[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Supervisors
of the Township of Uwchlan 6-6-1967 by Ord. No. 67-04[1]. Amendments noted where applicable.]
[1]
Editor's Note: This ordinance superseded former
Ord. No. 2, adopted 6-3-1957.
Unless otherwise expressly provided, the following
words shall, for purposes of this chapter, have the following meanings:
Any and all forms of waste and refuse of any type of material,
including scrap metal, junked motor vehicles, glass, industrial waste
and other salvageable material.
Any and all types of motor vehicles, including self-propelled
machinery of all kinds, with the exception of usable machinery.
Any natural person, partnership, firm, corporation or other
legal entity, including singular and plural, male and female.
The Township of Uwchlan, Chester County, Pennsylvania.
The Board of Supervisors of Uwchlan Township, Chester County,
Pennsylvania.
Any place where junk, as herein defined, is stored or accumulated.
Any premises, as herein defined, having two or more automobiles unlicensed
and/or not bearing current Pennsylvania Motor Vehicle Code inspection
sticker thereon shall in any event be deemed a junkyard.
Any parcel of land situate in Uwchlan Township, Chester County,
Pennsylvania, having a separate Tax Map parcel number for county assessment
purposes.
Any person who buys, sells, salvages, stores or in any way
deals in junk or owns, leases, operates or maintains a junkyard within
the Township.
No person shall be a junk dealer or own, lease,
operate or maintain a junkyard, as herein defined, within the Township
without first obtaining a license to operate a junkyard as a junk
dealer. The annual fee for such a license shall be as set from time
to time by resolution of the Board of Supervisors; the license shall
be effective for one calendar year only, each license terminating
on December 31 of the year for which it is issued subject to renewal
upon application. Application for a license or any renewal thereof
shall be filed in writing with the Secretary of the Board and shall
contain the applicant's sworn statement setting forth the applicant's
name and address, together with the names and addresses of all other
persons interested in the business, an accurate description of the
premises upon which the business is to be conducted and the junkyard
located, including the Chester County Tax Map parcel number, and a
statement that the applicant will comply with the ordinance and any
regulations adopted pursuant to the ordinance. Upon receipt of the
application and license fee by the Township, if the application complies
with the provisions hereof, the Secretary of the Board or the Board
shall, within 10 days, issue its license authorizing the operation
and maintenance of a junkyard upon the premises by the junk dealer,
Such license shall at all times be conspicuously displayed upon the
junkyard premises. The license shall be nontransferable both as to
the junkyard premises and junk dealer.
No person licensed under this chapter shall,
by virtue of one license, keep more than one place of business or
operate more than one place of business or maintain or operate more
than one junkyard within the Township of Uwchlan, nor shall any person
engage in business as a junk dealer or operate or maintain a junkyard
in any place other than the place designated upon his license, nor
shall any person operate upon any of the roads or highways in the
Township of Uwchlan, whether from a vehicle or upon foot, as a scavenger
or an itinerant buyer or seller of junk, except a junkyard operator
licensed hereunder or under any other appropriate Township ordinance.
Every junk dealer licensed under the chapter
shall maintain the licensed junkyard and conduct business as hereinafter
provided:
A.
All junk shall be stored behind a fence, as specified in Subsection B below, which fence shall be set back at least 50 feet from all lot lines of the premises occupied by the junkyard. Whenever such fence or any part of such fence is visible from a public road or from a residence of any adjoining property, a landscaped screen of trees and/or shrubs of varieties capable of attaining a continuous height of six feet within two years shall be planted a maximum of four feet apart along such fence or section of fence. All required open areas between fence and lot lines shall be maintained continuously in good order and free of woods and scrub growth.
B.
Every junkyard shall be completely fenced with a heavy-duty
chain-link or wire mesh fence at least six feet in height with gates
of similar fencing material, which gates shall at all times be securely
looked except during business hours when an adult attendant employed
as such is on the premises. Such fence shall have maximum openings
of four square inches, and the wire mesh shall be of a minimum size
and strength of No. 10 gauge steel wire.
C.
No junkyard shall cover an area in excess of five
acres.
D.
All junk shall be stored and set back at least 50
feet from any adjoining premises and at least 75 feet from the nearest
edge of the cartway of any public road or highway.
E.
No junkyard shall operate on Sunday nor between the
hours of 8:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m., except to remove any wrecked automobile
from any public highway.
F.
All junk shall be stored and arranged so as to permit
access by fire-fighting equipment and to prevent accumulation of stagnant
water. Junked automobiles shall be spaced in rows with at least 15
feet between each double row to permit movement of fire equipment.
Junk shall not be piled to a height of more than six feet from the
ground.
G.
All gasoline and oil shall be drained from any junked
automobile into containers and removed from the junkyard premises
within 12 hours from arrival on the said premises of the junked automobile;
provided, however, that gasoline or oil shall be stored at only one
location on the licensed premises and no more than 100 gallons in
aggregate of gasoline and oil shall be stored above ground.
H.
All weeds on any junkyard shall be kept mowed and
shall not be permitted to go to seed.
I.
An adult attendant shall at all times during business
hours remain on the junkyard premises.
J.
No garbage or organic waste shall be permitted to
be deposited or stored in any junkyard.
K.
No burning or melting of any junk shall be permitted
in any junkyard nor in the Township.
L.
Paper, rags, plastic materials and rubbish shall not
be stored outside and shall not be accumulated or remain on any junkyard
premises for more than one month.
M.
Junkyards shall at times be maintained in such a manner
as to cause no public or private nuisance nor to cause any menace
to health or safety of any persons off the premises nor to cause any
excessive or offensive or noxious sounds or odors nor to cause the
breeding, harboring or infesting of rats, rodents or vermin, nor to
cause a violation of any health or sanitation law, ordinance or regulation
of any governmental body.
N.
Permanent records of all junk received or removed
from any junkyard shall be kept by the junk dealer on the premises,
containing the name and address from whom received or delivered and
the date thereof and a description of the junk, which records shall
at all times be open to inspection by any member of the Board or its
authorized agent or any law enforcement officer.
O.
No junk shall be removed from any junkyard nor broken
up, reduced or altered in shape or form for a period of 48 hours after
the same is placed or the junkyard premises.
Any member of the Board or a duly authorized
agent thereof may at any time enter upon and inspect any premises,
in the presence of the operator or attendant, for which there is a
pending application for a junkyard license or which holds a current
junkyard license. Periodic inspections, as determined by the Board,
of all junkyards licensed pursuant to the terms of this chapter shall
be made and a written report filed of each such inspection. In making
such inspections, the Board shall ascertain whether the provisions
of this chapter are being complied with, shall note any violations
thereof, shall check the licensee's records of junk received and removed
with his inventory, shall examine the titles to all junked automobiles
on the premises and shall check into such other matters as come within
the scope of this chapter.
The Board may, from time to time, adopt regulations
to carry out the provisions of this chapter upon giving notice to
the licensees affected by such regulations.
[Amended 3-24-1997 by Ord. No. 97-05[1]]
Any person who violates or permits the violation
of any provision of this chapter shall be subject to a fine for each
violation in an amount not to exceed $1,000, plus the costs of prosecution,
including reasonable attorneys' fees. In default of payment thereof,
the defendant may be sentenced to imprisonment for a term not exceeding
90 days. A new and separate offense shall be deemed to have been committed
for each day that said violation exists. Enforcement of this chapter
shall be by action brought before a District Justice in the same manner
provided for the enforcement of summary offenses under the Pennsylvania
Rules of Criminal Procedure. The Township Solicitor may assume charge
of the prosecution without the consent of the District Attorney.
Any accumulation of garbage, rubbish or junk
in violation of the terms of this chapter shall be deemed a nuisance
and shall be removed by the owner of the property on which such accumulation
exists within 10 days of the receipt of a notice sent to the property
owner by United States certified mail by the Board or its duly authorized
agent, in default of which said accumulation may be removed by or
at the direction of the Board and the costs of such removal shall
be collected from the owner, together with the above-mentioned penalty
by summary proceedings.
The Board or any person may take any appropriate
action at law or in equity, civil or criminal, to enforce the provisions
of this chapter, and this chapter shall in no way restrict any remedies
otherwise provided by law.
Junk dealers and junkyards operating and existing
in the Township on the effective date of this chapter shall not be
required to obtain a license nor comply with the licensing provisions
prior to July 1967, and the license fee for the period ending December
31, 1967, shall be $50 only.
