Chapel Hill, NC Public Conduct: Public Urination (2026)

Adopted in 1990 as its own article, Article XII, Sec. 11-113 gives Chapel Hill a stand-alone ban separate from the town's general nuisance and public-conduct rules: except in a designated water closet or toilet facility, no person may urinate or defecate on any public place, sidewalk, street, alleyway or right-of-way, in any public building, or on private property. The section carries one affirmative defense, and only for the private-property branch: a defendant who had the permission of the property owner or the person in lawful possession can raise that permission as a defense to the charge.

No such defense exists for urinating or defecating on a public street, sidewalk or in a town building; the prohibition there is absolute. Because Sec. 11-113 does not write its own penalty clause, a violation falls under the Code's general penalty rule in Sec. 1-7: a fine not exceeding $50.00 or imprisonment not exceeding 30 days, with each day a violation continues counting as a separate offense, consistent with the misdemeanor ceiling North Carolina sets for town ordinance violations under G.S. § 14-4. The Chapel Hill Police Department is the enforcing agency for a Sec.

11-113 citation, and because the ordinance names no notice-and-cure period, an officer can charge a violation on direct observation rather than waiting on a prior warning.