Chapel Hill, NC Public Conduct: Aggressive Panhandling (2026)

Adopted in 1998 under the town's home-rule authority in G.S. § 160A-179 to regulate begging, Sec. 11-170 defines panhandling broadly to include any spoken, written or printed appeal for contributions, then layers five separate, narrower prohibitions onto that broad definition rather than banning the activity itself. Subsection (b) bars begging that intimidates, defined as conduct that would cause a reasonable person to fear bodily harm, or that accosts, or that forces the panhandler's company on someone who has already declined, including blocking their path or continuing to press a request after a negative response.

Subsection (c) creates a 20-foot buffer around every bank or financial-institution entrance and around any automated teller machine. Subsection (d) bars solicitation aboard any town-operated bus or at a bus station, and within 6 feet of a bus stop sign, shelter or bench. Subsection (e) bars begging from a roadway, or its shoulder or median. Subsection (f) is a nighttime rule: no vocal appeal or handed written appeal in a public place from dusk to dawn, though a street musician performing with only a sign, and no spoken request beyond answering a question, is exempted from the vocal-appeal branch.

Every branch is a stand-alone misdemeanor under subsection (g), fined up to $50.00 or up to seven days in jail, a lighter ceiling than the Code's general $50/30-day default in Sec. 1-7.