Supporters of the bill say it's very expensive to retrieve a car from a tow yard. The idea behind the bill is to help people who otherwise couldn't afford to get their cars back by preventing them from being towed in the first place.
San Jose City Councilman Johnny Khamis called the whole idea ridiculous, saying it's already tough enough to get these cars removed.
"It's already a very bureaucratic process. People wait way more than a week to get rid of a car. We get more than 60,000 complaints a year about abandoned vehicles and stolen cars," said Khamis. "It takes long enough already, and this is gong to make it much harder to tow a car."
San Jose resident Steve Chapman lives near downtown and just wants a place to park his own vehicle.
He pointed out a car that's been parked in front of his place for weeks.
"It's been close to a month," he said. "There's been a tag on it, it's moved across the street a few times - and there it sits."