[New]
This book shall be known and may be cited as "The Revised General Ordinances of the Township of Springfield (1996)" and is herein referred to as the "Revision" or "Code".
[New; Ord. No. 02-08 § I(C)]
For the purpose of this Revision and in the interpretation and application of all other ordinances heretofore or hereafter adopted, except as the context may otherwise require:
ADMINISTRATOR
Shall mean the Administrator of the Township duly appointed pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40A:9-133.
CLERK OR TOWNSHIP CLERK
Shall mean the Municipal Clerk duly appointed pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40A:9-137.
DAYS
Shall mean calendar days.
DEPARTMENT
Shall mean an organizational unit of the township government established or designated by ordinance or this Revision as a department, together with any agency or instrumentality of the township government assigned to such organizational unit by the Township Committee.
GOVERNING BODY
Shall mean the Township Committee of the Township of Springfield.
LICENSED
Shall mean licensed in accordance with the appropriate section or chapter of this Revision.
MONTH
Shall mean a calendar month unless otherwise specifically provided.
MUNICIPALITY
Shall mean the Township of Springfield in the County of Union, State of New Jersey, and any corporate successor thereof.
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."
OFFICER OR OFFICIAL AND THE TITLE OF AN OFFICER OR OFFICIAL
Shall be construed as if the words of the Township of Springfield followed it.
ORDINANCE
Shall mean any act of local legislation heretofore or hereafter adopted, and including this Revision, so long as it shall have been adopted by the procedure required for the adoption of an ordinance and so long as it shall remain in force and effect pursuant to law.
OWNER
Shall mean 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.
PERSON
Shall mean any individual, natural person, partnerships, joint ventures, societies, associations, clubs, trustees, trusts, corporations or unincorporated groups; or any officers, agents, employees, servants, factors or any kind of personal representatives of any thereof in any capacity, acting either for himself or for any other person, under either personal appointment or pursuant to law.
PRECEDING AND FOLLOWING
Shall mean next before and next after respectively.
PUBLIC GROUNDS, PUBLIC SQUARES, PUBLIC PLACE OR PUBLIC PLACES
Shall severally be construed to mean any and every public ground, public square, public park or other public place within the Township.
RESOLUTION
Shall mean an action expressing the sense or will of Township Council on a matter of special or temporary interest. It may be written as required by law or in the form of a verbal motion and may be adopted at the meeting at which it is introduced, without publication or public hearing.
STREET
Shall include a street, 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.
TENANT OR OCCUPANT,
As 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.
TOWNSHIP
Shall mean the Township of Springfield in the County of Union and State of New Jersey.
TOWNSHIP COMMITTEE OR 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.
[New; Ord. No. 02-28 §§ I(A), (C)]
For the purpose of this Revision 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.
Any non-gender neutral word will be considered to include all genders and neuter, unless otherwise required by the context thereof.
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 or a legal holiday, that day shall be excluded.
Writing and written includes 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 Revision, identified by an Arabic number, and divided by subject matter.
Article shall mean a grouping of related sections within a chapter, designated by a title and a Roman numeral.
Section shall mean a major subdivision of a chapter.
Subsection shall mean a subdivision of a section, identified by a decimal number following a section number.
Paragraph shall mean a subdivision under a subsection, identified by an alphabetical letter and/or Arabic number.
[1991 Code §§ 1-10, 1-11; Ord. No. 93-2; New]
If any chapter, section, subsection or paragraph of this Revision 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 Revision.
[1]
Editor's Note: Penalty provision in accordance with N.J.S.A. 40:49-5. Pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:49-5, as amended January 5, 2006, the adoption of the penalty of $2,000 assumes the following: Any municipality that chooses to impose a fine in an amount greater than $1,250 upon an owner for violations of housing or zoning codes shall provide a thirty-day period in which the owner shall be afforded the opportunity to cure or abate the condition and shall also be afforded an opportunity for a hearing before a court of competent jurisdiction for an independent determination concerning the violation. Subsequent to the expiration of the thirty-day period, a fine greater than $1,250 may be imposed if a court has not determined otherwise or, upon reinspection of the property, it is determined that the abatement has not been substantially completed.
[New; Ord. No. 2006-05 § 1]
For violation of any provision of this Code or other ordinance of the Township of Springfield, unless a specific penalty is otherwise provided in connection with the provision violated, the maximum penalty upon conviction of the violation shall be by one or more of the following: imprisonment in the County Jail or in any place provided by the municipality for the detention of prisoners, for any term not exceeding 90 days; or by a fine not exceeding $2,000; or by a period of community service not exceeding 90 days.
[New]
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.
[New]
Any person who enters a plea of guilty or 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, 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 Committee may waive the additional fine by ordinance or resolution.
[New]
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.
[New]
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.
[New]
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 if there is no minimum penalty set by ordinance, may be appropriate for a particular case or violation.
[1991 Code § 1-7; Ord. No. 93-2; New]
It shall be the duty of the Township Clerk or someone authorized and directed by the Township Clerk to keep up-to-date the certified copy of the book containing "The Revised General Ordinances of the Township of Springfield, 1996" required to be filed in the office of the Clerk for the use of the public. All changes in the Revision and all ordinances adopted by the Township Committee subsequent to the adoption of the Revision, which the Township Committee shall adopt specifically as a part of this Revision, shall, when finally adopted, be included therein by reference until such changes or new ordinances are printed as supplements to the Revised General Ordinances, at which time such supplements shall be inserted therein.
[1991 Code § 101-1; Ord. No. 02-28 § I(B)]
The seal heretofore provided and used by and for the Township is hereby established and continued as the seal of the Township. The seal is hereby described: The Continental soldier on the seal is indicative of the Revolutionary background of the Township and is representative of a statue erected at the Presbyterian Church in the center of the Township in commemoration of the Battle of Springfield during the Revolutionary War.