[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Council of
the Town of Johnston 12-10-1979 by Ord. No. 440 as Secs. 5-8 to 5-18 of
the 1979 Code. Amendments noted where applicable.]
No person shall carry on any of the businesses for which a license fee is provided in § 199-4 without first obtaining such license from the Town Council.
[Added 11-12-1985 by Ord. No. 593]
The Town Council is hereby authorized to issue
a maximum number of 20 junkyard and automobile junkyard licenses combined.
No additional licenses shall be issued until one of the authorized
licenses is surrendered to the Town or revoked by the Town Council.
The Town Council may issue and revoke, at pleasure,
licenses to all persons selling, purchasing, bartering and dealing
in junk, old metals, and any other secondhand articles, and to all
persons establishing, operating or maintaining automobile junkyards,
for a term of not exceeding one year, and may impose such conditions
and restrictions upon the license as the Town Council may deem necessary.
[Amended 5-29-1991 by Ord. No. 838; 6-14-2004 by Ord. No. 2004-9]
The license fees for secondhand dealers; automobile junkyards; foundrymen or other persons receiving old metals for the purpose of milling the same or converting the same into casting; and persons gathering junk or old metals in any bag, wagon, or cart, shall be as set forth in Chapter 125, Business Operations, Article IV.
[Added 3-8-2010 by Ord. No. 2010-6]
Each person purchasing or receiving old or used metals other
than junked automobiles or automobile parts shall maintain a record
of each purchase or receipt. The record shall include the date of
the transaction, the name, address, telephone number and signature
of the person from whom the old or used metals are purchased or received,
a description of the old or used metals, and the price paid for the
old or used metals. The records so kept shall be at the request of
law enforcement officials.
Notwithstanding the provisions of any other
section of this Code to the contrary, no person shall be granted a
license to conduct an automobile junkyard business, or for a business
concerned with the storing of old metals and junk upon any land located
within the Town, unless, at the time of the filing of the application
for the license to conduct such business, the land in question shall
be located in an area which is properly zoned for the conduct of such
business.
[Amended 6-4-2004 by Ord. No. 2004-9]
The Town Council, before granting a license
under this article to keep a shop or storehouse for the reception
of any junk, old metals, or other secondhand articles or to establish,
operate, or maintain an automobile junkyard, in any location not lawfully
occupied for such purpose at the time of the application for such
license, shall hold a public hearing, notice of which shall be posted
at least seven days but not more than 14 days prior to such hearing,
in not less than two public places in the Town, and in a newspaper
of general circulation in the Town wherein such shop, storehouse or
junkyard is to be established, operated or maintained; provided, however,
that before the local licensing authority shall post or publish notice
of a hearing, it shall collect from the applicant for such license
the cost of posting and publishing the notice.
No license shall be granted under this article
to the keeper of any shop or storehouse for the reception of any junk,
old metals, or other secondhand articles or to a person establishing,
operating or maintaining an automobile junkyard, in any location not
lawfully occupied for such purpose at the time of the application
for such license, where the owners or occupants of the greater part
of the land within 200 feet of such building or place shall file with
the Town Council their objection to the granting of such license;
provided, however, that this section shall not apply to any applicant
who is the keeper of such a shop or storehouse, or automobile junkyard,
which is being acquired under eminent domain proceedings, who is applying
for licensing within R.I.G.L. § 5-21-1, within the Town.
Any person failing to secure a license required by § 199-1 shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $500 or imprisonment not exceeding six months for any one offense. Each day of continued violation shall constitute a separate offense.
[Added 11-12-1985 by Ord. No. 595]
A.
Any person guilty of an act punishable under R.I.G.L. § 5-21-5 or under § 199-8 of this chapter shall automatically forfeit his license to operate in the Town and shall immediately upon conviction surrender his license to the Town Clerk.
B.
Failure of the guilty licensee to surrender his license
as required by this section shall be punished by a fine not exceeding
$500 or imprisonment not exceeding six months. Each day he shall fail
to surrender his license shall constitute a separate offense.
As used in this chapter, the following terms
shall have the meanings indicated:
A place where one or more unserviceable, discarded, worn
out or junked automobiles, or bodies, engines, tires, parts or accessories
thereof, are gathered together.
A.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this article except § 199-13, it shall be a misdemeanor to operate or maintain an automobile junkyard unless:
(1)
It is to be operated and maintained entirely within
a building; or unless
(2)
It is to be operated and maintained exclusively for
the purpose of salvaging the value as scrap of the material collected,
as opposed to reselling parts to be used for the purpose for which
they were originally manufactured, and is to be located in a built
up commercial or industrial area, or contiguous to a railroad siding,
or on or contiguous to docking facilities; or unless
(3)
It is:
(a)
More than 600 feet from any state highway; and
(b)
More than 300 feet from any park, bathing beach,
playground, school, church or cemetery and is not within ordinary
view therefrom; and
(c)
Is screened from view either by natural objects
or well-constructed and properly maintained fences at least six feet
high.
B.
It shall be the duty of the state police and the police
of the Town to enforce this section, and any person violating this
section shall, upon conviction for the first offense, be punished
by a fine of not less than $50 nor more than $100, or by imprisonment
for not less than 10 days nor more than 30 days, or by both such fine
and imprisonment, and shall for a second or subsequent conviction
be fined not less than $100 nor more than $500, or by imprisonment
for not less than 30 days nor more than six months, or by both such
fine and imprisonment.
No license shall be granted for an automobile
junkyard under this article unless:
A.
It is to be operated and maintained entirely within
a building; or unless
B.
It is to be operated and maintained exclusively for
the purpose of salvaging the value as scrap of the material collected,
as opposed to reselling parts to be used for the purpose for which
they were originally manufactured, and is to be located in a built
up commercial or industrial area, or contiguous to a railroad siding,
or on or contiguous to docking facilities; or unless
C.
It is:
(1)
More than 300 feet from any state highway; and
(2)
More than 300 feet from any park, bathing beach, playground,
school, church or cemetery and is not within ordinary view therefrom;
and
(3)
Screened from view either by natural objects or well-constructed
and properly maintained fences at least six feet high acceptable to
the Town and so specified on the license.
D.
Any and all automobile junkyards as described in § 199-10, including any automobile salvage yards as described in Subsection B of this section, shall further comply with the fire prevention regulations as set forth in § 172-40 of Article VII entitled “Automobile Junkyards and Salvage Yards.”
[Added 1-11-2010 by Ord. No. 2008-20]
[Amended 6-14-2004 by Ord. No. 2004-9]
The provisions of Subsections A, B and C(1) of § 199-12 and Subsection A(3)(b) of § 199-11 shall not apply to any automobile junkyard in existence and having a valid license issued pursuant to § 199-1 of this chapter and R.I.G.L. § 5-21-4 et seq. on the date of passage of this chapter.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: The ordinance from which this
section derives was passed on November 8, 1965.
