The ordinances, chapters, articles, divisions, sections and other provisions embraced in this Code of Ordinances shall constitute and be designated as the Code of Ordinances of the Town of Taos, New Mexico, and may be so cited. This code may also be cited as the Taos Municipal Code or the municipal code.
(1981 Code, sec. 1-1)
In the interpretation and construction of this code and of all ordinances of the town, the definitions and rules of construction set out in this section shall be observed, unless they are inconsistent with the manifest intent of the council or the context clearly requires otherwise:
And, or.
“And” may be read “or” and “or” may be read “and”, if the sense requires it.
Bond.
When a bond is required, an undertaking in writing shall be sufficient.
Code.
Whenever the term “code” or “this code” is used, without further qualification, it shall mean the Code of Ordinances of the Town of Taos, New Mexico, as designated in section 1.04.010 of this chapter.
Computation of time.
Whenever a notice is required to be given or an act to be done a certain length of time before any proceeding shall be had, the day on which such notice is given or such act is done shall be counted in computing the time, but the day on which such proceeding is to be had shall not be counted.
Council.
The words “town council”, “the council”, “board of trustees”, “councilmen”, “mayor and council”, “governing body”, and “governing board” shall be synonymous and shall mean the governing body of the Town of Taos, New Mexico.
County.
The County of Taos, in the State of New Mexico.
Delegation of authority.
Whenever a provision appears in this code requiring or authorizing the head of a department or other officer of the town to do some act or perform some duty, it shall be construed to authorize such department head or other officer to designate, delegate and authorize subordinates to do the required act or perform the required duty unless the terms of the provision specifically designate otherwise.
Gender.
A word importing the masculine gender only may extend and be applied to females and to firms, partnerships and corporations, as well as to males.
In the town or within the town.
Means and includes any territory within the corporate limits of the Town of Taos, New Mexico, and the police jurisdiction thereof, and any other territory over which regulatory power has been conferred on the town by general or special act, except as otherwise specified.
Joint authority.
Words purporting to give authority to three (3) 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 expressly stated.
Misdemeanor, petty misdemeanor.
The term “misdemeanor” or “petty misdemeanor” shall be construed to mean “violation of a town ordinance”, and any violation of any provision of this code is a violation of a town ordinance.
Month.
A calendar month.
Number.
Words used in the singular shall include the plural and words used in the plural shall include the singular.
Oath.
Means and includes an affirmation in all cases in which, by law, an affirmation may be substituted for an oath, and in such cases the words “swear” and “sworn” are equivalent to the words “affirm” and “affirmed”.
Officers, boards, etc.
Whenever reference is made to a particular officer, department, board, commission or other agency, such reference shall be construed as if followed by the words “of the Town of Taos, New Mexico”.
Official time standard.
Whenever particular hours are referred to, the time applicable shall be official standard time or daylight savings time, whichever may be in current use in the town.
Or, and.
“Or” may be read “and” and “and” may be read “or” in the context if the provision requires it.
Owner.
When applied to a building or land, means and 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.
Person.
Means and includes, and applies to, a firm, partnership, association, corporation, organization, club, society, group acting as a unit, or body politic and corporate, as well as to an individual.
Personal property.
Means and includes money, goods, chattels, evidences of debt, things in action, and any other species of property, except real property.
Preceding, following.
Next before and next after, respectively.
Property.
Means and includes real, personal and mixed property.
Public place.
Any public way, park, cemetery, schoolyard or open space adjacent thereto; any public lake or stream; and any place or business open to the use of the public in general, open to public view or to which the public has access.
Public way.
Any street, alley, boulevard, parkway, highway, sidewalk or other public thoroughfare.
Real property.
Means and includes lands, tenements and hereditaments.
Reasonable time.
In all cases where any section of this code or a town ordinance shall require any act to be done in a reasonable time or reasonable notice to be given, such reasonable time or notice shall be deemed to mean such time only as may be necessary for the prompt performance of such duty, or compliance with such notice.
Residence.
The place adopted by a person as his place of habitation, and to which, whenever he is absent, he has the intention of returning. When a person eats at one place and sleeps at another, the place where such person sleeps shall be deemed his residence.
Roadway.
That portion of a street improved, designed or ordinarily used for vehicular traffic.
Shall, may.
The word “shall” is mandatory, and the word “may” is discretionary.
Sidewalk.
Any portion of a street between the curb lines, or the lateral lines of a roadway where there is no curb, and the adjacent property line intended for the use of pedestrians.
Signature or subscription.
Means and includes a mark when the person cannot write, when his name is written near such mark and witnessed by a person who writes his own name as witness.
State.
The words “the state” or “this state” mean the State of New Mexico.
Street.
Means and includes public streets, avenues, boulevards, highways, roads, alleys, lanes, viaducts, bridges, public ways and approaches thereto and other public thoroughfares in the town devoted to public use, and includes any thoroughfare that can accommodate pedestrian or vehicular traffic, is open to the public and is under the control of the town.
Swear, sworn.
The words “swear” and “sworn” shall be equivalent to the words “affirm” and “affirmed” in all cases in which by law, an affirmation may be substituted for an oath.
Tenant, occupant.
Applied to a building or land, mean any person who occupies the whole or a part of such building or land, whether alone or with others.
Tense.
Words used in the past or present tense shall include the future as well as the past or present.
Town.
The Town of Taos, in the County of Taos, in the State of New Mexico.
Writing and written.
Means and includes typewriting, printing on paper and any other mode of representing words and letters.
Year.
A calendar year.
(1981 Code, sec. 1-2)
In addition to the rules of construction and definitions specified in this chapter, the following rules shall be observed in the construction of this code:
A. 
All general references to, and citations of, chapters, articles or sections mean the chapters, articles and sections of this code, unless otherwise specified.
B. 
If the provisions of different chapters of this code conflict with or contravene each other, the provisions of each chapter shall prevail as to all matters and questions pertaining to the subject matter of such chapter.
C. 
If conflicting provisions are found in different sections of the same chapter, the provision which imposes the greater restriction shall prevail, unless such construction would be inconsistent with the meaning of such chapter.
(1981 Code, sec. 1-3)
All standard codes, rules, regulations, and other subject matter herein or hereafter properly incorporated by reference, together with subsequent amendments thereto, pursuant to state law, and future incorporations by reference shall be kept and preserved in the office of the town clerk.
(1981 Code, sec. 1-4)
The matter in parentheses at the end of sections is for information only and is not a part of the code. Citations to ordinances indicate only the source of such section and the text may or may not be changed by this code. Reference matter not in parentheses is for information only and is not a part of this code.
(1981 Code, sec. 1-5)
The catchlines of the sections of this code printed in boldface type are intended as mere catchwords to indicate the contents of the sections and shall not be deemed or taken to be titles of such sections, nor as any part of any section, nor, unless expressly so provided, shall they be so deemed when any section, including its catchline, is amended or reenacted.
(1981 Code, sec. 1-6)
The police power of the town is extended to include all lands or property owned or leased by the town or any agency of the town and the general ordinances of the town shall be applicable on such property.
(1981 Code, sec. 1-7)
A. 
By contract or by town personnel, supplements to this code shall be prepared and printed whenever authorized or directed by the town council. A supplement to the code shall include all substantive parts of permanent and general ordinances passed by the town council during the period covered by the supplement and all changes made thereby in the code. The pages of a supplement shall be so numbered that they will fit properly into the code and will, where necessary, replace pages which 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 which have been replaced 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. 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 words “this ordinance” or words of the same meaning to “this chapter”, “this article”, “this division”, etc., as the case may be, or to “sections _____ to _____” (inserting section numbers to 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 or the alphabetical arrangement of new chapters 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.
(1981 Code, sec. 1-8)
It is unlawful for any person to change or amend, by additions or deletions, any part or portion of this code, or to insert or delete pages, or portions thereof, or to alter or tamper with such code in any manner whatsoever which will cause the law of the town to be misrepresented thereby; provided that, supplementation of this code by authorized persons shall be permitted.
(1981 Code, sec. 1-9)
Ordinances of general applicability passed and approved by the town council remain valid and subsisting law of the town unless specifically repealed. This validity shall exist whether or not such ordinances are codified.
(Ordinance 98-1, sec. 1, adopted 1998)
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, or any prosecution, suit or proceeding pending or any judgment rendered, on or before the effective date of this code.
(1981 Code, sec. 1-14)
The repeal of an ordinance or any portion thereof shall not revive any ordinance in force before or at the time the ordinance repealed took effect. The repeal of any ordinance repealing another ordinance shall not act as a reviver of the ordinance first repealed. The repeal of any ordinance shall not affect any punishment or penalty incurred before the repeal took effect, nor any suit, prosecution or proceeding pending at the time of the repeal, for an offense committed or cause of action arising under the ordinance repealed.
(1981 Code, sec. 1-15)
The provisions appearing in this code, so far as they are the same as those of ordinances existing at the time of the adoption of this code, shall be considered as continuations thereof and not as new enactments.
(1981 Code, sec. 1-16)
A. 
It is the intent of the town council to include in this codification only such provisions includable herein according to law. Any judicial decision, ruling or holding of any court of competent jurisdiction invalidating any provision of this code, which originated from an ordinance existing at the time of the adoption of this code, because of its inclusion in this code, shall not affect the validity of the ordinance from which it originated, it being the intent of the town council that any such ordinance shall continue in full force and effect in its form as of immediately prior to the adoption of this code as though it had not been included herein.
B. 
The invalidation by any court of competent jurisdiction of any provision of this code, which originated from an ordinance existing at the time of the adoption of this code, because of the inclusion of such provision in this code, shall automatically revive and reinstate such ordinance in its entirety as of immediately prior to the adoption of this code, it being the intent of the town council that any such judicial decision of invalidity ab initio shall serve to revive such ordinance ab initio.
(1981 Code, sec. 1-17)
It is the intent of the town council that each and every provision of this code, including each and every part, chapter, article, division, section, subsection, paragraph, sentence, clause and phrase, is independent and severable of and from every other, unless the contrary is expressly provided in this code, and, therefore, if any provision of this code should ever be declared or held by any court of competent jurisdiction to be unconstitutional, invalid, or of no force and effect, for any reason, then such decision, ruling or holding shall apply only to, and be limited to, such severable provision of this code upon which such court has expressly ruled, and such decision, ruling or holding shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions of this code.
(1981 Code, sec. 1-18)