As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:
Any vehicle propelled otherwise than by muscular power, excepting such vehicles as run only upon rails or tracks.
The Police Department of the Borough of Fort Lee.
[HISTORY: Derived from Ch. III, Sec. 3-5, of the Revised General Ordinances of the Borough of Fort Lee, 1978, adopted 3-1-1979. Amendments noted where applicable.]
It is hereby determined and declared that the placing, abandonment, leaving, keeping or storage out-of-doors of any motor vehicle not currently in use for transportation and not licensed for the current license year on public or private lands in the borough is contrary and inimical to the public welfare in that such motor 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 in that such motor vehicles so placed, abandoned, left, kept or stored out of doors, exposed to the elements, deteriorate and in themselves are unsightly and, in deteriorating, become more unsightly and are detrimental to and depreciate the value of properties in the neighborhood where they are located and in the borough as a whole.
No person shall place, abandon, leave, keep or store, or suffer or permit the placing abandoning, leaving, keeping or storage of, any motor vehicle described in § 398-1 out of doors upon any public or private land in the borough 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 building.
A.
If any motor vehicle described in § 398-1 shall be left, placed, kept or stored on private lands for 15 days or more, it shall be presumed that the owner or tenant in possession of the land left, placed, kept or stored it there or permitted or suffered it to be left, placed, kept or stored there, and that the owner of the motor vehicle has abandoned the vehicle.
Whenever it shall appear to any member of the Police Department of the borough or the Building Subcode Official of the borough that § 398-3 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 borough 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 borough, personally or by leaving it at his usual place of abode with some member of his household over the age of 14 years; but if any such owner or tenant shall reside outside the borough, the 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 the legal notice of the borough may be published and the owner or tenant shall so abate the violation within the time fixed by the notice.
A.
Whenever it shall appear to any member of the Police Department of the borough or Building Subcode Official of the borough that § 398-3 is being violated and that the violation exists on public lands or between the right-of-way lines of any public street, the motor vehicle shall be taken in possession by the Police Department and removed to a storage place designated by the Mayor and Council of the borough.
B.
Upon the taking into possession of such motor vehicle the Police Department shall follow the procedures established by Title 39, Chapter 10A, of the Revised Statutes of New Jersey to sell such vehicles at public auction.
This chapter shall not apply to lawfully operated junkyards or to motor vehicles kept temporarily in the operation of a business primarily conducted for the sale and repair, or either, of motor vehicles.