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Borough of Watchung, NJ
Somerset County
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
[New]
This book shall be known and may be cited as the Revised General Ordinances of the Borough of Watchung, 2003, and is herein referred to as the Revision or the Code.
[New]
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, the definitions contained in this section shall apply:
ADMINISTRATOR
Shall mean the Administrator of the Borough of Watchung duly appointed pursuant to law.
BOROUGH
Shall mean the Borough of Watchung in the County of Somerset, State of New Jersey.
BOROUGH COUNCIL
Shall mean the Council of the Borough of Watchung.
CLERK or BOROUGH CLERK
Shall mean the Municipal Clerk duly appointed pursuant to law.
DEPARTMENT
Shall mean an organizational unit of the Borough government established or designated by ordinance or this Revision as a department, together with any agency or instrumentality of the Borough government assigned to such organizational unit by the Borough Council.
GOVERNING BODY
Shall mean the Mayor and Council of the Borough of Watchung.
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.
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 Borough of Watchung" 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 corporation, firm, partnership, association, organization, limited liability company or other entity, as well as an individual.
PRECEDING and FOLLOWING
Shall mean next before and next after, respectively.
PROPERTY
Shall mean real and personal property.
PUBLIC GROUNDS, PUBLIC SQUARES, PUBLIC PLACE or PUBLIC PLACES
Shall severally be construed to mean any and every public ground, public square, public park, other public place or body of water within the Borough.
REAL PROPERTY
Shall include lands, tenements and hereditaments, all rights thereto and interests therein.
RESOLUTION
Shall mean and include any act or regulation of the Borough Council required to be reduced to writing, but which may be finally passed at the meeting at which it is introduced.
SIDEWALK or WALKWAY
Shall mean that portion of a street between the curbline and the adjacent property line which has been paved with concrete or other approved material and is intended for the use of pedestrians.
STREET
Shall include a street, avenue, road, alley, lane, highway, boulevard, concourse, driveway, culvert, and crosswalk, and every class of road, square, place or municipal parking field used by the general public.
TENANT or OCCUPANT
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.
WEEK
Shall mean seven days.
YEAR
Shall mean a calendar year unless otherwise specifically provided.
[New]
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.
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 or a legal holiday, that day shall be excluded.
"Writing" and "written" 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 Revision, 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 Revision shall be deemed to refer to such statute, law or ordinance as amended, whether or not such designation is included in the citation.
[New]
CHAPTER
Shall mean one of the major divisions of the Revision, identified by an Arabic number, 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 and/or Arabic number.
[1]
Editor's Note: Penalty provision taken from N.J.S.A. 40:49-5.
[Ord. No. 02/22 ยงย 1; Ord. No. 06/12 ยงย 1]
a.ย 
Any person who shall violate any provision of the Revised General Ordinances of the Borough of Watchung or other ordinance of the Borough, 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 $2,000 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 Municipal Court.
b.ย 
Any property owner may be fined in excess of $1,200 for a housing or zoning violation, provided that prior to the imposition of a fine in excess of $1,200, the property owner is afforded a 30 day period to cure or abate the condition and is entitled to an opportunity for a hearing before the Municipal Court for an independent determination concerning the violation. Subsequent to the expiration of the 30 day period, a fine greater than $1,250 may be imposed if the Municipal Court has not determined otherwise or, upon reinspection of the property, it is determined that the abatement has not been substantially completed.
c.ย 
Any person who shall violate subsections 6-2.5, 15-1.4 or Section 15-2 shall be liable for a minimum penalty of $2,250 or a maximum penalty not exceeding $10,000.
[New]
The Borough Council 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 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 the 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 Borough Council (or Municipal Court) chooses not to impose an additional fine upon a person for a repeated violation of any municipal ordinance, in its discretion, the Council 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 Borough, for a period 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 Borough 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, may be appropriate for a particular case or violation.
[1972 Code ยงย 1-13]
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.
[1972 Code ยงย 1-9]
It shall be the duty of the Borough Clerk or someone authorized and directed by the Borough Clerk to keep up-to-date the certified copy of the book containing "The Revised General Ordinances of the Borough of Watchung, 2003" required to be filed in the office of the Borough Clerk for the use of the public. All changes in the Revision and all ordinances adopted by the Borough Council subsequent to the adoption of the Revision which the Borough Council shall adopt specifically as a part of the Revision, shall, when finally adopted, be included herein by reference until such change or new ordinances are printed as supplements to the Revised General Ordinances, at which time such supplements shall be inserted therein.
[1972 Code ยงย 1-14]
It shall be unlawful for anyone to improperly change or amend, by additions or deletions, any part or portion thereof or to alter or tamper with such Code in any manner whatsoever which will cause the law of the Borough of Watchung to be misrepresented thereby.
[1972 Code ยงย 40-1]
The Seal of the Borough of Watchung shall conform to the following impression.
001--Image-1.tif
[1972 Code ยงย 40-2]
The aforesaid design is declared to be the Seal of the Borough of Watchung.