The book shall be known as the "Revised General Ordinances of
the Township of Union, 2001," and may be cited as the "Code" or the
"Code of the Township of Union."
For the purpose of this Code, and in the interpretation and
application of all other ordinances heretofore or hereafter adopted,
except as the context may otherwise require, the following definitions
shall be used in the Code:
COUNTY
Shall mean the County of Hunterdon.
DAYS
Shall mean the calendar days.
DEPARTMENT
Shall mean an organizational unit of the government established
or designated by ordinance or otherwise, together with any agency
or instrumentality of the government assigned to such organizational
unit by the Township Committee.
LICENSED
Shall mean licensed in accordance with the appropriate section
or chapter of this Code.
MAYOR
Shall mean the Chairman of the Township Committee duly appointed
at the organizational meeting.
MONTH
Shall mean a calendar month unless otherwise specifically
provided.
OATH
Shall be construed to include an affirmation where an affirmation
may be substituted for an oath. In such cases the words swear and
sworn shall be construed to be equivalent to the words affirm and
affirmed.
ORDINANCE
Shall mean any act of local legislation heretofore or hereafter
adopted, and including this Code, so long as it is adopted by the
procedure required for the adoption of an ordinance and so long as
it remains in force and effect pursuant to law.
OWNER
When applied to a building or land shall include any part
owner, any corporation, joint owner, tenant in common, tenant in partnership,
joint tenant or tenant by the entirety, of the whole or of a part
of such building or land.
PERSON
Shall mean any individual, natural persons, partnerships,
joint ventures, societies, associations, clubs, trustees, trusts,
corporations or unincorporated groups; or any officers, agents, employees,
servants, factors of any kind or personal representatives of any kind
thereof in any capacity, acting either for himself or for any other
person, under either personal appointment or pursuant to law.
PROPERTY
Shall mean real and personal property.
SIDEWALK
Shall mean any portion of a street between the curb line
and the adjacent property line, intended for the use of pedestrians,
excluding parkways.
STREET
Shall include an avenue, road, alley, lane, highway, boulevard,
concourse, driveway, culvert, sidewalk, and crosswalk, and every class
of road, square, place or municipal parking field used by the general
public. Street shall be considered to include a sidewalk or footpath,
unless the contrary is expressed or unless such construction is inconsistent
with the apparent intent.
TOWNSHIP
Shall mean the Township of Union in the County of Hunterdon
and State of New Jersey.
TOWNSHIP COMMITTEE
Shall mean the governing body of the Township, constituted
and elected pursuant to law.
WEEK
Shall mean seven days.
YEAR
Shall mean a calendar year unless otherwise specifically
provided.
For the purpose of this Code and any other ordinances heretofore
or hereafter adopted, except as the context may otherwise require:
The present tense includes the past and future tenses and the
future, the present.
The masculine gender includes the feminine and neuter.
The singular number includes the plural and the plural the singular.
Shall is mandatory and may is permissive.
The time within which an act is to be done shall be computed
by excluding the first and including the last day and if the last
day be a Sunday, a legal holiday, or a day on which the offices of
the Township are closed, that day shall be excluded.
Writing and written shall include printing, typewriting and
any other mode of communication using paper or similar material which
is in general use, as well as legible handwriting.
And may be construed as meaning or, and or as and, if the sense
requires and indicates such meaning.
Whenever a specific time is used in this Code, it shall mean
the prevailing and established time in effect in the State of New
Jersey during any day in any year.
Any citation of a statute, law or ordinance contained in this
Code shall be deemed to refer to such statute, law or ordinance as
amended, whether or not such designation is included in the citation.
Chapter shall mean one of the major divisions of this Code identified
by an Arabic numeral and divided by subject matter.
Section shall mean a major subdivision of a chapter.
Subsection shall mean a subdivision of a section, identified
by a decimal number.
Paragraph shall mean a subdivision under a subsection, identified
by an alphabetical letter or Arabic number.
If any chapter, section, subsection or paragraph of this Code
shall be declared to be unconstitutional, invalid, or inoperative,
in whole or in part, by a court of competent jurisdiction, such chapter,
section, subsection or paragraph shall, to the extent that it is not
unconstitutional, invalid or inoperative, remain in full force and
effect, and no such determination shall be deemed to invalidate the
remaining chapters, sections, subsections or paragraphs of this Code.
[N.J.S.A. 40:49-5]
Any person who shall violate any provision of this Code or other
ordinance of the Township, where no specific penalty is provided regarding
the section violated, shall, upon conviction thereof, be punishable
by one or more of the following: a fine not exceeding $1,000 or imprisonment
for a period not exceeding 90 days or to a period of community service
not exceeding 90 days at the discretion of the Judge of the Municipal
Court.
The Township Committee may prescribe that for the violation
of any particular provision of the Code or of any particular ordinance
at least a minimum penalty shall be imposed which shall consist of
a fine which may be fixed at an amount not exceeding $100. The Court
before which any person is convicted of violating any ordinance or
Code provision shall have power to impose any fine, term of punishment,
or period of community service not less than the minimum and not exceeding
the maximum fixed in the Code or such ordinance.
Any person who is convicted of violating this Code or an ordinance
within one year of the date of a previous violation of the same provision
of this Code or of the same ordinance and who was fined for the previous
violation, shall be sentenced by a Court to an additional fine as
a repeat offender. The additional fine imposed by the Court upon a
person for a repeated offense shall not be less than the minimum or
exceed the maximum fine fixed for a violation of the ordinance or
Code provision, but shall be calculated separately from the fine imposed
for the violation of the ordinance or Code provision.
If the Township Committee chooses not to impose an additional
fine upon a person for a repeated violation of any municipal ordinance,
the Township Committee may waive the additional fine by ordinance
or resolution.
Any person convicted of the violation of any provision of this
Code or any ordinance may, in the discretion of the Court by which
he was convicted, and in default of the payment of any fine imposed
therefor, be imprisoned in the County jail or place of detention provided
by the Township for any term not exceeding 90 days, or be required
to perform community service for a period not exceeding 90 days.
Except as otherwise provided, each and every day in which a
violation of any provision of this Code or any other ordinance of
the Township exists shall constitute a separate violation.
The maximum penalty stated in this section is not intended to
state an appropriate penalty for each and every violation. At the
discretion of the Judge of the Municipal Court, any lesser penalty,
including a nominal penalty or no penalty at all, may be appropriate
for a particular case or violation.
The provisions appearing in this Code, so far as they are the
same in substance as those of ordinances existing at the time of the
effective date of this Code, shall be considered continuations thereof
and not as new enactments.
Any and all additions, amendments or supplements to the Code,
when passed and adopted in such form as to indicate the intent of
the Township Committee 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 Union, 2001" 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 the Code, as amendments and supplements thereto.
It shall be the duty of the Municipal Clerk, or someone authorized
and directed by the Clerk, to keep up-to-date the certified copy of
the book containing the Code required to be filed in the office of
the Clerk for the use of the public. All changes in the Code and all
ordinances adopted subsequent to the effective date of this codification,
which shall be adopted specifically as part of the Code, when finally
adopted, be included therein by reference until such changes or new
ordinances are printed as supplements to the Code book, at which time
such supplements shall be inserted therein.
Copies of the Code book containing the Code may be purchased
from the Municipal Clerk upon the payment of a fee to be set by resolution
of the Township Committee, which may also arrange, by resolution,
for procedures for the periodic supplementation thereof.
It shall be unlawful to improperly change or amend, by additions
or deletions, any part or portion of the Code, or to alter or tamper
with this Code in any manner whatsoever which will cause the law of
the Township to be misrepresented thereby.