[HISTORY: Adopted by the Township Council of the Township
of Vernon as indicated in article histories. Amendments noted where
applicable.]
[Adopted 2-27-2006 by Ord. No. 06-07]
Pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:49-4, the ordinances of the Township of Vernon of a general and permanent nature adopted by the Township Council of the Township of Vernon, as revised, codified and consolidated into chapters and sections by General Code Publishers Corp., and consisting of Chapters 1 through 566, together with an Appendix, published in two volumes, are hereby approved, adopted, ordained and enacted as the "Code of the Township of Vernon," hereinafter known and referred to as the "Code."
This ordinance and the Code shall supersede all other general
and permanent ordinances enacted prior to the enactment of this Code,
except such ordinances as are hereinafter expressly saved from repeal
or continued in force.
This ordinance shall take effect immediately upon passage and
publication according to law.
A copy of the two-volume Code in loose-leaf form has been filed
in the office of the Township Clerk and shall remain there for use
and examination by the public until final action is taken on this
ordinance; and, if this ordinance shall be adopted, such copy shall
be certified to by the Clerk of the Township of Vernon by impressing
thereon the Seal of the Township, as provided by law, and such certified
copy shall remain on file in the office of the Clerk of the Township,
to be made available to persons desiring to examine the same during
all times while said Code is in effect.
Any and all additions, amendments or supplements to the Code,
when passed and adopted in such form as to indicate the intent of
the governing body to make them a part thereof, shall be deemed to
be incorporated into such Code so that reference to the "Code of the
Township of Vernon" shall be understood and intended to include such
additions and amendments. Whenever such additions, amendments or supplements
to the Code shall be adopted, they shall thereafter be printed and,
as provided hereunder, inserted in the loose-leaf book containing
said Code as amendments and supplements thereto.
The Clerk of the Township of Vernon, pursuant to law, shall
cause this Adopting Ordinance to be published, in the manner required,
in a newspaper of general circulation in the Township. Sufficient
copies of the Code shall be maintained in the office of the Clerk
for inspection by the public at all times during regular office hours.
The enactment and publication of this Adopting Ordinance, coupled
with availability of copies of the Code for inspection by the public,
shall be deemed, held and considered to be due and legal publication
of all provisions of the Code for all purposes.
It shall be the duty of the Clerk or someone authorized and
directed by the Clerk to keep up-to-date the certified copy of the
two-volume book containing the Code required to be filed in his or
her office for the use of the public. All changes in said Code and
all ordinances adopted subsequent to the effective date of this codification
which shall be adopted specifically as part of the Code shall, when
finally adopted, be included therein by reference until such changes
or new ordinances are printed as supplements to said Code book, at
which time such supplements shall be inserted therein.
Copies of the Code, or any chapter or portion of it, may be
purchased from the Clerk, or an authorized agent of the Clerk, upon
the payment of a fee to be set by the Township Council. The Clerk
may also arrange for procedures for the periodic supplementation of
the Code.
It shall be unlawful for anyone to improperly change or amend,
by additions or deletions, any part or portion of the Code or to alter
or tamper with such Code in any manner whatsoever which will cause
the law of the Township of Vernon to be misrepresented thereby. Anyone
violating this section or any part of this ordinance shall be subject,
upon conviction, to one or more of the following: a fine of not more
than $1,250, imprisonment for not more than 90 days or a period of
community service not exceeding 90 days, in the discretion of the
Judge imposing the same.
Each section of the Code and every part of each section is an
independent section or part of a section, and the holding of any section
or a part thereof to be unconstitutional, void or ineffective for
any cause shall not be deemed to affect the validity or constitutionality
of any other sections or parts thereof.
Each section of this ordinance is an independent section, and
the holding of any section or part thereof to be unconstitutional,
void or ineffective for any cause shall not be deemed to affect the
validity or constitutionality of any other sections or parts thereof.
All ordinances or parts of ordinances of a general and permanent
nature adopted and in force on the date of the adoption of this ordinance
and not contained in the Code are hereby repealed as of the effective
date of this Adopting Ordinance, except as hereinafter provided. This
ordinance specifically repeals the prior Code of the Township of Vernon,
adopted 5-20-1974.
The adoption of this Code and the repeal of ordinances provided for in § 1-12 of this ordinance shall not affect the following ordinances, rights and obligations, which are hereby expressly saved from repeal:
A.Â
Any ordinance adopted subsequent to 9-26-2005.
B.Â
Any right or liability established, accrued or incurred under any
legislative provision prior to the effective date of this ordinance
or any action or proceeding brought for the enforcement of such right
or liability.
C.Â
Any offense or act committed or done before the effective date of
this ordinance in violation of any legislative provision or any penalty,
punishment or forfeiture which may result therefrom.
D.Â
Any prosecution, indictment, action, suit or other proceeding pending
or any judgment rendered, prior to the effective date of this ordinance,
brought pursuant to any legislative provision.
E.Â
Any franchise, license, right, easement or privilege heretofore granted
or conferred.
F.Â
Any ordinance providing for the laying out, opening, altering, widening,
relocating, straightening, establishing of grade, changing of name,
improvement, acceptance or vacation of any right-of-way, easement,
street, road, highway, park or other public place or any portion thereof.
G.Â
Any ordinance or resolution appropriating money or transferring funds,
promising or guaranteeing the payment of money or authorizing the
issuance and delivery of any bond or other instruments or evidence
of the Township's indebtedness.
H.Â
Ordinances authorizing the purchase, sale, lease or transfer of property
or any lawful contract, agreement or obligation.
I.Â
The levy or imposition of taxes, assessments or charges or the approval
of the municipal budget.
J.Â
The dedication of property or approval of preliminary or final subdivision
plats.
K.Â
All currently effective ordinances pertaining to the rate and manner
of payment of salaries and compensation of officers and employees.
L.Â
Any ordinance adopting or amending the Zoning Map.
M.Â
Any ordinance relating to or establishing a pension plan or pension
fund for municipal employees.
N.Â
All franchise agreements.
A.Â
In compiling and preparing the ordinances for adoption and revision
as part of the Code pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:49-4, certain grammatical
changes and other minor changes were made in one or more of said ordinances.
It is the intention of the Township Council that all such changes
be adopted as part of the Code as if the ordinances so changed had
been previously formally amended to read as such.
B.Â
In addition, the changes, amendments or revisions as set forth in
Schedule A attached hereto and made a part hereof are made herewith,
to become effective upon the effective date of this ordinance. (Chapter
and section number references are to the ordinances as they have been
renumbered and appear in the Code.)*
*Editor's Note: Schedule A of Ordinance No. 06-07 may be
found on file in the office of the Municipal Clerk.
[Adopted 4-27-1998 by Ord. No. 98-3]
In the construction of the Code of the Township of Vernon, and
of all other ordinances of the Township, words and phrases shall be
read and construed with their context, and shall, unless inconsistent
with the manifest intent of the Township Council or unless another
or different meaning is expressly indicated, be given their generally
accepted meaning, according to the approved usage of the language.
Technical words and phrases, and words and phrases having a special
or accepted meaning in the law, shall be construed in accordance with
such technical or special and accepted meaning.
Unless otherwise expressly provided, or unless there is something
in the subject or context repugnant to such construction, or unless
inconsistent with the manifest intent of the Council, the following
words and phrases, when used in the Code of the Township of Vernon
or in any other ordinances of the Township, shall have the meanings
herein given:
The Business Administrator of the Township duly appointed
pursuant to law.
[Added 9-26-11 by Ord. No. 11-21]
"And" may be construed as meaning "or," and "or" as to "and,"
if the sense requires it.
The Mayor-Council Plan pursuant to the Optional Municipal
Charter Law, N.J.S.A. 40:69A-1 et seq., as amended and supplemented,
and any and all statutory provisions of the State of New Jersey applicable
to the Township.
[Amended 9-26-11 by Ord. No. 11-21]
The Municipal Council of the Township of Vernon.
The County of Sussex, New Jersey.
Words importing the masculine gender shall apply to females
as well as to males, and to firms, associations, bodies corporate,
and other artificial persons.
Any law or provision of law, not inconsistent with the Optional
Municipal Charter Law heretofore or hereafter enacted, which is by
its terms applicable or available to all municipalities, and the following
additional laws whether or not such additional laws are so applicable
or available to all municipalities: legislation relating to taxation,
local courts, education, health, public authorities serving more than
one municipality, and municipalities in unsound financial condition.
The Municipal Council of the Township of Vernon, duly elected
as provided by law, or such other duly authorized body as shall be
charged by law with governing the Township.
See "street," infra.
A person under 18 years of age.
A calendar month.
The Township of Vernon.
The official instrument of the state for codification of
its rules.
That body of statutory law containing revisions of the Revised
Statutes of New Jersey and known as the "New Jersey statutes," as
amended and supplemented.
Words used in the singular number include the plural, and
words used in the plural include the singular number.
Includes "affirmation"; and "swear" and "sworn" include "affirm"
and "affirmed."
See "tenant," infra.
Shall be construed as if the words "of the Township of Vernon"
followed it.
See "And."
Includes sole owner and any part owner, joint owner, tenant
in common, tenant in partnership, joint tenant, or tenant by the entirety,
of the whole or of a part of a building or land, and personal property.
"Person" includes corporations, companies, societies, firms, partnerships,
associations, organizations and any other group or entity acting as
a unit, as well as an individual.
Includes goods and chattels, rights and credits, moneys and
effects, evidences of debt, chooses in action and all written instruments
by which any right to, interest in, or lien or encumbrance upon, property
or any debt of financial obligation is created, acknowledged, evidenced,
transferred, discharged or defeated in whole or in part, and every
thing, except real property as herein defined, which may be the subject
of ownership.
Next before and next after, respectively.
Includes real and personal property.
Severally, any and every public ground, public square, public
park or other public place within the Township which is within the
jurisdiction and control of the Township, and which is or may be in
general use by all citizens, and in which all have an equal right
of passage and repassage at will.
Includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all related
rights thereto and interests therein.
That body of statutory law known as the Revised Statutes
of New Jersey (1937) containing the general and permanent laws of
the state adopted on December 20, 1937, as amended and supplemented.
Any portion of a street or highway between the curbline or
the lateral line of a shoulder, or, if none, the lateral line of the
roadway, and the adjacent property line, intended for the use of pedestrians.
The State of New Jersey.
Includes highways, roads, avenues, boulevards, courts, public
lanes, alleys, sidewalks, footpaths and all other public highways
for vehicular or pedestrian travel.
Applied to a building or land, shall include any person who
occupies the whole or part of such building or land, whether alone
or with others.
The Township of Vernon in the County of Sussex.
The governing body of the Township of Vernon.
Seven days.
Except as to signatures, "writing" and "written" include
printing and any other mode of representing words, letters, and figures.
A calendar year.
Whenever an ordinance that repeals an earlier ordinance or part
thereof is itself repealed, such repeal shall not revive the former
ordinance or part thereof, unless specific provision is made therefor.
The Seal heretofore provided and used by and for the Township
as its official seal is hereby continued as the Official Seal of the
Township.
A.Â
Whenever no specific penalty is provided in the Code of the Township
of Vernon or in any other ordinance of the Township for the punishment
of an act which is prohibited or which is declared to be unlawful
or an offense, or for the nonperformance of an act which is required
to be done, the violation of any such provision shall be punished,
as allowed by N.J.S.A. 40:69A-29, as amended, by a fine not exceeding
$2,000, or such maximum penalty as permitted under New Jersey statutes
as amended, and/or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding 90 days,
and/or a period of community service not exceeding 90 days; provided,
however, that when the maximum penalty fixed by an applicable state
statute is less, by force of said statute or by judicial construction,
than any penalty fixed in the Code of the Township of Vernon, then
the limitations of such state statute shall be applicable. In such
cases where a fine exceeding $1,250 is sought to be imposed for a
housing or zoning violation, the defendant shall be provided a period
of 30 days from the notice of violation or the summons to cure or
abate the alleged violating condition and shall have the opportunity
to appear before a court of competent jurisdiction for a hearing on
the issue. The court may impose the higher fine after the thirty-day
period if the court determines that the cure or abatement is not substantially
complete.
[Amended 2-16-2006 by Ord. No. 06-04]
B.Â
A separate offense shall be deemed committed on each day during or
on which a violation of the Code of the Township of Vernon or of any
other ordinance of the Township, punishable by fine or imprisonment,
or both, occurs or continues.
C.Â
The imposition of fine or imprisonment as punishment for a violation
of the Code of the Township of Vernon or of any other ordinances of
the Township shall not be deemed to be in lieu of any other provision
therein providing for revocation or suspension of any license or permit
issued thereunder.
D.Â
In such cases where a fine exceeding $1,250 is sought to be imposed
for a housing or zoning violation, the defendant shall be provided
a period of 30 days from the notice of violation or the summons to
cure or abate the alleged violating condition and shall have the opportunity
to appear before a Court of competent jurisdiction for a hearing on
the issue. The Court may impose the higher fine after the 30 day period
if the Court determines that the cure or abatement is not substantially
complete.
[Added 2-16-2006 by Ord.
No. 06-04]
[Added 1-22-2001 by Ord.
No. 01-01; amended in entirety 9-26-11 by Ord. No. 11-21]
Whenever the Council is authorized by any provision of general
law to appoint the members of any board, authority or commission,
such power of appointment shall be deemed to vest in the Mayor with
the advice and consent of the Council, unless the specific terms of
that general law clearly require a different appointment procedure
or appointment by resolution, in which case the appointment shall
be by the Council.
