The ordinances embraced in this and the following chapters and
sections shall constitute and be designated the "Code of Ordinances,
City of Richland Hills, Texas," and may be so cited. Such Code may
also be cited as "Richland Hills Code."
[Code 1984, ch. 1, § 1(A)]
In the construction of this Code, and of all ordinances and
resolutions passed by the city council, the following rules shall
be observed, unless such construction would be inconsistent with the
manifest intent of the city council:
The term "Charter" means the Charter of the City of Richland
Hills, Texas, as printed in part I of this volume.
The term "city" means the City of Richland Hills, in Tarrant
County, State of Texas.
The term "Code" means the Code of Ordinances of the City
of Richland Hills, Texas.
In computing any period of time prescribed or allowed by
this Code, the day of the act, event or default after which the designated
period of time begins to run shall not be included. The last day of
the period so computed shall be included, unless it is a Saturday,
a Sunday or a legal holiday, in which event the period shall run until
the end of the next day which is neither a Saturday, a Sunday nor
a legal holiday.
The terms "council" and "city council" mean the city council
of the City of Richland Hills, Texas.
The term "county" means Tarrant County, Texas.
Whenever a section of this Code requires or authorizes an
officer or employee of the city to do some act or perform some duty,
it shall be construed to authorize the officer or employee to designate,
delegate and authorize subordinates to perform the act or duty, unless
the terms of the section specifically provide otherwise.
A word importing the masculine gender only shall extend and
be applied to females and to firms, partnerships and corporations,
as well as to males.
The term "in the city" means and includes all territory over
which the city now has, or shall hereafter acquire, jurisdiction for
the exercise of its police, regulatory and other powers.
Words purporting to give authority to three or more officers
or other persons shall be construed as giving such authority to a
majority of such officers or other persons, unless it is otherwise
declared.
The term "month" means a calendar month.
Any word importing the singular number shall include the
plural, and any word importing the plural number shall include the
singular.
The term "oath" shall be construed to include an affirmation
in all cases in which by law an affirmation may be substituted for
an oath, and in such cases the terms "swear" and "sworn" shall be
equivalent to the terms "affirm" and "affirmed."
Officers, departments, boards, commissions and employees
referred to in this Code mean officers, departments, boards, commissions
and employees of the City of Richland Hills, unless the context clearly
indicates otherwise.
Whenever certain hours are named in this Code, they shall
mean Central Standard Time or Central Daylight Saving Time, as may
be officially in current use in the state.
The term "owner," applied to a building or land, includes
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
such building or land.
The term "person" shall extend and be applied to associations,
corporations, firms, partnerships and bodies politic and corporate,
as well as to individuals.
The term "personal property" includes every species of property
except real property.
The terms "preceding" and "following" mean next before and
next after, respectively.
The term "property" includes real and personal property.
The term "public place" means any public street, alley, square,
highway, grounds, or other place, or part of such place, to which
people usually resort, or have a right to resort, for business or
pleasure.
The term "real property" includes lands, tenements and hereditaments.
The term "roadway" means that portion of a highway improved,
designed or ordinarily used for vehicular travel. If a highway includes
two or more separate roadways, the term "roadway" as used in this
section shall refer to any such roadway separately but not to all
such roadways collectively.
The term "sidewalk" means any portion of the street between
the curblines, or the lateral lines of the roadway, and the adjacent
property lines, intended for the use of pedestrians.
The terms "signature" and "subscription" include a mark when
a person cannot write.
The term "state" means the State of Texas.
The terms "street" and "highway" mean the entire width between
the boundary lines of every way publicly maintained when any part
thereof is open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular
travel.
Words used in the past or present tense include the future
as well as the past and present.
The abbreviation "Vernon's Ann. Civ. St." means the latest
edition or supplement of Vernon's Annotated Civil Statutes.
The abbreviation "V.T.C.A." means the latest edition or supplement
of Vernon's Texas Codes Annotated.
The terms "written" and "in writing" include any representation
of words, letters or figures, whether by printing or otherwise.
The term "year" means a calendar year.
The catchlines of the several sections of this Code are intended
as mere catchwords to indicate the contents of the section, and shall
not be deemed or taken to be titles of such sections, or any part
of the section, nor, unless expressly so provided, shall they be so
deemed when any of such sections, including the catchlines, are amended
or reenacted.
[Code 1984, ch. 1, § 1(B)]
All references in this Code to chapters, articles, divisions
or sections are to the chapters, articles, divisions or sections of
this Code, unless otherwise specified.
[Code 1984, ch. 1, § 1(C)]
The history notes appearing in parentheses after sections of
this Code are not intended to have any legal effect, but are merely
intended to indicate the source of matter contained in the section.
References and editor's notes following certain sections of
this Code are inserted as an aid and guide to the reader and are not
controlling or meant to have any legal effect.
(a)
The provisions
appearing in this and the following chapters and sections, so far
as they are the same as those of ordinances or resolutions existing
at the time of the adoption of this Code, shall be considered as a
continuation thereof and not as new enactments.
(b)
The sections
appearing in this Code, so far as they are the same as those of the
Code of Ordinances, City of Richland Hills, Texas, 1984, shall be
considered as a continuation thereof and not as new enactments.
(a)
Nothing
in this Code or the ordinance adopting this Code shall affect any
offense or act committed or done or any penalty or forfeiture incurred
or any contract or right established or accruing before the effective
date of this Code.
(b)
Nothing
contained in this Code or the ordinance adopting this Code shall be
construed as abating any action pending under or by virtue of any
general ordinance of the city repealed in the ordinance adopting this
Code, and all general ordinances contained in this Code shall be deemed
to be continuing and not a new enactment of the same ordinance. This
Code shall not be deemed as discontinuing, abating, modifying or altering
any penalty accrued or to accrue or as affecting the liability of
any person or as waiving any right of the city under any ordinance
or section thereof in force at the time of the adoption of this Code.
Nothing in this Code or the ordinance adopting this Code shall
be construed to repeal or otherwise affect the validity of any of
the following when not inconsistent with this Code:
(1)
Any offense
or act committed or done or any penalty or forfeiture incurred before
the effective date of this Code;
(2)
Any ordinance
or resolution promising or guaranteeing the payment of money for the
city or authorizing the issuance of any bonds of the city or any evidence
of the city's indebtedness, or any contract, right, agreement, lease,
deed or other instrument or obligation assumed by the city;
(3)
Any administrative
ordinance or resolution of the city not in conflict or inconsistent
with this Code;
(4)
Any right
or franchise granted by any ordinance;
(5)
Any ordinance
or resolution dedicating, naming, establishing, locating, relocating,
opening, paving, widening, repairing, vacating, etc., any street or
public way;
(6)
Any ordinance
adopting the budget or any appropriation ordinance;
(7)
Any ordinance
levying or imposing taxes;
(8)
Any ordinance
prescribing through streets, parking and traffic regulations, speed
limits, one-way traffic, limitations on load of vehicles or loading
zones;
(9)
Any rezoning
ordinance or amendment to the zoning map or ordinance granting conditional
use permits;
(10)
Any
ordinance establishing and prescribing the street grades of any street;
(11)
Any
ordinance providing for local improvements and assessing taxes therefor;
(12)
Any
ordinance dedicating or accepting any plat or subdivision;
(13)
Any
ordinance annexing territory or excluding territory or any ordinance
extending the boundaries of the city;
(14)
Any
ordinance establishing positions, classifying positions, establishing
pension or employee benefits, or setting salaries of city officers
and employees, or any personnel regulations;
(15)
Any
temporary or special ordinance;
(16)
Any
ordinance calling an election or establishing polling places;
(17)
Any
ordinance authorizing street maintenance agreements;
(18)
Any
ordinance levying a fee, rate, deposit or charge.
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All such ordinances are recognized as continuing in full force
and effect to the same extent as if set out at length in this Code.
All ordinances are on file in the city secretary's office.
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(a)
The repeal
of an ordinance shall not revive any ordinances in force before or
at the time the ordinance repealed took effect.
(b)
The repeal
of an ordinance shall not affect any punishment or penalty incurred
before the repeal took effect, or any suit, prosecution or proceeding
pending at the time of the repeal, for any offense committed under
the ordinance repealed.
(a)
All ordinances
passed subsequent to the adoption of this Code, which amend, repeal,
or in any way affect this Code, may be numbered in accordance with
the numbering system of this Code and printed for inclusion therein.
When subsequent ordinances repeal any chapter, section, or subsection,
or any portion thereof, such repealed portions may be excluded from
the Code by omission from reprinted pages. The subsequent ordinances
as numbered and printed, or omitted in the case of repeal, shall be
prima facie evidence of such subsequent ordinances numbered or omitted
are readopted as a new Code by the city council.
(b)
Amendments
to any of the provisions of this Code shall be made by amending such
provisions by specified reference to the section number of this Code
in the following language: "That section _____ of the Code of Ordinances,
City of Richland Hills, Texas, is hereby amended to read as follows
…" The provisions shall then be set out in full as desired.
(c)
If a
new section not heretofore existing in the Code is to be added, the
following language shall be used: "That the Code of Ordinances, City
of Richland Hills, Texas, is hereby amended by adding a section, to
be numbered section _____ which section reads as follows …" The
new section shall then be set out in full as desired.
(d)
If it
is desired to delete a section from the Code of Ordinances, the following
language shall be used: "That section _____ of the Code of Ordinances,
City of Richland Hills, Texas, is hereby repealed and deleted from
the Code of Ordinances.
(e)
It is
hereby provided, however, that any subsequent ordinance which fails
to amend this Code in the manner provided for above, shall not be
deemed invalid as a result of such failure to follow the procedure
outlined in this section.
[Code 1984, ch. 1, § 1(D)]
(a)
By contract
or by city personnel, supplements to this Code shall be prepared and
printed whenever authorized or directed by the city. A supplement
to the Code shall include all substantive permanent and general parts
of ordinances passed by the city council or adopted by initiative
and referendum during the period covered by the supplement and all
changes made thereby in the Code, and shall also include all amendments
to the Charter during the period. The pages of a supplement shall
be so numbered that they will fit properly into the Code and will,
where necessary, replace pages that have become obsolete or partially
obsolete, and the new pages shall be so prepared that, when they have
been inserted, the Code will be current through the date of the adoption
of the latest ordinance included in the supplement.
(b)
In preparing
a supplement to this Code, all portions of the Code that have been
repealed shall be excluded from the Code by the omission thereof from
reprinted pages.
(c)
When
preparing a supplement to this Code, the codifier, meaning the person,
agency or organization authorized to prepare the supplement, may make
formal, nonsubstantive changes in ordinances and parts of ordinances
included in the supplement, insofar as it is necessary to do so to
embody them into a unified code; however, such changes are subject
to the approval of the city attorney. For example, the codifier may:
(1)
Organize
the ordinance material into appropriate subdivisions;
(2)
Provide
appropriate catchlines, headings and titles for sections and other
subdivisions of the Code printed in the supplement and make changes
in such catchlines, headings and titles;
(3)
Assign
appropriate numbers to sections and other subdivisions to be inserted
in the Code and, where necessary to accommodate new material, change
existing section or other subdivision numbers;
(4)
Change
the term "this ordinance" or terms of the same meaning to "this chapter,"
"this article," "this division," etc., as the case may be, or to "sections
_____ through _____" The inserted section numbers will indicate the
sections of the Code which embody the substantive sections of the
ordinance incorporated into the Code; and
(5)
Make
other nonsubstantive changes necessary to preserve the original meaning
of ordinance sections inserted into the Code, but in no case shall
the codifier make any change in the meaning or effect of ordinance
material included in the supplement or already embodied in the Code.
[Code 1984, ch. 1, § 1(E)]
(a)
It is
hereby declared to be the intention of the city council that the sections,
paragraphs, sentences, clauses and phrases of this Code are severable,
and if any phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section of this
Code shall be declared unconstitutional by the valid judgment or decree
of any court of competent jurisdiction, such unconstitutionality shall
not affect any of the remaining phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs
and sections of this Code, since such remaining provisions would have
been enacted by the city council without the incorporation in this
Code of any such unconstitutional phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph
or section.
(b)
If any
provisions of this Code or the application thereof to any person,
fact, situation or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of
this Code and the application of such provisions to other persons,
facts, situations or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.
Whenever in this Code or in any other ordinance of the city,
or in any rule, regulation or order promulgated by any officer or
agency of the city under authority duly vested in him or it, any act
is prohibited or is made or declared to be unlawful or an offense
or a misdemeanor, or whenever the doing of any act is required or
the failure to do any act is declared to be unlawful or an offense
or a misdemeanor, where no specific penalty is provided therefor,
the violation of such provision of this Code or any such ordinance,
rule, regulation or order shall be punished by a fine not exceeding
$500.00; provided, however, that for violations of any rules, ordinances
and regulations that govern fire safety, zoning and public health
and sanitation, including dumping of refuse, the maximum fine shall
not exceed $2,000.00. If the maximum penalty provided by this Code
for any such offense is greater than the maximum penalty provided
for the same or a similar offense under laws of the state, the maximum
penalty for such violation provided by state statute shall be the
maximum penalty under this Code. Except where otherwise provided,
each day any violation of this Code or of any such ordinance, rule,
regulation or order shall continue shall constitute a separate offense.
[Code 1984, ch. 1, § 1(F)]
