Can a North Carolina city charge more than $5 for parking in a fire lane, or is the maximum fine capped at five dollars under G.S. 20-162.1?

Plain-English summary

The City of Thomasville wanted to know how much it could charge for a fire-lane parking violation. Two NC statutes pointed in different directions. G.S. § 20-162.1 said the maximum penalty for any parking infraction under that section was $5. G.S. § 14-4(b), as amended in 1991, said violations of a city ordinance regulating parking carry a penalty "of not more than fifty dollars ($50.00)." Could a Thomasville ordinance impose a $50 fine, or was the city stuck at $5?

Chief Deputy AG Andrew A. Vanore, Jr. and Assistant AG Jeffrey P. Gray concluded the maximum was $50. Their reasoning was straightforward statutory-conflict analysis. G.S. § 20-162.1 was last amended in 1987. G.S. § 14-4 was amended in 1991, and the amending act (1991 Session Laws ch. 446 § 2) specifically repealed all laws in conflict. When two statutes irreconcilably collide and the later one says it repeals all conflicting prior law, the later one wins. The city could adopt an ordinance regulating fire-lane parking and could charge up to $50.

The opinion also confirmed that G.S. § 160A-301(d) was the underlying enabling authority for municipal parking ordinances. Cities could "regulate the stopping, standing, or parking of vehicles" in specified areas, including fire lanes. The fire-lane question turned out to be the entry point for a broader holding about parking penalties generally.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1996. 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. Parking penalty statutes have been amended multiple times since 1996, and many cities now operate decriminalized parking systems where the penalty structure is set by ordinance rather than by direct application of G.S. § 14-4(b). Check the current text of G.S. § 14-4, G.S. § 20-162.1, and the relevant city's parking ordinance before relying on a specific dollar figure.

Background and statutory framework

NC's parking penalty regime in the mid-1990s ran on three layers. G.S. § 160A-301(d) gave cities the power to adopt parking ordinances. Chapter 20 (the motor vehicle code) supplied default rules about no-park zones (fire hydrants, intersections, driveways, fire lanes) and assigned a $5 cap to infractions under G.S. § 20-162.1. Chapter 14 (criminal law) supplied the general rule for ordinance violations, with G.S. § 14-4(b) carrying a $50 cap.

The 1991 amendment to G.S. § 14-4 collided with the older $5 cap. The General Assembly knew this and included a sweeping conflict-repeal clause in the amending act. The AG read that clause as dispositive. Under last-in-time-controls analysis, the 1991 $50 cap won out over the 1987 $5 cap to the extent they collided in the parking-ordinance context.

The opinion noted that "numerous local modifications exist" for both G.S. § 20-162/162.1 and G.S. § 14-4, none of which applied to Thomasville. That caveat matters: a city under a local act may have a different maximum penalty than the statewide $50, and a researcher checking a different city should always look for local-act overrides before concluding the $50 cap applies.

Common questions

Does the $50 cap mean a city must charge exactly $50?

No. $50 was the statutory maximum penalty. A city's ordinance could set a lower amount, a tiered amount based on repeat-offender status, or graduated penalties for different lengths of overtime parking. The cap controlled only the ceiling.

What if a city's parking ordinance is decriminalized?

Decriminalization under G.S. § 160A-175 changes whether the violation is a misdemeanor or an infraction, and it changes whether the proceeds go to the city or to the county school fund under Article IX, Section 7 of the NC Constitution (see the 1997 Raleigh overtime parking opinion). The $50 cap in G.S. § 14-4(b) still controlled the maximum monetary penalty in either case.

Did the $50 apply to fire lanes specifically?

Yes. The Thomasville question started with fire-lane parking under G.S. § 20-162 and G.S. § 20-162.1, but the AG's analysis applied to "any violation of a city parking ordinance." Fire-lane parking carried the same maximum ($50) as overtime parking, no-parking-zone parking, or any other ordinance-defined violation.

How is the $50 limit different from the underlying offense?

G.S. § 14-4(b) characterized the violation as an "infraction." Infractions in NC are noncriminal violations carrying only a monetary penalty (no jail time, no criminal record), but they are processed through a court system that resembles small-claims and traffic court. The $50 cap is the upper bound of the monetary penalty for an infraction-level parking violation.

What about local acts that change these rules?

The opinion explicitly noted that local-act modifications exist for both G.S. § 20-162/162.1 and G.S. § 14-4. A city operating under a special local act may have a different penalty structure than the statewide $50. Anyone applying this opinion to a city other than Thomasville should first look up whether the relevant city has a local-act override on parking-penalty caps.

Source

• Landing page: https://ncdoj.gov/opinions/maximum-penalty-that-may-be-assessed-for-violations-of-city-parking-ordinances/

Citations

• N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-4
• N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-4(b)
• N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-162
• N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-162.1
• N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-162.1(a)
• N.C. Gen. Stat. § 160A-301(d)
• 1991 Sess. Laws, ch. 446, § 2

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scrape that omitted the opening salutation. The linked NCDOJ page is authoritative for the full original.

• G.S.
• § 20-162.1(a). For reasons which follow, it is our opinion the City may adopt an ordinance regulating parking in fire lanes and the maximum penalty is not limited to $5.00. The maximum penalty is an infraction and a fine of not greater than $50.00.
• G.S.
• § 160A-301(d) provides that a governing body of a city may, by ordinance, "regulate the stopping, standing, or parking of vehicles" in specified areas. This statute is the enabling law for all municipal parking ordinances. Chapter 20 of the General Statutes, the motor vehicle laws, also addresses parking regulations. G.S. § 20-162 is a general prohibition to parking in front of private driveways, fire hydrants, fire stations, intersections of curb lines, and fire lanes. A prima facie rule, stating that the owner of the vehicle is deemed to be the operator for purposes of any citation, is set forth in G.S. § 20-162.1, and this statute applies to G.S. § 20-162. This same statute also provides that "[a]ny person found responsible for an infraction pursuant to [G.S. § 20-162.1] shall be subject to a penalty of not more than five dollars ($5.00)." G.S. § 20-162.1, therefore, appears to set the maximum penalty for any violation of a parking ordinance at $5.00. However, a conflicting statute also exists.
• G.S.
• § 14-4(b) states that "[i]f any person shall violate an ordinance of a … city or town regulating the … parking of vehicles, he shall be responsible for an infraction and shall be required to pay a penalty of not more than fifty dollars ($50.00)." The 1991 Session Laws, Chapter 446, Section 2, which amended G.S. § 14-4, specifically provided that the act repealed all laws in conflict with G.S. § 14-4. G.S. § 20-162.1 was last amended by the General Assembly in 1987. To the extent that G.S. § 20-162.1 conflicts with the later amended G.S. § 14-4(b), § 14-4(b) controls. Therefore, the maximum monetary penalty for a violation of a city parking ordinance is $50.00.

Numerous local modifications exist for both G.S. §§ 20-162 and 162.1 and G.S. § 14-4; none of these local modifications apply to the City of Thomasville.

Andrew A. Vanore, Jr.
Chief Deputy Attorney General

Jeffrey P. Gray
Assistant Attorney General