Chapel Hill, NC Parking Rules: Street Parking Limits (2026)

Sec. 21-19 makes it prohibited to park in violation of a posted police parking regulation, but conditions guilt on there being legible instructions against parking; no vehicle may be parked where an official police-division 'No Parking' sign is displayed. Sec. 21-20 separately makes it unlawful to park or leave a vehicle standing on any public street in a manner that interferes with traffic on a public street, sidewalk, or alley, covering blocking situations that are not marked by a sign. Sec. 21-20.1 bars parking or leaving a vehicle standing on any public sidewalk, defined as the paved area within a street right-of-way that has curb and gutter separating it from the travel lane, so unpaved shoulders without curb and gutter fall outside the ban.

Sec. 21-22 sets a forty-eight-hour limit: no one may park or leave a vehicle standing unmoved on a public street beyond that period, addressing long-term storage of vehicles on residential streets. Chapel Hill also regulates parking during snow under Sec. 21-24, banning parking on Franklin and Rosemary Streets and several adjoining streets after two inches of snow has fallen and before it is removed, and Sec. 21-27 lists hundreds of specific street segments, block by block, where parking is prohibited entirely by name. None of Secs.

21-19, 21-20, 21-20.1, or 21-22 states its own fine, so Sec. 1-7's Code-wide general penalty, a fine up to fifty dollars or imprisonment up to thirty days, applies to each.