Borough of North Plainfield, NJ General

[Ord. #382, S 1.1; New; Ord. #90-20, S 1]

This book shall be known and may be cited as "The Revised General Ordinances of the Borough of North Plainfield (1987)," and is herein referred to as the "Revision" or "Code." Citations to various provisions in the "Code" may be made in the following manner: "N.P.R.G.O." (North Plainfield Revised General Ordinances) immediately followed by the chapter number, a hyphen, the section number, a period, the subsection number, and the paragraph letter or number.

§ 1-2 DEFINITIONS. [1]

[New; Ord. #01-16]

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:

BOROUGH: Shall mean the Borough of North Plainfield in the County of Somerset and State of New Jersey.

CLERK OR BOROUGH CLERK: Shall mean the municipal clerk duly appointed pursuant to law.

COUNCIL: Shall mean the members of the Borough Council constituted pursuant to the Charter.

DEPARTMENT: Shall mean an organizational unit of the Borough government established or designated by ordinance or this Revision as a department.

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 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 North Plainfield" 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 property.

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.

PERSONAL PROPERTY: Shall mean goods and chattels, rights and credits, moneys and effects, evidences of debt, and all written instruments by which any right to, interest in, or lien or encumbrances upon, property or any debt or financial obligation as created, acknowledged, evidenced, transferred, discharged or defeated, in whole or in part, and everything, except real property as herein defined, which may be the subject of ownership.

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 or other public place 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: 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 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: Applied to a building or land, shall include any person who occupies the whole or a part of such buildings or lands, either alone or with others.

VEHICLE: Shall mean a self-propelled device used for transportation of persons or goods over land or other surfaces and that is or is required to be registered and/or licensed by the Division of Motor Vehicles or equivalent agency as a vehicle. Vehicles include by way of example, but not by limitation, automobiles, trucks, buses, vans, sport utility vehicles, motorcycles, boats, and trailers.

WEEK: Shall mean seven days.

YEAR: Shall mean a calendar year unless otherwise specifically provided.

[1]

Editor's Note: R.S. 40:49-1 "Ordinance" and "resolution" defined. The term "ordinance" when used in this section means and includes any act or regulation of the governing body of any municipality required to be reduced to writing and read at more than one meeting thereof and published. The term "resolution" when used in this section means and includes any act or regulation of the governing body of any municipality required to be reduced to writing, but which may be finally passed at the meeting at which it is introduced.

§ 1-3 CONSTRUCTION.

[Ord. #382, S 1.2; 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" 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.

"Chapter" shall mean one of the major divisions of this Revision, identified by Arabic numbers, 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.

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.

§ 1-4 SEVERABILITY.

[Ord. #382, S 1.4; 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.

§ 1-5 GENERAL PENALTY.

§ 1-5.1 Maximum Penalty.

[Ord. #382, S 1.6; N.J.S.A. 40:69A-29]

For violation of any provision of this Code, or any other ordinance of the Borough of North Plainfield, unless a specific penalty is otherwise provided in connection with the provision violated, the maximum penalty upon conviction of the violation shall be one or more of the following: a fine not exceeding $1,000, or imprisonment in the County Jail for a period not exceeding 90 days, or a period of community service not exceeding 90 days, for each and every offense, at the discretion of the Municipal Court Judge.

§ 1-5.2 Separate Violations.

[Ord. #382, S 1.6; 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.

§ 1-5.3 Application.

[New]

The maximum penalty stated in the general penalty clause of this Section is not intended to state an appropriate penalty for each and every violation. Any lesser penalty, including a nominal penalty or no penalty at all, may be appropriate for a particular case or a particular violation.

§ 1-5.4 Minimum Penalty.

[New]

The Borough Council may prescribe that, for the violation of any particular Code provision or 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.

§ 1-6 GENERAL ORDINANCES OF THE BOROUGH OF NORTH PLAINFIELD TO BE MAINTAINED BY BOROUGH OF NORTH PLAINFIELD.

[New]

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 North Plainfield (1987)", 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 therein by reference until such change or new ordinances are printed as supplements to the General Ordinances, at which time such supplements shall be inserted therein.