[HISTORY: Adopted by the Mayor and Borough
Council of the Borough of Berlin 6-17-1968 by Ord. No. 68-3 as
Ch. 22 of the 1968 Code. Amendments noted where applicable.]
For the purposes of this chapter, the following
terms used herein shall be deemed to mean:
Any building used for housing purposes in which a person
or persons is or are boarded, roomed or lodged, either with or without
the service of meals, for a consideration.
[Amended 11-5-2012 by Ord. No. 2012-16]
Any building, structure or place in which or at which overnight
or temporary sleeping or resting accommodations are rented, leased,
kept, operated, conducted or provided to tourists, travelers or transients
for a consideration; also, any such building or structure, or group
thereof, being devoted primarily or exclusively to the conduct and
operation of what are commonly known and designated as tourist lodges,
tourist cabins, tourist courts, motor lodges, motor courts, motels
and/or auto courts, with or without the service of meals, for a consideration.
Includes any individual, person, firm, association, partnership,
corporation and other legal entity.
[Amended 11-5-2012 by Ord. No. 2012-16]
No person shall operate, conduct and/or engage
in the business of operating and/or conducting a hotel, boardinghouse,
rooming house, lodging house, motel, tourist home, tourist lodge,
cabin or auto court, without first having applied for and obtained
from the Borough Council of the Borough of Berlin a license so to
do. No such license shall be issued to any person who has been convicted
of a crime involving moral turpitude, nor shall any such license be
issued to any corporation in which any stockholder holding 10% or
more of the stock thereof, or of which any director or officer, shall
have been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude.
A.
Each applicant for a license hereunder shall make
written application setting forth the following information in detailed
form:
(1)
The full name, residence and/or business office (including
post office) address of the applicant.
(2)
The exact location of the proposed licensed premises,
giving the street address, tax lot and block number as shown on the
official tax map, and the exact dimensions of the lands on which the
business is to be conducted.
(3)
A description of the buildings, structures and accommodations
situate upon said lands, or those proposed to be erected thereon,
including the number of housing or lodging units either erected or
proposed, together with the maximum number of persons who can be or
may be in the future accommodated at any given time, a description
of the character of the buildings or structures as to size, type of
construction and whether or not the same are or will be fireproof,
and a description of the automobile parking space and facilities.
(4)
The name and address (including post office) of the
owner of said lands and buildings.
(5)
The name or names of the person or persons on the
licensed premises designated to be designated as agent of the applicant
upon whom process may be served.
(6)
Whether any person constituting the individual or
partnership applicant, or whether the corporate applicant or any stockholder
holding 10% or more of the stock thereof, or any director or officer
thereof, has been convicted of a crime, misdemeanor or violation of
any municipal ordinance, and if so, the details thereof, including
with respect to each conviction the name of the person convicted,
the date thereof, the nature of the offense, the court in which the
conviction was had and the punishment imposed. (Traffic and motor
vehicle violations are not included herein nor required to be given.)
(7)
In the case of corporate applicants, the name and
residence of each stockholder holding 10% or more of stock of the
corporation, the name and residence of each member of the board of
directors, and the name and residence of each officer of the corporation,
and the office held.
B.
Each application shall be prepared in triplicate and
shall be signed and sworn to by the applicant; three executed copies
thereof shall be presented to the Borough Clerk, together with a certified
check or cash in the amount of the applicable license fee as fixed
herein. All physical descriptions called for above shall be accompanied
by a sketch or plan of the premises, showing all buildings and structures,
their size and location, and the parking area location or locations.
C.
Any change in any fact set forth in such application
after filing the same but before the issuance of a license shall be
communicated to the Borough Clerk within three days of such change.
No such change shall be made or permitted to occur or exist after
the issuance of a license unless the proposed change shall first be
communicated to the Borough Clerk and approved by the Borough Council.
All notifications shall be made in the same manner as the original
application.
A.
The Borough Clerk shall forthwith forward copies of
said application to the Secretary of the Board of Health and to the
Fire Chief and the Building Inspector of the Borough of Berlin, who
shall inspect the premises or cause the same to be inspected in order
to determine whether the premises complies with all Board of Health
and fire ordinances and regulations of the Borough. If the premises
does not comply, said officers shall attach to said application a
written list of failures and their recommendations and return the
same to the Borough Clerk, who shall return a copy of said application
with such list of recommendations to the applicant. If the premises
does so comply, said officers shall attach certificates thereto so
stating.
[Amended 11-20-1978 by Ord. No. 78-18]
B.
The Borough Clerk shall thereafter present said application,
with said certificates of compliance attached, to Borough Council.
Borough Council may thereupon cause to be made such further investigation
of the premises and of the information set forth in said application
as it deems necessary and advisable and shall determine whether or
not such license shall be granted.
A.
Each licensee shall procure and at all times cause
to be maintained on the licensed premises a register consisting of
a permanently bound volume of consecutively numbered pages, immediately
following the effective date of his license, and shall submit such
register to the Chief of Police of the Borough of Berlin for his approval.
The Chief of Police shall endorse the first or title page thereof
with the words "Official Register," followed by the name of the licensee,
the date of endorsement and the signature of said Chief. In the event
of the absence or disability of the Chief, the endorsement may be
made by the Acting Chief or by such other person as Borough Council
shall direct. No registration herein required to be made shall be
made in any register other than the Official Register endorsed as
aforesaid, unless and until said Official Register shall have been
completely filled. Upon the filling of any register, it shall be preserved
for not less than six years upon the licensed premises, and a new
register endorsed as aforesaid shall thereupon be used for subsequent
registrations.
B.
No person shall occupy, and no licensee shall permit
any person to occupy, any housing or lodging units on the licensed
premises unless the person renting such housing or lodging unit shall
first:
(1)
Display to the licensee or to his duly authorized
agent or employee in charge of the Official Register, written evidence
of his or her identity and residence and, in addition thereto, the
official state registration certificate of the motor vehicle, if any
is then being used by the registrant, and enter such information in
registrant's handwriting, in ink, in said Official Register; and
(2)
Write in the Official Register immediately following
his registration, in ink, the full and true name, address and relationship,
if any, to the registrant of every other person who is to occupy such
housing or lodging unit, together with the make, year and state license
or registration number of the motor vehicle then being used by such
registrant.
C.
Thereafter, the licensee shall cause to be entered in the Official Register, in ink, the number or name of the housing or lodging unit assigned to each such registrant, the date and hour of registration, a brief description or designation of the identification displayed to the licensee by the registrant pursuant to § 98-5B(1) hereof, the signature of the agent or employee of licensee making or accepting the registration, together with the date of such registration and thereafter the date when the occupant or occupants of each housing or lodging unit quits and surrenders the same.
D.
The Official Register shall be kept and preserved
by the licensee and shall be available on request at any hour of the
day or night to any law enforcement officer.
The license required by this chapter, together
with a copy of this chapter, shall be posted in a conspicuous place
in the lobby or main entrance hall of every licensed premises.
A.
No premises shall be operated or conducted as licensed
premises hereunder which does not provide at least one single and
separate lavatory for each four sleeping rooms or fraction thereof.
B.
The least horizontal dimensions of every sleeping
room in licensed premises hereunder shall be not less than seven feet,
and every such room shall have a floor area of not less than 70 square
feet.
C.
Every room in any licensed premises hereunder which
is occupied or is intended, arranged or designed to be occupied for
sleeping purposes shall be of such size as to provide at least 250
cubic feet of airspace for each person 12 years of age and older,
and at least 200 cubic feet of airspace for each child under 12 years
of age. No greater number of occupants than so determined shall be
permitted to sleep in any one room. No room in any licensed premises
shall be used or occupied by more than four persons over the age of
15 years, for sleeping purposes, at any one time. No such room shall
be used for sleeping purposes which does not open to the outside of
the building on a street, alley, yard or court; each such sleeping
room shall have at least one window not less than eight square feet
in area and one door for ingress and egress.
D.
No basement, kitchen, garage, lobby, hallway or barn
shall be used or occupied for sleeping purposes; no porches shall
be so occupied unless the adjoining space or room is occupied by the
same registrant, and then only if the cubic content and floor space
thereof shall comply with all provisions of this chapter.
E.
No gas, coal or electric range or stove or any other
apparatus or appliance shall be used for cooking or the preparation
of food, or be installed, in any room or unit in any licensed premises
which is occupied or is intended, arranged or designed to be occupied
for sleeping purposes, nor shall any food be cooked, prepared or stored
in any such room or unit.
F.
No licensee hereunder shall let, underlet, rent or
permit any licensed premises or any part thereof for the purpose of
being occupied by any registrant with the privilege of installing
in any room occupied or intended, arranged or designed to be occupied
as a sleeping room, any gas, coal or electric range or stove or any
other apparatus or appliance to be used for the purpose of cooking,
storing or preparing food.
G.
No registrant hereunder or occupant of any licensed
premises shall store food or cook or otherwise prepare food in any
room in such licensed premises which is occupied or intended, arranged
or designed to be occupied for sleeping purposes.
H.
Every licensed premises in the Borough of Berlin providing
accommodations for persons on and above the third floor thereof shall
be provided with some means of escape in the event of fire, other
than one stairway leading to such accommodations.
[Amended 11-20-1978 by Ord. No. 78-18; 7-19-2004 by Ord. No. 2004-13; 11-5-2012 by Ord. No.
2012-16]
The annual fee for a license to engage in the
business of conducting, operating or maintaining a licensed premises
hereunder shall be the sum of $50 for each unit of a licensed premises.
All licenses issued hereunder shall be for the calendar year or fraction
thereof.
Any person violating the terms of this chapter
or refusing or neglecting to comply with any of its provisions shall,
upon conviction thereof, be subject to a fine of not more than $200
or imprisonment in the County Jail at Camden, New Jersey, for a period
of not more than 30 days, or both, in the discretion of the Judge
before whom such conviction is had.
