[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Commissioners (now City
Council) of the City of Atlantic City 4-19-1962 by Ord. No. 6-1962.
Amendments noted where applicable.]
This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the "Anti-Litter
Ordinance of the City of Atlantic City."
A.Â
AIRCRAFT
AUTHORIZED PRIVATE RECEPTACLE
CITY
COMMERCIAL HANDBILL
(1)Â
(2)Â
(3)Â
(4)Â
GARBAGE
LITTER
NEWSPAPER
NONCOMMERCIAL HANDBILL
PARK
PERSON
PRIVATE PREMISES
PUBLIC PLACE
REFUSE
RUBBISH
VEHICLE
For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms, phrases, words
and their derivations shall have the meanings given herein:
Any contrivance now known or hereafter invented, used or
designated for navigation or for flight in the air. The word "aircraft"
shall include helicopters and lighter-than-air dirigibles and balloons.
A litter storage and collection receptacle.
The City of Atlantic City.
Any printed or written matter, any sample or device, dodger,
circular, leaflet, pamphlet, paper, booklet or any other printed or
otherwise reproduced original or copies of any matter of literature
which:
Advertises for sale any merchandise, product, commodity or thing;
Directs attention to any business or mercantile or commercial
establishment or other activity for the purpose of either directly
or indirectly promoting the interest thereof by sales;
Directs attention to or advertises any meeting, theatrical performance,
exhibition or event of any kind for which an admission fee is charged
for the purpose of private gain or profit, but the terms of this subsection
shall not apply where an admission fee is charged or a collection
is taken up for the purpose of defraying the expenses incident to
such meeting, theatrical performance, exhibition or event of any kind
when either of the same is held, given or takes place in connection
with the dissemination of information which is not restricted under
the ordinary rules of decency, good morals, public peace, safety and
good order, provided that nothing contained in this subsection shall
be deemed to authorize the holding, giving or taking place of any
meeting, theatrical performance, exhibition or event of any kind without
a license where such license is or may be required by any law of this
state or under any ordinance of this City; or
While containing reading matter other than advertising matter,
is predominantly and essentially an advertisement and is distributed
or circulated for advertising purposes or for the private benefit
and gain of any person so engaged as advertiser or distributor.
Putrescible animal and vegetable wastes resulting from the
handling, preparation, cooking and consumption of food.
Any used or unconsumed substance or waste material which
has been discarded, whether made of aluminum, glass, plastic, rubber,
paper, or other natural or synthetic material, or any combination
thereof, including but not limited to any bottle, jar or can, or any
top, cap or detachable tab of any bottle, jar or can; any unlighted
cigarette, cigar, match or any flaming or glowing material; or any
garbage, trash, refuse, debris, rubbish, grass clippings or other
lawn or garden waste, newspapers, magazines, glass, metal, plastic
or paper containers or other packaging or construction material.
[Amended 4-6-2005 by Ord. No. 26-2005]
Any newspaper of general circulation as defined by general
law, any newspaper duly entered with the Post Office Department of
the United States in accordance with federal statute or regulation
and any newspaper filed and recorded with any recording officer as
provided by general law, and, in addition thereto, shall include any
periodical or current magazine regularly published, with not less
than four issues per year, and sold to the public.
Any printed or written matter, any sample or device, dodger,
circular, leaflet, pamphlet, newspaper, magazine, paper, booklet or
any other printed or otherwise reproduced original or copies of any
matter of literature not included in the aforesaid definitions of
a commercial handbill or newspaper.
A park, reservation, playground, boardwalk, beach, recreation
center or any other public area in the City, owned or used by the
City and devoted to active or passive recreation.
Any person, firm, partnership, association, corporation,
company or organization of any kind.
Any dwelling, house, buildings or other structure designed
or used, either in whole or in part, for private residential purposes,
whether inhabited or temporarily or continuously uninhabited or vacant,
and shall include any yard, grounds, walk, driveway, porch, steps,
vestibule or mailbox belonging or appurtenant to such dwelling, house,
building or other structure.
Any and all streets, sidewalks, beach, boardwalk, boulevards,
alleys or other public ways and any and all public parks, squares,
spaces, grounds and buildings.
All putrescible and nonputrescible solid wastes except body
wastes, including garbage, rubbish, ashes, street cleanings, dead
animals, abandoned automobiles and solid market and industrial wastes.
Nonputrescible solid wastes consisting of both combustible
and noncombustible wastes, such as paper, wrappings, cigarettes, cardboard,
tin cans, yard clippings, leaves, wood, glass, bedding, crockery and
similar materials.
Every device in, upon or by which any person or property
is or may be transported or drawn upon a highway, including devices
used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks.
B.Â
When not inconsistent with the context, words used in the present
tense include the future; words used in the plural number include
the singular number; and words used in the singular number include
the plural number. The word "shall" is always mandatory and not merely
directory.
No person shall throw or deposit litter in or upon any street,
sidewalk, beach, boardwalk or other public place within the City,
except in public receptacles, in authorized private receptacles for
collection or in official City dumps.
Persons placing litter in public receptacles or in authorized
private receptacles shall do so in such a manner as to prevent it
from being carried or deposited by the elements upon any street, sidewalk
or other public place or upon private property.
No person shall sweep into or deposit in any gutter, street
or other public place within the City the accumulation of litter from
any building or lot or from any public or private sidewalk or driveway.
Persons owning or occupying property shall keep the sidewalk in front
of their premises free of litter.
A.Â
No person owning or occupying a place of business shall sweep into
or deposit in any gutter, street or other public place within the
City the accumulation of litter from any building or lot or from any
public or private sidewalk or driveway. Persons owning or occupying
places of business within the City shall keep the sidewalk in front
of their business premises free of litter.
B.Â
It shall also be the responsibility of persons owning or occupying
places of business within the City to keep shrubbery and tree areas
on the sidewalk in front of their business premises free of litter.
[Added 10-9-1980 by Ord. No. 89-1980]
C.Â
It shall also be the responsibility of persons owning or occupying
places of business on the boardwalk to keep the boardwalk in front
of their business premises free of litter.
[Added 8-31-1994 by Ord. No. 59-1994]
[Amended 4-6-2005 by Ord. No. 26-2005]
A.Â
No person, while a driver or passenger in a vehicle, shall throw
or deposit litter upon any street or other public place within the
City or upon private property.
B.Â
Whenever any litter is thrown or discarded or allowed to fall from
a vehicle or boat in violation of this chapter, the operator or owner,
or both, of the motor vehicle or boat shall also be deemed to have
violated this chapter.
No person shall drive or move any truck or other vehicle within
the City unless such vehicle is so constructed or loaded as to prevent
any load, contents or litter from being blown or deposited upon any
street, alley or other public place, nor shall any person drive or
move any vehicle or truck within the City, the wheels or tires of
which carry onto or deposit in any street, alley or other public place
mud, dirt, sticky substances, litter or foreign matter of any kind.
No person shall throw or deposit litter in any park within the
City except in public receptacles and in such a manner that the litter
will be prevented from being carried or deposited by the elements
upon any part of the park or upon any street or other public place.
Where public receptacles are not provided, all such litter shall be
carried away from the park by the person responsible for its presence
and properly disposed of elsewhere as provided herein.
No person shall throw or deposit litter in any fountain, pond,
ocean, stream, bay or any other body of water in a park or elsewhere
within the City.
[Amended 5-23-1984 by Ord. No. 32-1984; 8-14-1985 by Ord. No.
55-1985; 7-23-1986 by Ord. No. 40-1986; 7-22-1992 by Ord. No.
71-1992]
A.Â
No person shall throw or deposit any commercial or noncommercial handbill in or upon any sidewalk, street, Boardwalk or other public place within the City. Nor shall any person hand out or distribute or sell any commercial handbill in any public place unless the terms and conditions of Subsection B shall first be satisfied; provided, however, that it shall not be unlawful on any sidewalk, street or other public place within the City for any person to hand out or distribute, without charge to the receiver thereof, any noncommercial handbill to any person willing to accept it.
B.Â
Commercial handbills may be handed out or distributed, without charge to the receiver thereof, in public places only by persons duly authorized and licensed by the City to do so. Licensees desiring to hand out or distribute commercial handbills must first post a bond for security with the Director of the Mercantile Division, in the face amount of $10,000. If any person's activities under this chapter result in the creation of litter in the City, that person shall dispose of the litter, within 48 hours of receiving the notification provided by § 173-21. If within 48 hours the litter is not disposed of, the City shall dispose of the litter, and the person licensed under this subsection shall bear the cost of this cleanup upon receiving notice of the cost of such cleanup as provided by § 173-21. Failure to either dispose of the litter or bear the cost of cleanup shall result in a forfeiture of the bond, the proceeds of which shall be used to complete any necessary cleanup. Any cleanup cost in excess of the face amount of the bond shall be charged to the person's tax bill, pursuant to § 173-21D.
C.Â
License required; regulations.
(1)Â
Each applicant desiring to hand out or distribute commercial handbills
must also secure a mercantile license from the City to be renewed
annually at a fee of $500. The commercial handbill license shall be
issued in the business name of the applicant (whether corporation,
partnerships or sole proprietorship) and not in the name of any individual
employee and shall expire on October 31 of each year. No applicant
shall have more than three Boardwalk commercial handbill permits and
three off-Boardwalk commercial handbill permits, regardless of the
number of mercantile licenses an applicant may hold. The applicant
shall designate a maximum of 10 individuals authorized to hand out
or distribute commercial handbills in the City. Said individuals must
register their names and addresses with the mercantile licensing bureau,
which bureau will issue identification badges to said individuals.
The individual identification badge will indicate the name of the
applicant (licensee) designating the individual. Said individual must
wear his or her identification badge and the applicant's permit badge
at all times when commercial handbills are being distributed upon
the Boardwalk or off the Boardwalk.
[Amended 11-29-2006 by Ord. No. 84-2006]
(2)Â
Regulations for the Boardwalk.
(a)Â
When an individual is distributing commercial handbills on the
Boardwalk, said individual must remain in the middle area of the Boardwalk
so as not to obstruct free passage of pedestrians to adjacent stores.
For purposes of clarification, "middle of the Boardwalk" shall mean
20 feet or further from any store front.
(b)Â
Any individual distributing commercial handbills on the Boardwalk
may only do so at street ends within the area bounded by the curblines
of said streets as if extended onto the Boardwalk. No contact with
pedestrians may be initiated by a permittee outside of the area so
designated. However, where an applicant is either the owner in fee
or the lessee in possession of property having unobstructed Boardwalk
level frontage from street end to street end, all three of that applicant's
permittees may distribute commercial handbills within that area bounded
by the street ends. For purposes of this exception, only those street
ends having an adjacent address divisible equally by 100 qualifies
for this exception.
(c)Â
No more than four permittees, including no more than two permittees
of any one license holder, may operate in any street end at any one
time. The police and/or mercantile inspectors are authorized to issue
summonses to all permittees at any one location found in violation
of either provision of this subsection.
(3)Â
For purposes of this chapter, an "applicant" or a "licensee" includes
all corporations, partnerships, proprietorships, individuals or any
other form of enterprise advertising or otherwise commercially publicizing
any establishment, premises, location or business, regardless of the
number of different corporations, partnerships, proprietorships, individuals
or other forms of enterprises related to or having any interest in
the establishment, premises, location or business. The test is product
(i.e., handbill) specific.
(4)Â
It shall be unlawful for any person to stand or walk or cause or
permit any person to stand or walk on the Boardwalk, on a sidewalk
or street or in the entrance of any store or building for the purpose
of calling attention of passersby to business or commercial activity
or solicit for any such business or commercial activity or attempt
by the use of mechanical or sound making devices to entice or persuade
passersby to enter any location where a business or commercial enterprise
is being conducted.
D.Â
In addition to the penalties provided under §§ 173-22 and 170-15 through 170-17, any person violating the licensing, identification badge, location or cleanup cost provisions of this chapter shall, upon conviction in the Municipal Court of Atlantic City, be punished by an additional fine not to exceed $100. In addition to the above-described penalties and the penalties provided by § 173-22, any person convicted in the Municipal Court of the City of Atlantic City or refusing to clean up litter created by that person or his representatives, upon proper notification by the City, shall be denied a mercantile license to distribute commercial handbills under this subsection for the five years following such conviction.
No person shall throw or deposit any commercial or noncommercial
handbill in or upon any vehicle; provided, however, that it shall
not be unlawful in any public place for a person to hand out or distribute,
without charge to the receiver thereof, a noncommercial handbill to
any occupant of a vehicle who is willing to accept it.
No person shall throw or deposit any commercial or noncommercial
handbill in or upon any private premises which are temporarily or
continuously uninhabited or vacant.
No person shall throw, deposit or distribute any commercial
or noncommercial handbill upon any private premises if requested by
anyone thereon not to do so or if there is placed on said premises
in a conspicuous position near the entrance thereof a sign bearing
the words "No Trespassing," "No Peddlers or Agents," "No Advertisement"
or any similar notice indicating in any manner that the occupants
of said premises do not desire to be molested or have their right
of privacy disturbed or to have any such handbills left upon such
premises.
A.Â
No person shall throw, deposit or distribute any commercial or noncommercial
handbill in or upon private premises which are inhabited, except by
handing or transmitting any such handbill directly to the owner, occupant
or other person then present in or upon such private premises; provided,
however, that in case of inhabited private premises which are not
posted, as provided in this chapter, such person, unless requested
by anyone upon such premises not to do so, may place or deposit any
such handbill in or upon such inhabited private premises if such handbill
is so placed or deposited as to secure or prevent such handbill from
being blown or drifted about such premises or sidewalks, streets or
other public places, and except that mailboxes may not be so used
when so prohibited by federal postal law or regulations.
B.Â
The provisions of this section shall not apply to the distribution
of mail by the United States nor to newspapers as defined herein,
except that newspapers shall be placed on private property in such
a manner as to prevent their being carried or deposited by the elements
upon any street, sidewalk or other public place or upon private property.
No person in an aircraft shall throw out, drop or deposit within
the City any litter, handbill or any other object.
No person shall post or affix any notice, poster or other paper
or device, calculated to attract the attention of the public, to any
lamppost, public utility pole or shade tree or upon any public structure
or building, except as may be authorized or required by law.
No person shall throw or deposit litter on any occupied private
property within the City, whether owned by such person or not, except
that the owner or person in control of private property may maintain
authorized private receptacles for collection in such a manner that
litter will be prevented from being carried or deposited by the elements
upon any street, sidewalk or other public place or upon any private
property.
The owner or person in control of any private property shall
at all times maintain the premises free of litter; provided, however,
that this section shall not prohibit the storage of litter in authorized
private receptacles for collection.
No person shall throw or deposit litter on any open or vacant
private property within the City, whether owned by such person or
not.
A.Â
Notice to remove. The Health Department is hereby authorized and
empowered to notify the owner of any open or vacant private property
within the City or the agent of such owner to properly dispose of
litter located on such owner's property which is dangerous to the
public health, safety or welfare. Such notice shall be by registered
mail, addressed to said owner at his last known address. The Health
Department is hereby authorized and empowered to notify any person
or persons duly authorized and licensed to hand out and/or distribute
commercial handbills to dispose of any litter created as a result
of the handout or distribution of commercial handbills.
[Amended 5-23-1984 by Ord. No. 32-1984]
B.Â
Action upon noncompliance. Upon the failure, neglect or refusal of any person, owner or agent so notified to properly dispose of litter dangerous to the public health, safety or welfare within 10 days after receipt of written notice provided for in Subsection A above or within 15 days after the date of such notice in the event that the same is returned to the City Post Office Department because of its inability to make delivery thereof, provided that the same was properly addressed to the last known address of such person, owner or agent, the Health Department is hereby authorized and empowered to pay for the disposing of such litter or to order its disposal by the City.
[Amended 5-23-1984 by Ord. No. 32-1984]
C.Â
Payment of costs. When the City has effected the removal of such
dangerous litter or has paid for its removal, the actual cost thereof,
plus accrued interest at the rate of 6% per annum from the date of
the completion of the work if not paid by such owner prior thereto,
shall be charged to the owner of such property on the next regular
tax bill forwarded to such owner by the City, and said charge shall
be due and payable by said owner at the time of payment of such bill.
D.Â
Recorded statement constitutes lien. Where the full amount due the City is not paid by such owner within 30 days after the disposal of such litter as provided for in Subsections A and B above, then and in that case the Health Department shall cause to be recorded in the Tax Collector's office of the City a sworn statement showing the cost and expense incurred for the work, the date the work was done and the location of the property on which said work was done. The recordation of such sworn statement shall constitute a lien and privilege on the property and shall remain in full force and effect for the amount due in principal and interest, plus costs of court, if any, for collection, until final payment has been made. Said costs and expenses shall be collected in the manner fixed by law for the collection of taxes and, further, shall be subject to a delinquent penalty of 8% in the event that the same is not paid in full on or before the date the tax bill upon which said charge appears becomes delinquent. Sworn statements recorded in accordance with the provisions hereof shall be prima facie evidence that all legal formalities have been complied with and that the work has been done properly and satisfactorily and shall be full notice to every person concerned that the amount of the statement, plus interest, constitutes a charge against the property designated or described in the statement and that the same is due and collectible as provided by law.
[Amended 7-29-1971 by Ord. No. 27-1971; 7-22-1992 by Ord. No.
71-1992; 11-25-2008 by Ord. No. 104-2008; 5-25-2011 by Ord. No.
39-2011; 6-22-2022 by Ord. No. 27-2022]
Any person violating the provisions of this chapter, upon conviction
thereof before the Municipal Judge or other officer having jurisdiction,
shall be subject to a fine of $1,000 for a first offense and $2,000
and a period of community service in the discretion of the Court for
each subsequent offense. Upon conviction of a third and subsequent
offenses, the Court may impose a period of incarceration not to exceed
90 days for each offense.