The ordinances embraced in this and the following chapters and sections shall constitute and be designated the "Code of Ordinances, City of Fulshear, Texas," and may be so cited. Such Code may also be cited as the "Fulshear Code."
(a) Charter. City. City boards, committees, commissions, officers, employees, etc. Code. Computation of time. Council, city council. Councilmember. County. Day. Delegation of authority. Gender. Highway. In the city. Joint authority. May. Month. Must. Number. Oath. Official time standard. Owner. Person. Personal property. Preceding, following. Property. Public place. Real property. Roadway. Shall. Sidewalk. Signature or subscription. State. Street. Tense. Vernon's Ann. Civ. St. V.T.C.A. Written or in writing. Year.
In the construction of this Code, and of all ordinances and resolutions passed by the city council, the following definitions and rules of construction shall be observed, unless such construction would be inconsistent with the manifest intent of the city council:
The term "Charter" means and refers to the Charter of the City of Fulshear, Texas, printed as Part I of this volume.
The term "city" means the City of Fulshear, in the County of Fort Bend and the State of Texas.
Whenever reference is made to a board, committee, commission, officer, employee, etc., in this Code, it shall be construed to mean that of the City of Fulshear, Texas.
The term "Code" means the Code of Ordinances, City of Fulshear, Texas, as designated in section 1-1.
In computing a period of days, the first day is excluded and the last day is included. If the last day of any period is a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, the period is extended to include the next day which is not a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday. If a number of months is to be computed by counting the months from a particular day, the period ends on the same numerical day in the concluding month as the day of the month from which the computation is begun, unless there are not that many days in the concluding month, in which case the period ends on the last day of that month.
The term "council" or "city council" means the City Council of the City of Fulshear, Texas.
The term "councilmember" shall be construed to mean a member of the city council of the City of Fulshear.
The term "county" means the County of Fort Bend in the State of Texas.
A day is the period of time between any midnight and the midnight following.
Whenever a provision appears requiring a city officer or employee to do some act or make certain inspections, it is to be construed to authorize the head of the department to designate, delegate and authorize subordinates to perform the required act or make the required inspection unless the terms of the provision or section designates otherwise.
A term 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 "highway" means and includes any street, alley, highway, avenue or public place or square, bridge, viaduct, tunnel, underpass, overpass and causeway in the city, dedicated or devoted to public use.
The term "in the city" means and includes all territory within the city limits.
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 "may" shall be construed as being permissive.
The term "month" means a calendar month.
The term "must" shall be construed as being mandatory.
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."
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, shall include any part owner, joint owner, tenant in common, tenant in partnership, joint tenant or tenant by the entirety, or 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 as defined in this section.
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 owned by the city.
The term "real property" means and includes lands, tenements and hereditaments.
The term "roadway" means that portion of a highway improved, designed or ordinarily used for vehicular travel. In the event a highway includes two or more separate roadways, the term "roadway" as used herein shall refer to any such roadway separately but not to all such roadways collectively.
The term "shall" shall be construed as being mandatory.
The term "sidewalk" means any portion of the street between the curb, or the lateral line of the roadway and the adjacent property line, intended for the use of pedestrians.
The term "signature" or "subscription" shall include a mark when a person cannot write.
The term "state" shall be construed to mean the State of Texas.
The term "street" shall include any highway, alley, street, avenue or public place or square, bridge, viaduct, underpass, overpass, tunnel and causeway in the city, dedicated or devoted to public use.
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 to Vernon's Annotated Civil Statutes.
The abbreviation "V.T.C.A." means and refers to the latest edition or supplement of Vernon's Texas Code Annotated.
The term "written" or "in writing" means and includes 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 printed in boldface type 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, nor as 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.
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.
The history or source notes appearing in parentheses after sections in 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 not controlling or meant to have any legal effect.
The sections appearing in this Code, so far as they are the same as the ordinances existing at the time of adoption of this Code shall be considered as a continuation thereof and not 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)
The adoption of this Code shall not be interpreted as permitting any use or the continuance of any use of a structure or premises in violation of any ordinance of the city in effect on the date of adoption of this Code.
Nothing in this Code or the ordinance adopting this Code shall affect any ordinance:
(1)
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 or obligations assumed by the city;
(2)
Granting any right or franchise;
(3)
Dedicating, naming, establishing, locating, relocating, opening, paving, widening, vacating, etc., any street or public way in the city;
(4)
Making any appropriation or adopting the budget;
(5)
Levying or imposing taxes not contained in this Code;
(6)
Establishing or prescribing grades of streets in the city;
(7)
Providing for local improvements and assessing taxes therefor;
(8)
Dedicating or accepting any plat or subdivision in the city;
(9)
Extending or contracting the boundaries of the city or extending the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the city;
(10)
Prescribing the number, classification, benefits or compensation of any city officers or employees, or any personnel policies and procedures;
(11)
Approving or prescribing rates, charges and fees including rates, charges and fees for permits, garbage collection service or for public utilities;
(12)
Any ordinance prescribing through streets, parking and traffic regulations, speed limits, one-way traffic, limitations on weight load of vehicles or loading zones;
(13)
Any ordinance calling an election;
(14)
Any ordinance regarding the comprehensive or land use plan or rezoning property;
(15)
Any ordinance authorizing street maintenance agreements;
(16)
Which is temporary although general in effect;
(17)
Which is special although permanent in effect;
(18)
The purpose of which has been accomplished; and all such ordinances are hereby recognized as continuing in full force and effect to the same extent as if set out at length in this Code. Such ordinances are on file in the city secretary's office.
(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, nor any suit, prosecution or proceeding pending at the time of the repeal, for an offense committed under the ordinance repealed.
(a)
All ordinances passed subsequent to 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 until such time as this Code and 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 specific reference to the section number of this Code in the following or substantially similar language: "That section __________ of the Code of Ordinances, City of Fulshear, Texas, is hereby amended to read as follows:…." The new provisions shall then be set out in full as desired.
(c)
In the event a new section not heretofore existing in the Code is to be added, the following or substantially similar language shall be used: "That the Code of Ordinances, City of Fulshear, Texas, is hereby amended by adding a section, to be numbered __________, which said section reads as follows:…." The new section shall then be set out in full as desired.
(d)
All sections, articles, chapters or provisions of this Code desired to be repealed should be specifically repealed by section, division, article or chapter number, as the case may be.
(a)
If ordinances enacted at the same or different sessions of the city council are irreconcilable, the ordinance latest in date of enactment prevails.
(b)
If amendments to the same ordinance are enacted at the same session of the city council, one amendment without reference to another, the amendments shall be harmonized, if possible, so that effect may be given to each. If the amendments are irreconcilable, the latest in time of enactment prevails.
(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 substantive permanent and general parts of ordinances adopted 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 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. 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 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.
Ordinances hereafter adopted which are not of a general or permanent nature shall be numbered consecutively, authenticated, published and recorded in the book of ordinances, but shall not be prepared for insertion in this Code, nor be deemed a part hereof.
It is hereby declared to be the intention of the city council that the sections, paragraphs, sentences, clauses and phrases of this Code, all ordinances, present or future, are severable and, if any phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section of this Code, or of any ordinance, shall be declared invalid or unconstitutional by the judgment or decree of any court of competent jurisdiction, such invalidity or unconstitutionality shall not affect any of the remaining phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs and sections of this Code, or of such ordinance, since the same would have been enacted by the city council without the incorporation of any such invalid or unconstitutional phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section.
In any prosecution for the violation of any provision of this Code, it shall not be necessary for the complaint to negate or for the state to prove any exception contained in this Code concerning any prohibited act, provided that any such exception made therein may be urged as a defense by the person charged by such complaint.
(a)
Whenever in this Code or in any 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 such officer or agency any act is prohibited or is made or declared to be unlawful or an offense or a misdemeanor, where no specific penalty is provided, the violation of any provision of this Code or of any ordinance, rule, regulation or order that governs or regulates fire, safety, zoning or public health or sanitation, other than the dumping of refuse, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $2,000.00 and a fine or penalty for the violation of a rule, ordinance, or police regulation that governs the dumping of refuse may not exceed $4,000.00. The violation of any other provision of this Code or any other ordinance, rule, regulation or order shall be punished by a fine of not exceeding $500.00 unless specifically stated otherwise in the Code. If the maximum penalty provided by this Code for any offense is greater than the maximum penalty provided for the same or a similar offense under the laws of the state, the maximum penalty for such violation provided by the state statute shall be the maximum penalty under this Code. Except where otherwise provided in this Code, each day an offense shall continue shall constitute a separate offense.
(b)
Violation of any of the terms or provisions of this Code by any corporation or association shall subject the officers and agents actively in charge of the business of such corporation or association to the penalty for violation of such term or provision.
(c)
The penalty provided by this section, unless another penalty is expressly provided, shall apply to the amendment of any Code section, whether or not such penalty is reenacted in the amendatory ordinance. In addition to the penalty prescribed above, the city may pursue other remedies such as abatement of nuisances, injunctive relief, administrative adjudication and revocation of licenses or permits.