[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Supervisors of the Township of
Tobyhanna 12-15-1997 by Ord. No. 391.
Amendments noted where applicable.]
A.
JUNK
JUNK DEALER
JUNKYARD
PERSON
SCRAP MOTOR VEHICLES
The following terms shall have the following meanings
in this chapter:
Any discarded material or article such as is not ordinarily disposed
of as rubbish or refuse, and shall include but not be limited to scrap metal,
machinery, implements and abandoned, discarded or unused objects such as furniture,
stoves, refrigerators, freezers, cans or containers, and shall not include
any garbage or other organic waste, or any paper, rubbish, rags or other flammable
articles or materials.
Any person, as hereinafter defined, who shall engage in the business
of selling, buying, salvaging, dealing or storing junk.
Any premises used for the storage or keeping of junk, as hereinabove
defined, and shall specifically include any premises where three or more scrap
motor vehicles are kept or stored.
Any natural person, partnership, firm, association or corporation.
Unregistered, unlicensed or abandoned automobiles, trucks, trailers,
motorcycles, buses, farm machinery, or other motor vehicles which are partially
dismantled, or wrecked or junked, or held or stored for scrap or for salvage.
The words "scrap motor vehicles" shall not mean any motor vehicle classified
as an antique motor vehicle by the Motor Vehicle Code of the State of Pennsylvania;[1] said classification consisting of any self-propelled vehicle,
but not a reproduction thereof, owned and operated as an exhibition piece
or collector's item, provided that such vehicle shall have noted on its
registration record the fact that it is such a special-purpose vehicle, or
any self-propelled vehicle manufactured more than 25 years prior to the current
year, which is used for participation in club activities, exhibits, tours,
parades, occasional transportation and similar uses, but is not used for general
daily transportation.
[1]
Editor's Note: See 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 101 et seq.
B.
In this chapter, the singular shall include the plural,
and the masculine shall include the feminine and the neuter.
The unsheltered storage of scrap motor vehicles, one or more in number,
and junk, as herein defined, for a period of 10 days or more, except in licensed
junkyards, within Tobyhanna Township, Monroe County, Pennsylvania, is hereby
declared to be a nuisance, a health hazard and dangerous to the public safety.
The owner, lessee, tenant, occupant or otherwise in charge of or in
control of real premises within Tobyhanna Township upon which is stored one
or more scrapped motor vehicles and junk, as herein defined, and also the
owner, owners and/or lessees of said scrapped motor vehicles and/or junk involved
in such storage (all of whom are hereinafter referred to collectively as "owners"),
shall jointly and severally abate said nuisance by the prompt removal of said
material into completely enclosed buildings to be used for such storage purposes,
if within Tobyhanna Township, or otherwise to remove it to a location without
said Tobyhanna Township, unless such person be licensed as a junk dealer under
the provisions of this chapter. The enclosed buildings required by this chapter
to store scrapped motor vehicles and junk, as herein defined, shall be permanent
structures. The use of temporary structures or any conveyance, including,
without limitation, tractor trailers or campers, to store scrapped motor vehicles
and junk, as herein defined, is strictly prohibited.
No person shall maintain a junkyard in the Township of Tobyhanna without
first having obtained a license from the Township Supervisors, for which license
the fee shall be as set from time to time by resolution of the Board of Supervisors
for each and every calendar year, said fee to be for the use of the township.
Such license shall be renewed annually on or before the first day of January
of each year; provided, however, that in any case where a junkyard shall be
established in the township on or after the first day of July in any year,
the license fee payable by such junkyard dealer for the remainder of such
year shall be 1/2 the yearly rate.
The license provided for a junkyard shall be issued by the township
after application shall have been made therefor by the person or persons desiring
to be licensed. Such license shall state the name of the person to whom such
license is issued and the premises on which such junkyard is to be maintained.
Such license shall be posted conspicuously on the premises licensed thereunder.
The name of the licensed junk dealer and the number of the license under which
he operates shall be placed in a conspicuous place on the outside of every
motor vehicle used for collection and/or business purposes by such dealer.
No person licensed under this chapter shall, by virtue of any one license,
keep more than one place of business within the Township of Tobyhanna or maintain
more than one junkyard within the Township of Tobyhanna; nor shall any such
person engage in business as a junk dealer in any place other than the place
designated upon his license; nor shall any junkyard be maintained in any place
in the township other than the place designated upon the license; nor shall
any such person, or any other person, operate upon any of the streets or roads
of the township, whether from a vehicle or upon foot, as a scavenger or an
itinerant buyer or seller of junk.
No license issued under this chapter shall be transferable from one
person to another person except when the ownership of a licensed premises
shall change. In any such case, the new owner shall apply for a transfer of
such license to him and shall pay a transfer fee as set from time to time
by resolution of the Board of Supervisors.
Every junk dealer licensed under this chapter shall constantly maintain
the junkyard in the manner prescribed by this section as follows:
A.
Such premises shall, at all times, be maintained so as
not to constitute a nuisance or a menace to the health of the community or
of residents nearby or a place for the breeding of rodents, insects and vermin.
B.
No garbage or other organic waste and no paper, rubbish,
rags or other flammable articles or materials shall be stored in such premises.
C.
Whenever any motor vehicle shall be received in such
premises as junk, all gasoline and oil shall be drained and removed therefrom,
and none shall be permitted to remain upon the premises.
D.
The manner of storage and arrangement of junk, and the
drainage facilities of the premises, shall be such as to prevent the accumulation
of stagnant water upon the premises and to facilitate access for fire-fighting
purposes.
E.
No junkyard shall be established in any area of the township
without the approval of the Board of Supervisors, and no junkyard shall be
less than two acres in area nor shall any junkyard exceed five acres in area.
F.
No junkyard shall be established in Tobyhanna Township
unless said junkyard is excluded from the view of the general or traveling
public in said township by one of the following means: a neat-appearing closed-board
or a closed-metal fence; or a neat-appearing row of trees, shrubs, foliage
or other natural growth located and of sufficient height to exclude the view
of the general or traveling public; provided, however, that any such fence
or row of trees, shrubs, foliage or other natural growth adjoining a township
road shall be located not less than 10 feet from the edge of the township
right-of-way. For purposes of this section, the words "sufficient height"
shall be defined as not less than six feet in height.
Any person who shall violate any of the provisions of this chapter shall,
upon conviction in a summary proceeding brought in the name of the township
before a District Justice in the same manner provided for the enforcement
of summary offenses under the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure, be
sentenced to pay a fine of not less than $100 and not more than $1,000 and
costs of prosecution and, in default of such payments, shall be sentenced
to imprisonment in the county jail for not more than 90 days, provided that
each day's violation of any of the provisions of this chapter shall constitute
a separate offense.
In addition to any of the remedies provided above, any continual violations
of this chapter shall be considered a nuisance and the Township Board of Supervisors
may seek to abate said nuisance by instituting appropriate legal proceedings.
Whenever any person shall fail to abate any nuisance as set forth in this
chapter, the township may remove said junk and/or scrap motor vehicles to
a location of its selection, the expenses therefor to be payable by said person,
whether the owner of the premises or of the junk or scrap motor vehicles,
and said costs to be recoverable by the township in a suit at law.
