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Town of Holland, NY
Erie County
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Code
Zoning Map New Laws (2) Index Notes (7)
[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Board of the Town of Holland 1-8-2014 by L.L. No. 1-2014.[1] Amendments noted where applicable.]
[1]
Editor's Note: This chapter was originally adopted as Chapter 3, which numbering was changed to maintain the organizational structure of the Code.
This chapter of the Holland Town Code shall be known as the "Town of Holland Alarm Code."
The purpose of this chapter is to protect and promote the health, safety and general welfare of the residents of the Town of Holland by reducing the number of false alarms, via proprietary alarm systems, of fire, intrusion, holdup, emergency medical systems or other emergencies which contribute to ineffective utilization of police and fire and emergency response agencies. Such emergency responses are susceptible to high accident rates, interfere with genuine emergencies (responses) and produce unnecessary alarm noise to the surrounding community.
For the purpose of this chapter, the following words and phrases shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them by this section:
ALARM SYSTEM
A device or an assembly of equipment which is designed to detect smoke, abnormal rise in temperature, fire, water flow, medical emergency or an entry into or exit from a building, structure or facility or a holdup alarm and, by reason thereof, emits an audible response intended to alert persons outside of the premises and/or transmit a signal or message to an emergency agency, either directly or through a private or commercial relay facility.
AUTOMATIC DIALER
A device that automatically dials and relays a prerecorded message to any emergency agency or to a commercial relay facility.
EMERGENCY AGENCY
The Police Department or Fire Department, Central Fire Alarm Office, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) or other emergency dispatch center.
FALSE ALARM
An activation of an alarm system where either an emergency situation does not exist or the activator does not have a reasonable basis to believe that an emergency situation does exist.
The owners and lessees of premises having existing alarm systems shall comply with § 48-5 and § 48-6 of this chapter within 90 days of the effective date of this chapter.
A. 
No person shall install or maintain an external alarm system which does not contain an operational automatic cutoff system which turns off the external audible alarm once activated after a period not to exceed 10 minutes.
B. 
An automatic dialer connected directly to an emergency agency shall automatically disconnect and/or terminate its message after the message has been transmitted a maximum of two times. Notwithstanding the foregoing, however, the total transmission time of all messages shall not exceed five minutes.
There shall be no automatic alarm system with direct communication to any type of an emergency agency without prior written authorization from the emergency agency where the alarm terminates.
An owner or lessee of real property to which an emergency agency responds as a result of a false alarm shall pay a fee for each such response in each calendar year as follows:
A. 
Police Department response.
(1) 
First false alarm response: no charge.
(2) 
Second false alarm response: $50.
(3) 
Third or more false alarm responses: $100 each.
B. 
Fire Department response.
(1) 
First false alarm response: no charge.
(2) 
Second false alarm response: $50.
(3) 
Third or more false alarm responses: $100 each.
C. 
EMS response.
(1) 
First false alarm response: no charge.
(2) 
Second false alarm response: $50.
(3) 
Third or more false alarm responses: $100 each.
The owner or lessee of real property which received an emergency response by reason of a false alarm shall be notified, in writing, by means of first-class mail, of all false alarms, including police alarms, fire alarms and/or EMS alarms, in a calendar year. The letter shall inform the owner or lessee of the times and types of emergency responses provided to the address location and, where applicable, contain a copy of the Alarm Code and notify the owner or lessee of any charges due pursuant to § 35-7 of this chapter.
The New York State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code, the New York State Fire Code and the National Fire Prevention Association prescribe minimum standards for the maintenance and installation of all fire and smoke detector systems, including alarms generated for fire suppression systems. All such standards shall be adhered to within the Town of Holland.
Charges for false alarms shall be made to the Town Clerk of the Town of Holland at 47 Pearl Street, Holland, New York 14080, within 30 days of the mailing date of any notice provided pursuant to § 48-8 of this chapter.
Failure of a real property owner or lessee on which an alarm system is installed to pay any false alarm charges, as defined in § 48-7 of this chapter shall be deemed a violation of this chapter and may result in said real property owner or lessee, as the case may be, being served with a summons.
Any police agency serving the Town of Holland shall enforce this chapter for alarm systems which detect intrusions or holdup alarms at a building, structure or facility. The Building Safety Inspector/Zoning Enforcement Officer shall enforce this chapter for alarm systems which detect smoke, fire, water flow or abnormal rate of rise in temperature or emergency medical systems.