[HISTORY: Adopted by the Annual Town Meeting 10-28-1997, Art. 26.
Amendments noted where applicable.]
A.
Director of Public Works. The Director of Public Works is hereby
authorized to temporarily close any street or sidewalk if, in the
opinion of the Director of Public Works, public necessity, convenience
or safety so requires.
[Amended 10-24-2006 ATM, Art. 23]
B.
Police Chief. The Chief of Police is hereby authorized to temporarily
close any street or sidewalk in an impending or existing emergency
or for any lawful assemblage, demonstration or procession, provided
that there is reasonable justification for the closing.
[Amended 10-24-2006 ATM, Art. 23]
C.
Fire Chief. The Chief of the Fire Department is hereby authorized
to temporarily close any street or sidewalk in an impending or existing
emergency, provided that there is reasonable justification for the
closing.
[Amended 10-24-2006 ATM, Art. 23]
D.
Vehicles parked in places where parking is temporarily prohibited
may be removed under the direction of a police officer to some convenient
place by an independent contractor selected by the Chief of Police,
and the owner of any vehicle so moved shall be liable for the cost
of removal and storage.
[Amended 10-24-2006 ATM, Art. 23; 10-25-2011 ATM, Art. 7]
E.
This section shall not apply to a vehicle legally parked prior to
an impending or existing emergency insofar as the cost of removal
and storage is concerned.
[Amended 5-1-2018 ATM,
Art. 24]
A.
No person shall place, permit or cause to be placed in any street
or sidewalk any merchandise, signs, furniture, tree, post, fence,
curbstone, dirt, rubbish, wood, timber, snow, ice or material of any
kind tending to obstruct or create a hazardous condition on a street
or sidewalk without first obtaining a written permit from the Director
of Public Works.
B.
Every owner or person in control of a building abutting or adjacent
to a street or sidewalk shall erect and maintain suitable barriers
or take other suitable measures to prevent the falling of snow, ice
or water from such building upon said street or sidewalk.
[Amended 10-24-2006 ATM, Art. 23; 5-1-2018 ATM, Art. 24]
No person shall break or dig up the ground in any street or
sidewalk or set up any post, fence, tree, curbstone or other obstruction
in any street or sidewalk without first obtaining a written permit
from the Director of Public Works. The term "street" shall include
any land located within the layout of the public roadway whether it
is within the paved portion of the roadway or sidewalk or not.
[Amended 10-24-2006 ATM, Art. 23]
No person shall permit horses, cattle, sheep, or other animals
upon any street unless the same are securely fastened to some safe
hitching place or in the charge of a suitable keeper, and no horse
shall be ridden on any sidewalk. (See § 8-102 relating to
dogs.)
No person, unless required by law so to do, shall, without a
written permit from the Board of Selectmen, post, display, place or
affix in any manner any sign, banner, placard, shade or awning on
or over any street or sidewalk.
[Amended 10-24-2006 ATM, Art. 23]
No person shall operate a vehicle having metal treads in any
public street, unless otherwise authorized in writing by the Director
of the Department of Public Works.
[Amended 10-24-2006 ATM, Art. 23]
No person shall discharge or cause or allow to be discharged
into any storm drain, drain, street, sewer, sewer inlet, manhole or
catch basin any water, ice, matter or anything which may tend to cause
an obstruction or hazard therein or any injury thereto. Direct or
indirect discharges from sump pumps, perimeter, foundation and area
drains into the street are prohibited.
No person shall allow any gate or door belonging to the premises
under his control and adjoining any street or sidewalk to swing on,
over or onto said street or sidewalk so as to interfere in any way
with the use of the sidewalk or street.
No person shall extinguish any streetlight or extinguish or
remove any light, warning signal or flare placed to denote an obstruction,
construction or defect in any street or sidewalk without permission
from the Director of Public Works.
Any fixture, structure or property which has been erected, placed
or left in any street or sidewalk without a permit may be moved by
or under the direction of a police officer and at the owner's
expense.
The board or officer issuing permits for the use of streets
or sidewalks may, in its discretion, demand a suitable cash deposit,
surety bond or insurance indemnity policy, to save the Town harmless
from all liability of any nature whatsoever caused directly, or indirectly
by such use of the streets or sidewalks.
No person shall enter upon the surface of any street or sidewalk
or section thereof when, by reason of construction, surface treatment,
maintenance or the like or because of some unprotected hazard, such
surface is closed to travel and one or more signs, lights or signals
have been erected to indicate that the street or sidewalk is not to
be used or when so advised by a police officer, watchman, public works
employee or other representative of the Town, either audibly or by
signals.
The Board of Health may require the owner or occupant of an
estate which drains into a private drain in a public or private way
to put such drain in good repair and condition. Such person must comply
with said order within 10 days after notice thereof. This section
is adopted under the authority of MGL c. 83, § 12, and enforcement
shall be in conformity with such chapter.
[Amended 10-24-2006 ATM, Art. 23]
All streets hereinafter laid out or proposed to be accepted
by the Town as a public way shall be at least 40 feet in width and
shall not be accepted unless a plan showing in detail the location
and grade of such way is placed on file with the Town Clerk at least
14 days before the date of the Town Meeting at which layout or acceptance
of such way as a public way is requested and unless the cross section
of such way has been constructed at least to the same specifications
as are required for street construction in the subdivision rules and
regulations promulgated by the Planning Board.[1] This section applies when the Subdivision Control Law[2] is not applicable.
A.
Permitted maintenance and repairs.
(1)
When required by public necessity and/or in the interest of
public safety, the following types of maintenance and repairs may
be performed on approved private ways at a time and in a manner determined
by the Director of Public Works or his designee:
(a)
Grading, including the furnishing of gravel, fill or other materials
as required to properly repair the roadway surface.
(b)
Maintenance, repair or replacement of drainage systems, including
piping, culverts, catch basins and other drainage structures.
(c)
Patching of potholes and heaved areas.
(d)
Crack sealing as required to preserve the integrity of the roadway
surface.
(2)
In addition, such maintenance and repairs may be undertaken
upon receipt of a petition signed by a minimum of 51% of the number
of abutters to the private way.
B.
Annual expenditure of Town funds; cash deposit; liability.
(1)
The annual expenditure of Town funds on any individual private
way for the above-listed maintenance and repairs shall not exceed
$500 per mile or portion thereof for labor and materials; provided,
however, that the Town Meeting may vote to waive this requirement
by voting a specific sum of money for a specific repair or repairs
to a specifically named and described private way.
(2)
A cash deposit shall not be required prior to undertaking these
maintenance and repairs.
(3)
Neither the Town nor its officers or employees shall be liable
on account of any damages resulting from such maintenance and repairs.
C.
List of approved private ways. A complete list of all private ways
to which this section applies shall be kept by the Town Clerk. The
Director of Public Works shall, annually, submit a list of additions
or deletions to said list to be approved by the Board of Selectmen
at least 90 calendar days before the start of the fiscal year. All
of the approved private ways shall be posted with an appropriate sign
stating "Dangerous Private Way" at the points where they enter upon
or unite with an existing public way.
A.
Authority to place and maintain signs and markings. The Board of
Selectmen is hereby authorized to place and maintain or cause to be
placed and maintained all official traffic signs, signals, markings
and safety zones. All official traffic signs, signals, markings and
other devices shall conform to the requirements of the latest edition
of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices as maintained by
the United States Department of Transportation.
[Amended 10-24-2006 ATM, Art. 23]
B.
Authority to designate bus stops. The location of all bus stops shall
be specified by the Board of Selectmen, and said Board shall designate
who may use them as such.
C.
Signs and markings to conform to state standards. All signs, signals,
markings and safety zones shall conform to the standards as prescribed
by the Highway Department of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
D.
Unlawful signs; removal. It shall be unlawful for any person to place
or maintain or display upon or in view of any street any unofficial
sign, signal, marking or device which purports to be or is an imitation
of or resembles an official traffic signal or sign. The police are
hereby empowered to remove every such prohibited sign, signal, marking
or device or cause it to be removed without notice.
E.
Tampering with signs. No person shall deface, injure, move, obstruct
or interfere with any official traffic sign, signal or marking.
No person shall form or conduct any parade in any street or
sidewalk without a written permit from the Board of Selectmen, and
no person shall take part in any such parade that is not authorized
by such permit.
No person shall move snow or ice from private property to any
street or sidewalk or move snow or ice from any street or sidewalk
to some other place on said street or sidewalk without a written permit
from the Director of Public Works.
The provisions of this chapter may be enforced pursuant to the
provisions of MGL C. 40, § 21D and § 1-109(A)
of this Code of bylaws. The penalty for the first offense shall be
a warning, the penalty for the second and all subsequent offenses
in the same calendar year shall be $25.
[Added 10-27-2015 ATM,
Art. 11]
The building located at 17 Church Street in the Village of Whitinsville
shown on the Assessor's Map 15A, parcel 135, shall be known only as
the "Whitinsville Social Library."
[Added 10-25-2005 ATM, Art. 12]
In the absence of contrary meaning established through legislative
or judicial action pursuant to MGL, Chapter 40, Section 15C, the following
terms used in this bylaw shall be defined as follows:
A.
Cutting or Removal of Trees -- Shall mean the removal of one or more
trees and/or the removal of tree limbs having a diameter greater than
four inches.
B.
Repair, Maintenance, Reconstruction, or Paving Work -- Shall mean
any work done within the right-of-way of a road by any person, or
public or private agency. This definition includes the construction
of new driveways or alteration of existing driveways that takes place
within the right-of-way.
C.
Road -- Shall mean any way used and maintained as a public way including
the vehicular traveled way plus necessary appurtenances within the
right-of-way such as bridge structures, drainage systems, retaining
walls, traffic control devices, and sidewalks. When the boundary of
the road is in question, the trees and stone walls shall be presumed
to be within the way until the contrary is shown.
D.
Tearing Down or Destruction of Stone Walls -- Shall mean the destruction
of more than 15 linear feet of stone wall involving more than one
cubic foot of wall material per linear foot above existing grade.
Tearing down or destruction of stone walls shall not be construed
to include temporary removal and replacement of walls at the same
location with the same materials. Reconstructed portions of stone
walls shall match the existing wall.
E.
Trees -- Shall include any living tree whose trunk has a diameter
of four inches or more as measured one foot above the ground level.
The purpose of this bylaw is to protect the scenic quality and
character of certain Town roads by establishing controls on alterations
that can take place within public rights-of-way.
The following roads are designated as scenic roads in the Town
of Northbridge: Castle Hill Road, a portion of Fletcher Street (from
the point 1,000 feet easterly of the most easterly line at Elm Street
and the westerly line of Keeler Road), Hill Street, Cooper Road, Kelly
Road, and Old Quaker Street. The Town may from time-to-time designate
additional roads as scenic roads.
A.
Control by the Tree Warden. Within the public right-of-way of designated
scenic roads, the Tree Warden or his designee may approve the cutting
or removal of up to three trees per 200 contiguous linear feet of
right-of-way. The Tree Warden shall not approve the cutting or removal
of trees with diameters greater than 12 inches.
B.
Control by the Planning Board. Within the public right-of-way of
designated scenic roads, the following activities shall require written
approval of the Planning Board in accordance with the provisions of
this bylaw:
a.
The tearing down, painting or destruction of stone walls;
b.
The cutting or removal of trees the scope of which is outside the
responsibility of the Tree Warden, as defined above; and
c.
Repair, maintenance, reconstruction or paving work, including the
construction of new driveways or alteration of existing ones, insofar
as they affect stone walls or trees within the public right-of-way.
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In cases where a threat to public safety does not allow sufficient
time to obtain approvals from the Tree Warden or the Planning Board,
the Planning Board must be notified within five business days of any
action which, had the threat not existed, would be a violation of
this bylaw.
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C.
Hearings. The Planning Board shall hold a public hearing within 30
days of receipt of an application, with notice given in accordance
with MGL, Chapter 40, Section 15C, and shall approve, conditionally
approve or deny an application within 60 days of receipt. In making
its decision, the Planning Board shall consider the following criteria
and shall not grant approval if the proposed action will be in violation
of one or more of them:
D.
Compensatory actions. The Planning Board may impose conditions on
the approval of an application such as the planting of new trees or
the reconstruction of stone walls. If the overall effect of the proposed
alteration, including compensatory action, is to maintain or improve
the scenic quality and character of the road, the Board may grant
approval even if the proposed action would be in violation of one
or more of the criteria set forth above.
Whenever feasible, notice shall be given, and Planning Board
hearings shall be held, in conjunction with the hearings held by the
tree warden acting under MGL, Chapter 87. The consent of the Planning
Board to a proposed action shall not be regarded as implying consent
by the Tree Warden, or vice versa. The Planning Board decision shall
contain a condition that no work should be done until all applicable
provisions of the Public Shade Tree Law, MGL, Chapter 87, have been
complied with.
The Building Inspector, Tree Warden, or others designated by
the Town Manager may issue a citation for violation of this bylaw.
A failure to respond to properly issued citations, or the issuance
of three or more citations in a twelve-month period, or failure to
take responsible compensatory action shall be construed as a major
violation. Violations shall be subject to a penalty of $100. Each
day that a violation continues shall constitute a separate offense.
The Planning Board, Conservation Commission, and the Historical
Commission may submit recommendations for additions or deletions to
the list of scenic roads. Recommendation for "scenic road" designation
must be accompanied by a written description of the characteristics
of the road that require the protection afforded by this bylaw.
