[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Supervisors of the Township of Spring as indicated in article histories. Amendments noted where applicable.]
[Adopted 12-10-1990 by Ord. No. 216 (Ch. XXX, Part 1, of the 2013 Code of Ordinances)]
A. 
As used in this article, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:
PERSON
Includes any natural person, partnership, association, firm or corporation.
B. 
The singular shall include the plural; the plural shall include the singular; and the masculine shall include the feminine and the neuter.
Every owner of improved or cultivated lands located in the Township of Spring, Berks County, Pennsylvania shall be required to keep limbs and branches of all shrubs and/or trees growing upon such lands and along the street and/or sidewalk, abutting upon such lands, trimmed so that no part of such limbs and/or branches or of the foliage growing thereupon, shall have a clearance of less than seven feet above the surface of the sidewalk and less than 12 feet above the surface of the roadway of any street.
It shall be the responsibility of property owners in the Township of Spring, Berks County, Pennsylvania, to conform to the requirements of this article as to shrubs and/or trees upon property owned by them, along streets, and/or sidewalks abutting upon such property, and, upon notice from the Code Enforcement Officer of the said Township of Spring to trim or cut the branches or limbs of shrubs and/or trees as required by § 413-2 hereof. Any person failing to comply with any such notice, within the time limit stated therein, shall be guilty of a violation of this article and, following the expiration of such time limit, the Code Enforcement Officer of the said Township of Spring shall have the authority to cause the work required by such notice to be done by the said Township of Spring or under contract therewith, and to collect the cost of such work, with an additional amount of 10% from such property owner in default.
[Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. I)]
Any person, firm or corporation who shall violate any provision of this article shall, upon conviction in a summary proceeding brought before a Magisterial District Judge under the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure, be subject to the penalty provisions of § 1-12, Summary offenses, of the Code of the Township of Spring.
If any sentence, clause, section, or part of this article is for any reason found to be unconstitutional, illegal or invalid, such unconstitutionally illegality or invalidity shall not affect or impair any of the remaining provisions, sentences, clauses, sections or parts of this article. It is hereby declared as the intent of the Board of Supervisors of the Township of Spring, Berks County, Pennsylvania, that this article would have been adopted had such unconstitutional, illegal or invalid sentence, clause, section or part thereof not been included herein.
[Adopted 6-23-1997 by Ord. No. 258 (Ch. XXX, Part 2, of the 2013 Code of Ordinances)]
Each owner of property located within the Township of Spring, Berks County, Pennsylvania, shall cut and remove trees located on such property if the condition of the trees through disease or otherwise, unreasonably affects or interferes with the health, safety or welfare of the public or the right of the public to the unobstructed use of public roads or property.
Within 30 days after the date of notice by certified mail, return receipt requested, to remove such tree, the property owner has not complied with that order, the Board of Supervisors of Spring may enter the premises and remove the tree.
The cost of cutting and removal of such tree by the Township of Spring shall be charged to the property owner. The charge shall be a lien against the real estate of the property owner and should be collected in the same manner as other municipal liens.
The use of a word or words in the singular shall be interpreted in this article so as to mean a word or words in the plural.
[Added at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. I)]
Any person, firm or corporation who shall violate any provision of this article shall, upon conviction in a summary proceeding brought before a Magisterial District Judge under the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure, be subject to the penalty provisions of § 1-12, Summary offenses, of the Code of the Township of Spring.