[HISTORY: Adopted by the Township Committee of the Township
of Washington 12-15-2015 by Ord.
No. 2015-06. Amendments noted where applicable.]
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated:
The acquisition of information by use of one or more sensing
devices.
An unmanned aircraft that can fly under the control of a
remote pilot or by a geographic positions system (GPS) guided autopilot
mechanism, and that is equipped with any sensing device or capable
of any data collection.
A device capable of acquiring data from its surroundings.
Sensing devices include, but are not limited to, cameras, microphones,
thermal detectors, chemical detectors, radiation gauges, and wireless
receivers in any frequency (including cellular, WiFi, or other data
frequencies).
An unmanned vehicle or device of any size that is capable
of remote-control flight by any means and that does not possess any
sensing device and is not capable of any data collection.
A.
This chapter shall not prohibit the constitutional use of drones
and unmanned aircraft by any law enforcement agency or emergency services
organization of or servicing the Township, the County of Warren, the
State of New Jersey, or the United States government for lawful purposes
and in a lawful manner.
B.
This chapter shall not prohibit any state or federal agencies from
the use of drones and unmanned aircraft for any lawful and authorized
purpose pursuant to federal and state regulations.
C.
This chapter shall not prohibit the use of drones by not-for-profit,
licensed, or accredited educational research colleges, universities,
or scientific institutions for educational, scientific, environmental,
or resource management purposes.
D.
This chapter shall not prohibit individuals and entities from the
use of drones during daylight hours for business purposes in the airspace
within the boundary lines of private commercial or residential property
with the property owner's consent, except that data collection
shall be limited to data collection of and relating to the properties
that provide consent thereto alone.
E.
Notwithstanding the provisions of this chapter, the authorized and
lawful operation and use of drones for commercial, business, educational,
scientific, research, environmental, and personal purposes pursuant
to and in accordance with specific Federal Aviation Administration
("FAA") regulations, if any.
F.
This chapter shall not prohibit the use of unmanned aircraft by:
(1)
Any federal, state, and local agencies, including, but not limited
to, law enforcement and emergency services agencies, for lawful purposes
and in a lawful manner; or
(2)
An owner of private property in the Township in the airspace within
the boundary lines of that property or in the airspace within the
boundary lines of private property in the Township with that property
owner's consent.
A violation of this chapter shall be punishable as provided in Chapter 1, General Provisions, Article III, General Penalty.
All ordinances, or parts of ordinances, inconsistent with this
chapter are hereby repealed to the extent of such inconsistency.
If any word, phrase, clause, section, or provisions of this
chapter shall be found by any Court of competent jurisdiction to be
unenforceable, illegal, or unconstitutional, such word, phrase, clause,
section, or provision shall be severable from the balance of the ordinance
and the remainder of the ordinance shall remain in full force and
effect.
