[New]
This book shall be known and may be cited as the "Revised General Ordinances of the Township of Chatham, 1995" and may be cited as "The Code" or "The Code of the Township of Chatham".
For the purpose of this Code, and in the interpretation and application of all other ordinances heretofore or hereafter adopted, except as the context may otherwise require, the following definitions shall be used in the Code:
CLERK OR TOWNSHIP CLERK
Shall mean the Municipal Clerk duly appointed pursuant to law.
COUNTY
Shall mean the County of Morris.
DAYS
Shall mean the calendar days.
DEPARTMENT
Shall mean an organizational unit of the Township government established or designated by ordinance or otherwise, together with any agency or instrumentality of the government assigned to such organizational unit by the Township Committee.
LICENSED
Shall mean licensed in accordance with the appropriate section or chapter of this Code.
MONTH
Shall mean a calendar month unless otherwise specifically provided.
OATH
Shall be construed to include an affirmation where an affirmation may be substituted for an oath. In such cases the words swear and sworn shall be construed to be equivalent to the words affirm and affirmed.
OCCUPANT
See tenant.
OFFICER OR OFFICIAL
And the title of an officer or official shall be construed as if the words of the Township of Chatham followed it.
ORDINANCE
Shall mean any act of local legislation heretofore or hereafter adopted, and including this Code, so long as it shall have been adopted by the procedure required for the adoption of an ordinance and so long as it shall remain in force and effect pursuant to law.
OWNER
When applied to a building or land shall include any part owner, any corporation, joint owner, tenant in common, tenant in partnership, joint tenant, or tenant by the entirety, of the whole or of a part of such building or land.
PERSON
Shall mean any individual, natural persons, partnerships, joint ventures, societies, associations, clubs, trustees, trusts, corporations, or unincorporated groups, or any officers, agents, employees, servants, factors of any kind or personal representatives of any kind thereof in any capacity, acting either for himself or for any other person, under either personal appointment or pursuant to law.
PRECEDING AND FOLLOWING
Shall mean next before and next after, respectively.
PROPERTY
Shall mean real and personal property.
PUBLIC GROUNDS, PUBLIC SQUARES, PUBLIC PLACE OR PUBLIC PLACES
Shall severally be construed to mean any and every public ground, public square, public park or other public place within the Township.
SIDEWALK
Shall mean any portion of a street between the curbline and the adjacent property line, intended for the use of pedestrians, excluding parkways.
STREET
Shall include a street, avenue, road, alley, lane, highway, boulevard, concourse, driveway, culvert, sidewalk and crosswalk, and every class of road, square, place or municipal parking field used by the general public. Street shall be considered to include a sidewalk or footpath, unless the contrary is expressed or unless such construction is inconsistent with the apparent intent.
TENANT OR OCCUPANT
Applied to a building or land, shall include any person who occupies the whole or part of such building or land, whether alone or with others.
TOWNSHIP
Shall mean the Township of Chatham in the County of Morris and State of New Jersey.
TOWNSHIP COMMITTEE
Shall mean the governing body of the Township, constituted and elected pursuant to law.
WEEK
Shall mean seven days.
YEAR
Shall mean a calendar year unless otherwise specifically provided.
[New]
[New]
For the purpose of this Code and any other ordinances heretofore or hereafter adopted, except as the context may otherwise require:
The present tense includes the past and future tenses and the future, the present.
The masculine gender includes the feminine and neuter.
The singular number includes the plural and the plural, the singular.
Shall is mandatory and may is permissive.
The time within which an act is to done shall be computed by excluding the first and including the last day, and if the last day be a Sunday or a legal holiday, or a day on which the offices of the Township are closed, that day shall be excluded.
"Writing" and "written" shall include printing, typewriting and any other mode of communication using paper or similar material which is in general use, as well as legible handwriting.
And may be construed as meaning or, and or as and, if the sense requires and indicates such meaning.
Whenever a specific time is used in this Code, it shall mean the prevailing and established time in effect in the State of New Jersey during any day in any year.
Any citation of a statute, law or ordinance contained in this Code shall be deemed to refer to such statute, law or ordinance as amended, whether or not such designation is included in the citation.
"Chapter" shall mean one of the major divisions of this Code identified by an Arabic number and divided by subject matter.
"Section" shall mean a major subdivision of a chapter.
"Subsection" shall mean a subdivision of a section, identified by a decimal number.
"Paragraph" shall mean a subdivision under a subsection, identified by an alphabetical letter or Arabic number.
[New]
If any chapter, section, subsection or paragraph of this Code shall be declared to be unconstitutional, invalid or inoperative, in whole or in part, by a court of competent jurisdiction, such chapter, section, subsection or paragraph shall, to the extent that is not unconstitutional, invalid or inoperative, remain in full force and effect, and no such determination shall be deemed to invalidate the remaining chapters, sections, subsections or paragraphs of this Code.
[New; Ord. No. 2002-012 § 1; Ord. No. 2006-02 § 1]
Any person who shall violate any provision of this Code or other ordinance of the Township, where no specific penalty is provided regarding the section violated, shall, upon conviction thereof, be punishable by one or more of the following: a fine not exceeding $2,000 or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 90 days or a period of community service not exceeding 90 days at the discretion of the Judge of the Municipal Court, provided that, if the violation is a violation of housing or zoning codes, then the owner shall be provided a thirty-day period in which to cure or abate the condition and shall also be afforded an opportunity for a hearing before the Court for an independent determination concerning the violation. Subsequent to the expiration of the thirty-day period, a fine greater than $1,250 may be imposed if the Court has not determined otherwise or, upon reinspection of the property, it has determined that the abatement has not been substantially completed.
[New]
The Township Committee may prescribe that for the violation of any particular provision of the Code or of any particular ordinance at least a minimum penalty shall be imposed which shall consist of a fine which may be fixed at an amount not exceeding $100. The court before which any person is convicted of violating any ordinance or Code provision shall have power to impose any fine, term of punishment, or period of community service not less than the minimum and not exceeding the maximum fixed in the Code or such ordinance.
[New]
Any person who is convicted of violating this Code or an ordinance within one year of the date of a previous violation of the same provision of this Code or of the same ordinance and who was fined for the previous violation, shall be sentenced by a court to an additional fine as a repeat offender. The additional fine imposed by the court upon a person for a repeated offense shall not be less than the minimum or exceed the maximum fine fixed for a violation of the ordinance or Code provision, but shall be calculated separately from the fine imposed for the violation of the ordinance or Code provision.
If the Township Committee chooses not to impose an additional fine upon a person for a repeated violation of any municipal ordinance, the Committee may waive the additional fine by ordinance or resolution.
[New]
Any person convicted of the violation of any provision of this Code or any ordinance may, in the discretion of the court by which he was convicted, and in default of the payment of any fine imposed therefor, be imprisoned in the County Jail or place of detention provided by the Township, for any term not exceeding 90 days, or be required to perform community service for a period not exceeding 90 days.
[New]
Except as otherwise provided, each and every day in which a violation of any provision of this Code or any other ordinance of the Township exists shall constitute a separate violation.
[New]
The maximum penalty stated in this section is not intended to state an appropriate penalty for each and every violation. At the discretion of the Judge of the Municipal Court, any lesser penalty, including a nominal penalty or no penalty at all, may be appropriate for a particular case of violation.
[New]
Any and all additions, amendments or supplements to the Code, when passed and adopted in such form as to indicate the intent of the Township Committee to make them a part thereof, shall be deemed to be incorporated into such Code so that reference to the "Revised General Ordinances of the Township of Chatham" shall be understood and intended to include such additions and amendments. Whenever such additions, amendments or supplements to the Code shall be adopted, they shall thereafter be printed and, as provided hereunder, inserted in the looseleaf book containing the Code, as amendments and supplements thereof.
[New]
It shall be the duty of the Township Clerk, or someone authorized and directed by the Clerk, to keep up-to-date the certified copy of the book containing the Code required to be filed in the office of the Clerk for the use of the public. All changes in the Code and all ordinances adopted subsequent to the effective date of this codification, which shall be adopted specifically as part of the Code, when finally adopted, be included therein by reference until such changes or new ordinances are printed as supplements to the Code book, at which time such supplements shall be inserted therein.
[New]
Copies of the Code book containing the Code may be purchased from the Township Clerk upon the payment of a fee to be set by resolution of the Township Committee, which may also arrange, by resolution, for procedures for the periodic supplementation thereof.
[New]
It shall be unlawful to improperly change or amend, by additions or deletions, any part or portion of the Code, or to alter or tamper with this Code in any manner whatsoever which will cause the law of the Township to be misrepresented thereby.