[HISTORY: Adopted by the Township Committee of the Township
of Rochelle Park 8-19-1968 by Ord. No. 290. Amendments noted where applicable.]
The following terms, phrases and words as used in and for the purposes
of this chapter shall be deemed to have the following meanings:
Any motor vehicle found in any public street, highway or lands and not
bearing current license plates or, if bearing current license plates, remaining
stationary and unused on public streets, highways or lands for more than 10
days consecutively.
Any vehicle so disabled as to constitute an obstruction to traffic and
which the driver or person in charge thereof neglects or refuses to move.
Any motor vehicle not currently in use for transportation and not licensed
for the current year which is left, placed, kept or stored on private land
for 15 days or more shall be presumed to have been abandoned by the owner.
Any vehicle propelled otherwise than by muscular power, excepting
such vehicles as run only on rails or tracks.
An individual, firm, association, partnership or corporation.
The Police Department of the Township of Rochelle Park.
It is hereby determined and declared that the placing, abandonment,
leaving, keeping or storage out of doors of any motor vehicle not currently
used for transportation and not being licensed for the current year or any
unused machines on public or private lands in the Township of Rochelle Park
is contrary and inimical to the public welfare in that such vehicles so placed,
abandoned, left, kept or stored attract or may attract persons of tender years
who, being so attracted, may play in and about them and be injured in so doing
and that such motor vehicles so placed, abandoned, left or stored out of doors,
exposed to the elements, deteriorate and in themselves are unsightly and detrimental
to and depreciate the value of properties in the neighborhood where they are
located and in the township as a whole.
No person shall abandon or suffer or permit the abandonment of any motor vehicle as described in § 177-1 out of doors and upon any public or private land in the township or between the right-of-way side lines of any public thoroughfare therein. Nothing herein contained shall be deemed to prohibit the placing, keeping or storage of any such motor vehicle in an enclosed garage, barn or other closed building.
A.
Whenever it shall appear to any member of the Police Department of the township that § 177-3 is being violated and that the land on which the violation exists is privately owned, he shall, in writing, notify the owner or tenant in possession of the land on which the violation exists to abate the violation by removing the motor vehicle or motor vehicles constituting the violation from the township or into an enclosed garage, barn or other building within 10 days of the service of the notice, which notice shall be served upon such owner or tenant, if he resides in the township, personally, or by leaving it at his usual place of abode with some member of his household over the age of 14 years, or if any such owner or tenant shall reside outside the township, a notice shall be served upon him by registered or certified mail, addressed to him at his usual residence, if ascertainable, otherwise by notice published in the newspaper in which legal notices of the township may be published, and the said owner or tenant shall so abate the violation within the time fixed by the notice.
B.
In the event that the owner, possessor or occupant of
such land shall refuse or neglect to abate or remedy the condition complained
of and which constitutes a violation of this chapter after said 10 days' notice,
said motor vehicle shall be taken into possession by the Police Department
and removed to a storage place designated by the Township Committee of the
Township of Rochelle Park.
Whenever it shall appear to any member of the Police Department of the Township of Rochelle Park that § 177-3 is being violated and that the violation exists on public lands, between the right-of-way lines of any public street, said motor vehicle shall be taken into possession by the Police Department and removed to a storage place designated by the Township Committee of the Township of Rochelle Park.
This chapter shall not apply to a lawfully operated junkyard or to motor
vehicles kept temporarily in the operation of a business primarily conducted
for the sale and repair, or either, of motor vehicles.
[Amended 5-5-1986 by Ord.
No. 519; 12-17-2003 by Ord. No. 903-03]
Any person who shall violate the provisions of this chapter shall, upon
conviction thereof, be liable to a fine of not less than $52 nor more than
$500 or imprisonment for a term of not more than 90 days, or both, at the
discretion of the Judge.
