor-vehicles-public-vehicular-area-restaurant-parking-lot-after-hours/

Original opinion text

Requested By: James C. Yeatts, III
Assistant District Attorney
17-B Judicial District

Question:
Is the parking lot of a restaurant within the definition of "public vehicular area" under G.S. 204.01(32) when the restaurant is closed?

Conclusion:
Yes.

G.S. 20-4.01(32) provides, in pertinent part:

". . . or upon the grounds and premises of any service station, drive-in theater, supermarket, store, restaurant or office building, or any other business, residential, or municipal establishment providing parking space for customers, patrons or the public. . . ."

The parking area of a restaurant is included within the definition as "grounds and premises." The statute is silent as to whether the establishment providing parking has to be open for business, but as the purpose of the definition and its related statutes is concerned with safety, it is a logical interpretation to say that it is not material as to whether the establishment is opened or closed. The character of the premises does not change so that a person could commit a violation of G.S. 20-138 while the business is open, but not while it is closed. That driver could still endanger the lives and property of others as well as himself after closing hours.

Rufus L. Edmisten
Attorney General

Jane P. Gray
Assistant Attorney General