[Ord. 2017-9, 10/11/2017]
The Board of Supervisors shall be vested hereafter with the
authority to declare, after due investigation, as a hazardous or dangerous
condition to the use of any public road or street of the Township,
or the impairment of the use or maintenance of the public road or
street, any tree, shrub, brush, and vegetation growing or being within
the right-of-way of any Township road or street. Such declaration
by the Board of Supervisors must be based upon clear evidence that
such tree, shrub, brush, and vegetation, or any part thereof, growing
or being in the right-of-way of the public way constitutes a menace
to public travel or, by reason of any cause whatever, may become an
imminent source of danger to the public.
[Ord. 2017-9, 10/11/2017]
The Township Manager shall give written notice, delivered by
the United States Postal Service, certified mail, postage prepaid,
return receipt requested, to the owner of the property abutting any
Township road or street on which any tree, shrub, brush, and vegetation
is growing or exists within the right-of-way of a Township road or
street and which the Board of Supervisors has found to constitute
a hazardous or dangerous condition to the use of the Township road
or street or which impairs the use or maintenance of the public road
or street, that the property owner must remove the tree, shrub, brush,
and vegetation constituting such menace to public travel, or which
is a source of danger to the public or causes an impairment to the
use or maintenance of the public road or street, and it must be removed
by the owner of abutting property from said right-of-way or the public
way to the satisfaction of the Board of Supervisors, or its designees,
at the sole expense of the abutting property owner within 30 days
from the receipt of such notice. Upon the failure of the abutting
property owner to remove the dangerous tree, shrub, brush, and vegetation
within the time designated in such written notice, the Township may
contract with a private tree or shrub removal company, as an independent
contractor, for the removal by it of the dangerous tree, shrub, brush,
and vegetation condition within its public road right-of-way. In such
case, the Township may commence civil legal proceedings for the collection
from the abutting property owner of all lawful costs for the removal
of the tree, shrub, brush, and vegetation, or the Township may impose
upon the property of the abutting property owner a municipal claim
and lien for all costs incurred by the Township in the removal of
the dangerous tree, shrub, brush, and vegetation from the Township
road right-of-way, pursuant to the Municipal Claims and Tax Lien Act,
Act of May 16, 1923, P.L. 207, No. 24, as amended and supplemented,
53 P.S. § 7101 et seq.
[Ord. 2017-9, 10/11/2017]
All property rights vested by existing Pennsylvania law in the
abutting property owner for all logs, cordwood, branch wood or other
forms of wood derived from the destruction or removal of any tree
growing along the public road or street and constituting a public
nuisance to public travel or the public street or an impairment to
the use or maintenance of the public way shall remain so vested in
the abutting property owner, pursuant to Article XXIII, Chapter 141,
of the Second Class Township Code of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,
Section 67325(b).
[Ord. 2017-9, 10/11/2017]
1.Â
A violation of any provision of this Part shall constitute a summary
offense and shall be enforced by the commencement of an action before
a District Justice by the Kingston Township Police Department or other
authorized representative of the Township of Kingston in the manner
provided for enforcement of summary offenses under the applicable
provisions of the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure and the
Second Class Township Code, 53 P.S. § 66601(c.1)(2), or
any amendment thereof. If so designated by the Board of Supervisors,
the Solicitor of the Township of Kingston may assume charge of the
prosecution of such violation(s) in a manner consistent with the Pennsylvania
Rules of Criminal Procedure relating to trial of summary cases, as
the same may be amended from time to time.
2.Â
Any person who shall be found to have violated any provision of this
Part shall, upon conviction thereof, be sentenced to pay a fine of
not more than $1,000 and all costs of prosecution. Each day that a
violation of this Part continues shall constitute a separate offense.
3.Â
In addition to all other remedies provided herein for violations
of this Part, the Township of Kingston shall have the right to proceed
in any court of competent jurisdiction for the purpose of obtaining
an injunction, restraining order, or other appropriate remedy to compel
compliance with the provisions of this Part. The remedies provided
herein for the enforcement of this Part, or any remedy provided by
law, shall not be deemed mutually exclusive; rather, they may be employed
simultaneously or consecutively, at the option of the Board of Supervisors.
[Ord. 2017-9, 10/11/2017]
The provisions of this Part of the Township of Kingston Code
of Ordinances, so far as they are the same as those ordinances and
regulations in force immediately prior to the adoption of this Part,
are intended as a continuation of such ordinances and regulations
and not as a new enactment. The provisions of this Part shall not
affect any suit or prosecution pending or to be instituted to enforce
any of the prior ordinances or regulations except as provided by law.
[Ord. 2017-9, 10/11/2017]
It is hereby declared to be the intention of the Board of Supervisors
of the Township of Kingston that if any chapters, parts, sections,
paragraphs, sentences, clauses or phrase(s) of this Part are declared
unconstitutional, illegal or otherwise invalid by the judgment or
decree of a court of competent jurisdiction, such invalidity shall
not affect any of the remaining chapters, parts, sections, paragraphs,
sentences, clauses or phrases of this Part or the codification of
the ordinances of the Township of Kingston.
