Town agrees to forgive 1 parking ticket a year

The Town Council agreed last week to forgive one parking ticket per driver per year to encourage drivers who think parking is a hassle downtown.

"People just do not think it's fair," said Tommy O'Connell, one of the owners of the Chapel Hill Restaurant Group. "People who live in The Oaks, people who live in Lakeshore, they don't come downtown anymore because they think the town is gouging them."

This change was part of a long list recommended by the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership.

The council could not agree on whether to increase metered parking fees by 25 cents an hour. The rationale is this would keep on-street spaces open for coffee shops, boutiques and restaurants that serve lunch.

Council member Laurin Easthom said increasing hourly fees from $1 to $1.25 was the "wrong message to send" in the current economy, but her colleague Mark Kleinschmidt said off-street parking should be cheaper than on-street so that people parking for more than an hour will use the lots.

The council decided to delay decisions on raising the meter rates and making parking free at all surface parking lots after 6 p.m. Town staff anticipate a net loss of revenue from those to changes of around $110,000, and the council decided to incorporate the parking debate into its larger budget talks.

The council also directed town staff to install new signs to direct drivers toward parking and charged the town's Naming Committee to rename existing parking lots to make them easier to identify. "Lot 2," for example, could become the Rosemary/Columbia Parking Lot East.

The council also decided to:

• unify parking payment methods and aim for accepting credit cards or pay-by-cell-phone for all parking in the future

• review event parking fees

• condense all long-term, leased parking to one lot at each end of downtown, though they didn't identify which ones

• work with business owners to use their lots for events and after hours

• plan for scooter parking in the future

- staff writer Jesse James DeConto

Time Warner Cable to end deal with town

The Town of Chapel Hill's cable franchise agreement with Time Warner Cable will end March 31 due to the cable company's filing of a Notice of Franchise with the N.C. Secretary of State.

The Video Service Competition Act permits Time Warner to terminate its agreement with the town once any portion of its franchise area has been identified as part of the service area of another state-franchised cable operator. Although AT&T has announced that it intends to offer service in Chapel Hill, it has not said when service will commence or which areas will be served.

One impact of TWC becoming a state franchise operator is that the town will lose remnant franchise fees amounting to about $100,000 last year, the town said in a news release. Another is the town can no longer require cable operators to build out the town (and therein offer cable-modem service) based on household density requirements. The state law has no build-out requirements for state franchised operators.

The town is working to ensure that the public, education and government access channels currently in operation will continue to be provided to the public by both cable companies, according to the release.

The public access channel, The Peoples Channel, will receive support from state-allocated PEG subscriber fees, supplemental PEG support and various grants.

After March 31, the Town of Chapel Hill can no longer accept or help resolve complaints received from Time Warner Cable customers. All complaints from customers must be sent to the Consumer Protection Division of the N.C. Department of Justice's Attorney General's Office.

For more information, contact the N.C. Department of Justice, Consumer Protection Division, 9001 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-9001. Call: 919-716-6000 or 1-877-566-7226 (1-877-NOSCAM) to obtain a complaint form. Visit the division Web site at: www.ncdoj.com/consumerprotection/cp_cable_overview.jsp

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