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Village of Buchanan, NY
Westchester County
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Trustees of the Village of Buchanan as indicated in article histories. Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Traffic Violations Bureau — See Ch. 29.
Driveways — See Ch. 73.
Streets and sidewalks — See Ch. 167.
[Adopted 7-18-1988 by part of L.L. No. 11-1988 (Ch. 48, Art. II, of the 1971 Code)]
In accordance with § 189-12 of Article II of this chapter, the Village Board of Trustees shall hereafter, by resolution, as it sees fit, establish regulations for the parking of vehicles on the public streets in the Village of Buchanan.
All local laws heretofore adopted by the Board of Trustees of the Village of Buchanan, and all resolutions of said Board hereinafter adopted, establishing or in any other way dealing with parking of vehicles on public streets in the Village of Buchanan are herein and hereby adopted, enacted and incorporated by reference as if the same were hereinafter set forth in full and with the same force and effect as if separately stated.
The Village Clerk shall and must maintain in his or her office separate schedules of all the resolutions of the Board of Trustees dealing with the exercise of powers regarding the parking of vehicles in the Village of Buchanan set forth in § 189-12 of Article II of this chapter, as well as separate schedules of all local laws heretofore adopted by the Board of Trustees dealing with the regulation of parking on the public streets of Buchanan. Said schedules shall be public records, open to inspection by any member of the public at any time during regular business hours of the office of the Village Clerk.
Except in an emergency or when directed to do so by a policeman, no vehicle shall be stopped or left standing or parked under any of the following conditions:
A. 
In any space designated by police as "No Parking, Bus Stop" except for the purpose of taking on or discharging passengers and for such length of time only as may be necessary for such purpose.
B. 
In such manner as to obstruct the entrance of any driveway.
C. 
Within 10 feet of any crosswalk or street crossing or alley.
D. 
Within 15 feet of any fire hydrant unless personally attended by some person capable of driving, with the motor running and in a position to be moved promptly in case of emergency.
E. 
In any space designated by police as a handicapped parking area except for the purpose of taking on or discharging passengers and for such length of time only as may be necessary for such purpose.
[Amended 11-1-2016 by L.L. No. 3-2016; 1-2-2024 by L.L. No. 2-2024]
A. 
Upon the prediction of snow and ice accumulation of two or more inches of snow, no vehicle of any kind shall be allowed to remain standing/parked on any street or public highway until the snow has ended and the road has been cleared of snow. Vehicles must be relocated to off-street locations and may be parked on the Village right-of-way area directly in front of the vehicle owner's residence, except that vehicles may not be parked on any part of a street, sidewalk, or curb. All vehicles in violation of this subsection are subject to fines and/or towing at the owner's expense.
B. 
Limited parking due to snow emergencies will be announced by the Mayor or his/her designee who will publicly declare a snow emergency to exist and will notify residents via Code Red and other social media platforms including, but not limited to, the Village of Buchanan website.
A. 
Except where angle parking is authorized, every vehicle stopped, standing or parked wholly upon a two-way roadway shall be so stopped, standing or parked with the right-hand wheels of such vehicle parallel to and within 12 inches of the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway.
B. 
Except where angle parking is authorized, every vehicle stopped, standing or parked wholly upon a one-way roadway shall be so stopped, standing or parked parallel to the curb or edge of the roadway in the direction of authorized traffic movement with its right-hand wheels within 12 inches of the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway or its left-hand wheels within 12 inches of the left-hand curb or edge of the roadway.
C. 
Except where angle parking is authorized, every vehicle stopped, standing or parked partly upon a roadway shall be so stopped, standing or parked parallel to the curb or edge of the roadway. On a one-way roadway, such vehicle shall be facing in the direction of authorized traffic movement; on a two-way roadway, such vehicle shall be facing in the direction of authorized traffic movement on that portion of the roadway on which that vehicle rests.
D. 
No person shall park a vehicle upon any highway for the purpose of:
(1) 
Displaying such vehicle for sale.
(2) 
Greasing or repairing such vehicle, except for such repairs as may be necessitated by an emergency.
(3) 
Storing such vehicle. Any vehicle parked for a period of time in excess of 24 hours shall be deemed parked for the purpose of storing such vehicle.
E. 
When parking is not otherwise restricted, no person shall park a commercial vehicle upon any Village-dedicated street or highway within the Village of Buchanan for a period of in excess of three hours.
F. 
No person shall park a vehicle upon any Village-dedicated street or highway within the Village of Buchanan unless it is properly registered and the current number of plates with tag, if required, issued for the vehicle are properly displayed thereon.
G. 
No person shall park any trailer or semitrailer on any Village-dedicated street or highway within the Village of Buchanan except while loading or unloading at off-street platforms, unless such trailer or semitrailer is attached to a motor vehicle capable of towing it.
H. 
No person shall park a bus at any time on any Village-dedicated street or highway within the Village of Buchanan unless authorized by signs, except that a chartered bus may park where parking is otherwise permitted at the point of destination.
[Amended 1-2-2024 by L.L. No. 2-2024]
A. 
Any person violating any provisions under this article shall, upon conviction, be punished by a minimum fine of $50 per violation and a maximum fine not exceeding $250 for each offense.
B. 
Any person violating any of the provisions of this article as hereinbefore provided in Subsection A of this section and who, upon conviction, has been found to be a second or multiple offender of that applicable offense within 36 months of the last conviction or convictions shall be punishable by a fine which shall be no less than $100.
C. 
The owner or operator of any motor vehicle parked in violation of §§ 189-4, 189-5 and 189-6, in addition to any other penalties which may be imposed, shall be liable for any expenses incurred by the Village in towing said unlawfully parked motor vehicle, such charges not to exceed the actual cost incurred, together with any charges for storage, such storage charges being the customary fees charged by the towing company.
[Adopted 7-5-1988 by L.L. No. 12-1988 (Ch. 50 of the 1971 Code)]
This article shall be known as a law providing for safety of motor vehicle operation on Village roads and highways and for regulation, maintenance and management of vehicular safety in public places with respect to the movement of traffic, parking and ingress and egress. This article shall not apply to individual residential lots.
It is the aim of the Board of Trustees of the Village of Buchanan to promote the public health, welfare and safety of its residents by:
A. 
Regulating the use and operation of motor vehicles upon the streets, highways and public places accessory to or connected with industrial, commercial, professional, educational and recreational facilities and other services or facilities accessible to the public.
B. 
Regulating the management and maintenance of vehicular safety, avenues of access, main arteries and parking spaces for motor vehicles.
C. 
Disposing of unattended and abandoned motor vehicles in fire lanes or other public places or zones duly marked as restricted by the Police Department or any other public road or public areas similarly restricted during periods of public emergency by a Village of Buchanan agency in the interest of safety or during the winter season where the same impedes or interferes with snow removal or safe motor vehicle traffic.
D. 
Exercising the powers granted to the Board of Trustees pursuant to the Vehicle and Traffic Law of the State of New York.
E. 
Establishing a Traffic Violations Bureau.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: See Ch. 29, Traffic Violations Bureau.
A. 
The words and phrases used in this article shall, for the purposes of this article, have the meanings respectively ascribed to them by Article 1 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law of the State of New York.
B. 
As used in this article, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:
PARKING
The standing or waiting within the highway of any vehicle not actually engaged in taking up or setting down passengers or merchandise, except such vehicles as may be delayed by the stopping of traffic or other emergency.
C. 
All words, terms and phrases used herein not specifically defined in either the Vehicle and Traffic Law of the State of New York or herein shall have their usual meaning in the English language.
A. 
The registered owner of a vehicle shall be presumed to be prima facie responsible for compliance with any requirement of this article and to be prima facie responsible for any nonmoving violation hereof, except that it shall be a defense that the vehicle has been previously reported to, and recorded by, police as stolen.
B. 
The erection of a sign exercising any powers hereinbefore or hereinafter set forth shall constitute prima facie evidence of a rule, resolution or regulation duly adopted by the Board of Trustees of the Village of Buchanan and filed in the office of the Village Clerk authorizing the same.
C. 
The specification of a particular rule or regulation herein shall be presumed to be in addition to and not by way of limitation of any rules or regulations heretofore or hereafter enacted by resolution of the Board of Trustees of the Village of Buchanan or any local laws heretofore enacted by the same, dealing in any way with the matters or subjects included within the scope of this article.
The Board of Trustees of the Village of Buchanan shall hereafter, by resolution, as it sees fit, direct the appropriate Village agency to:
A. 
Order signs erected directing slow-moving traffic, trucks, buses or specified types of vehicles to use a designated lane.
B. 
Determine those highways or portions of highways which shall be marked to indicate where overtaking and passing or driving to the left of the roadway would be especially hazardous in accordance with the standards, minimum warrants and sign or marking specifications established by the State Traffic Commission.
C. 
Prohibit or regulate the operation and the stopping, standing or parking of vehicles in public parks.
D. 
Provide for the removal and storage of vehicles parked or abandoned on highways during snowstorms, floods, fires or other public emergencies or found unattended where they constitute an obstruction to traffic, or any place where stopping, standing or parking is prohibited, and for the payment of reasonable charges for such removal and storage by the owner or operator of any such vehicle.
E. 
Establish a system of truck routes upon which all trucks, tractors and tractor-trailer combinations having a gross total weight in excess of 10,000 pounds are permitted to travel and operate and excluding such vehicles and combinations from all highways except those which constitute such truck route system. Such exclusions shall not be construed to prevent the delivery or pickup of merchandise or other property along the highways from which such vehicles and combinations are otherwise excluded. Any such system of truck routes shall provide suitable connection with all state routes entering or leaving such Village.
F. 
Prohibit, restrict or regulate the operation of vehicles on any highway in the Village pursuant to, and subject to the limitations contained in, the Vehicle and Traffic Law of the State of New York.
G. 
Prohibit or regulate the turning of vehicles or specified types of vehicles at intersections or other designated locations.
H. 
Regulate the crossing of any roadway by pedestrians.
I. 
Designate any highway or any separate roadway thereof for one-way traffic.
J. 
Exclude trucks, commercial vehicles, tractors, tractor-trailer combinations and trucks in excess of any designated weight from designated highways.
K. 
Prohibit, restrict or limit the stopping, standing or parking of vehicles.
L. 
Designate safety zones.
M. 
Designate county roads and Village highways as through highways and order stop signs, flashing signals or yield signs erected on county roads or Village highways at specified entrances to such through highways or designate any intersection, except those where one or more entering highways is a state highway maintained by the state, as a stop intersection or a yield intersection and order like signs or signals at one or more entrances to such intersections.
N. 
Regulate traffic by means of traffic control signals.
O. 
Authorize angle parking on any roadway.
P. 
Prohibit, restrict or limit the stopping, standing or parking of vehicles upon property owned or leased by the Village.
Q. 
Adopt such additional reasonable ordinances, orders, rules and regulations with respect to traffic as local conditions may require, subject to the limitations contained in the various laws of the County of Westchester and the State of New York.
A. 
All local laws heretofore adopted by the Board of Trustees of the Village of Buchanan, and all resolutions of said Board hereinafter adopted, establishing or in any other way dealing with specific traffic control signals, one-way roadways, crosswalks, turning movements, stop and yield intersections, parking, both as to location and time, truck routes, pavement markings, safety zones, lane designations, truck excluded routes, vehicle speeds, etc., are herein and hereby adopted, enacted and incorporated by reference as if the same were hereinafter set forth in full and with the same force and effect as if separately stated.
B. 
Violations of the resolutions set forth in Subsection A above are hereby prohibited.
The Village Clerk shall and must maintain in his or her office separate schedules of all resolutions of the Board of Trustees dealing with the exercise of traffic control powers set forth in § 189-12, as well as separate schedules of all local laws heretofore adopted by the Board of Trustees dealing with the exercise of traffic control. Said schedules shall be public records, open to inspection by any member of the public at any time during regular business hours of the office of the Village Clerk.
The Village of Buchanan Highway Department and/or the Police Department of the Village of Buchanan shall install and maintain traffic control devices when, as and where required by direction of the Board of Trustees of the Village of Buchanan, under the provisions of this article, to make effective the provisions of said article, and may install and maintain such additional traffic control devices, by direction of the Board of Trustees of the Village of Buchanan, as the Board may deem necessary to regulate, warn or guide traffic under the Vehicle and Traffic Law of the State of New York, all subject to the provisions of §§ 1682 and 1684 of that law.
A. 
No person shall operate a motor vehicle or motorcycle upon any public highway within the Village of Buchanan at a rate of speed in excess of 30 miles per hour. This subsection shall not apply to ambulances, fire vehicles or police vehicles when on emergency trips.
B. 
The Board of Trustees of the Village of Buchanan fixes as a speed limit 15 miles per hour for all motor vehicles when traveling within school speed zones during the school noon hour, school recess or while children are going to or leaving school during opening or closing hours when such limit and zone are properly signposted. As used in this subsection, "school speed zone" means that portion of the highway passing a school building and extending not more than 300 feet along such highway in either direction from the building line of a school abutting on the highway.
A. 
It shall be unlawful for any driver of a motor vehicle to overtake and pass or drive to the left on any highway in the Village of Buchanan where it is marked on said highway by a double line.
B. 
It shall be unlawful, except in an emergency, for any driver of any motor vehicle or a motorcycle, while proceeding along any highway in the Village of Buchanan where it is marked on said highway by a double line, to drive across the double line marked on the highway surface, except where the double line consists of a solid line and a broken line and the broken line is on the same side as the vehicle.
C. 
The system of pavement markings adopted by the New York State Traffic Commission, as the same may be hereafter modified or amended, is hereby adopted and shall be applied to the streets in the Village of Buchanan where the Board of Trustees deems it necessary.
A. 
No persons shall fail, neglect or refuse to comply with any lawful instruction, direction or regulation displayed upon a post, standard, sign or device installed or placed by the Police Department for the regulation, direction or instruction of traffic in any street or public place in the Village of Buchanan.
B. 
The limitations contained in this section shall not apply to drivers of vehicles turning left into or from a private road, private drive or entrance to private property.
Except to allow another vehicle or pedestrian to cross its path or when in an emergency or when so directed by the police, no vehicle shall stop in any street except close to the curbline or pavement edge nor in such a way as to obstruct the free movement of traffic.
A. 
Entrance to the Municipal Building shall be way of Tate Avenue in said Village, and the exit therefrom shall be from Church Street.
B. 
Appropriate New York State signs shall be placed at such designated places.
A. 
Any other provision notwithstanding, any police officer of the Village of Buchanan is hereby authorized and empowered to issue or cause to be issued a summons, returnable in the Justice Court of the Village of Buchanan or any other court of competent jurisdiction, for any motor vehicle in violation of the traffic and safety provisions of this article.
B. 
Every person convicted of a traffic infraction for a violation of any provision of this article shall, for a first conviction thereof, be punished by a fine of not more than $50 or by imprisonment for not more than 15 days, or by both such fine and imprisonment; for a second such conviction within 18 months thereafter, such person shall be punished by a fine of not more than $100 or by imprisonment for not more than 45 days, or by both such fine and imprisonment; upon a third or subsequent conviction within 18 months after the first conviction, such person shall be punished by a fine of not more than $100 or by imprisonment for not more than 90 days, or by both such fine and imprisonment.
C. 
Any person committing an offense against any provision of this article shall be guilty of a violation punishable by a fine not exceeding $250 or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding 15 days, or by both such fine and imprisonment. The continuation of an offense against the provisions of this article shall constitute, for each day the offense is continued, a separate and distinct offense thereunder.
D. 
Notwithstanding any other provision of this article, any violation hereof which constitutes a misdemeanor under the Vehicle and Traffic Law shall be punished in the manner as provided by the Vehicle and Traffic Law of the State of New York.
[Added 6-17-1991 by L.L. No. 5-1991]
A. 
No person shall operate a semitrailer or semitrailer combination, as defined in § 143 of the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law, on Bleakley Avenue from its intersection with Broadway to the intersection of New York State Route 9A. This prohibition shall not apply to emergency vehicles or vehicles making local deliveries.
B. 
Any person violating this section shall be treated as having committed an offense and shall be dealt with in accordance with § 189-21C of this article.