District Announces that D.C. Court of Appeals Upholds Used Car Lot Regulations
WASHINGTON, DC: The District’s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs acted within its lawful authority when it issued regulations last year that have transformed the city’s used car industry, the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled in an opinion issued today. The Court held that the Department “could reasonably conclude” that the new regulations were needed to deal “preventively and comprehensively with the problem” posed by “dangerous or unhealthy conditions attendant on the outside storage of used motor vehicles.”
The regulations, which became final on April 24, 2009, introduced strict limits on the outdoor storage of used cars, set minimum requirements for facilities on used car lots, and imposed new bonding and record keeping requirements on licensees. A multi-agency sweep of the District’s used car lots in the fall of 2008 had revealed that many so-called used car lots were being used for long-term storage of vehicles rather than for active retail businesses. Over the next 14 months, city authorities shut down more than 160 used car dealers and towed more than 1,200 illegally stored vehicles.
“This decision allows DCRA to continue to enforce these new regulations, which help to ensure that auto-related blight does not return to our city’s retail corridors and residential neighborhoods,” Attorney General Peter Nickles said.
The decision is Capital Auto Sales, Inc., et al. v. District of Columbia, et al., No. 09-CV-335.