[HISTORY: Adopted by the Township of Howell 12-23-1974 as § 4-2
of the 1974 Code. Amendments noted where applicable.]
No person shall engage in the business or occupation
of a junk shop keeper or junk dealer or motor vehicle junk dealer
in or on any premises located in the Township without first obtaining
a license therefor in accordance with this chapter.
As used in this chapter, the following terms
shall have the meanings indicated:
Any old, discarded or unused waste iron or other metal or
substance, glass, paper, machines, parts, accessories, discarded machinery
or discarded machines in whole or in part, unregistered motor vehicles
which are unfit for reconditioning or for sale for highway transportation,
used parts of motor vehicles and any material commonly known and generally
referred to as "junk" in the ordinary meaning of the word, acquired
or collected commercially.
Any person who buys or otherwise acquired junk for commercial
purposes within the Township or who collects or stores junk therein,
and shall include any auto wrecking business, the sale of used automobile
parts and the sale or storage of used lumber, used plumbing fixtures
or other used or secondhand articles.
Any lands within the Township in which junk is placed, collected,
stored or kept.
A.
Every applicant for a license under this chapter shall
file in duplicate a written application signed by the applicant which
application shall state:
B.
If the applicant is not the owner of the site where
the business is to be conducted, the owner's consent to the conduct
of the business shall accompany the application.
C.
Every such application shall have attached thereto
a sketch or drawing of the property at which the business is to be
conducted showing thereon the names of all streets and the names of
all property owners abutting or adjoining the premises or any part
thereof and showing the dimensions of the property.
Such application shall be accompanied by cash
or certified check payable to the order of the Township in a sum equaling
the whole license fee,[1] which shall be returned in the event that the license
is refused.
Each application filed with the Township Clerk
as provided herein shall be presented to the Mayor and Township Council
not later than the second regular meeting following the filing of
such application, at which meeting the Mayor and Township Council
may act upon any application so presented, or at any subsequent meeting
to which they shall defer action thereon, and no license shall be
issued by the Township Clerk until the issuance thereof has been duly
approved by resolution adopted by the Mayor and Township Council,
provided that if the Mayor and Township Council do not take any action
on the application by resolution either granting or refusing to allow
the license within 60 days of the date on which it is first submitted
to the Council by the Clerk at a regular meeting of the Council, then
it shall be deemed that the granting of the license has been approved
and the Clerk is thereafter authorized to issue the license upon the
compliance by the applicant with all the terms and conditions of this
chapter.
All licenses issued pursuant to this chapter
shall expire at 12:00 midnight on December 31 next succeeding the
date of the issuance thereof, and all persons desiring to continue
in such business after the expiration of any license granted hereunder
shall make application before December 1 for a new license for the
ensuing year and shall pay the license fee in like manner and amount
as for the issuance of the original license.
A separate license shall be obtained for each
separate location at which the business of the licensee, or some part
thereof, is proposed to be conducted, and the license shall authorize
the licensee to conduct the business only at the place specified in
the license and shall be transferable to another part or another location
only with the consent of the Mayor and Township Council, and if to
another person such person shall make separate application for transfer
of said license, consented to in writing by the license holder and
setting forth all information as would be originally allowed of any
original application for the license. Any transfer to another location
or person shall be endorsed upon the original license by the Township
Clerk after the adoption of a resolution by the Mayor and Township
Council approving such transfer.
The annual license fee shall be as set forth in Chapter 139, Fees. If the license is for part of the license year, the fee shall be prorated on a monthly basis. The license fee is hereby expressly declared to be imposed for regulation and revenue.
No license shall be issued until the applicant
establishes that the proposed business can be operated in accordance
with the requirements of this chapter, and all fences required to
be erected hereunder shall be erected and the premises shall in all
other respects conform to the requirements of this chapter before
any license shall be issued.
No junk dealer as defined herein or any junkyard
shall operate or be granted a license to operate unless the following
requirements are complied with:
A.
No motor vehicle or junk shall be stored or dismantled
within 500 feet of any dwelling house, place of residence, church,
school, auditorium, place of public gathering or like place except
such dwelling house as may be situated on the licensed premises.
B.
No junk or refuse material shall be burned within
100 feet of any building or adjacent property.
C.
Precaution shall be taken by each licensee hereunder
to safeguard all inflammable, combustible or explosive materials from
fire, and no licensee shall stack, pile or place junk upon the licensed
premises in such a manner as to create a fire hazard, and, in addition,
all gasoline, fuel or other explosive material shall be drained and
removed from any motor vehicle within eight hours after it is received
on any premises licensed as a junkyard or conducted as a junk dealer
located in the Township, and such gasoline, fuel or other explosive
material shall be either removed from the premises or kept in a leakproof
tank buried on the premises at a point not closer than 100 feet to
any dwelling house and to a sufficient depth so that the top of the
tank shall not be nearer to the ground level than 2 1/2 feet, and
which tank shall be located within the permissible portion of the
premises, as hereinafter set forth, at which the business is conducted.
D.
No junk shall be stacked, piled, placed or stored
in such a fashion so that it shall be visible above the height of
the fence surrounding the premises as hereinafter prescribed.
E.
No junk dealer shall conduct his business in any junkyard
at any point on the premises which shall be located nearer than 150
feet to any street or highway or nearer than 50 feet to any of the
side lines on the premises where side lines are more than 100 feet
from any street or highway which does not run parallel with or along
the front of the premises, and the business may be so maintained and
conducted in the permissible area of the premises only so long as
the same is enclosed by a fence at least eight feet in height, which
fence shall be a solid fence and shall be so constructed that the
business carried on within the permissible area shall not be visible
from the exterior except during the time that junk is being actually
transported in the regular course of business or the owner, operator
or employees of the business are gaining access to or making exit
from the permissible area through an opening in the fence for such
purpose, which openings in the fence shall not be in excess of 15
feet in width and which openings shall not exceed more than one opening
on each side of the permissible area of the premises so enclosed by
such fence.
Any licensee who shall receive or be in possession
of any goods, articles or things which may have been stolen or lost,
or alleged or supposed to have been stolen or lost, shall, upon demand
to view the same, present the same to any official of the Township,
including police officers, health inspectors, members of the Board
of Health, and any other law enforcement agency or agent thereof.
All licensed premises shall be subject to inspection at all times by the Township Council or any of its duly authorized agents, and every license issued shall be kept in a conspicuous place on the licensed premises and shall be produced and available for inspection by any of the officials mentioned in this section or in § 185-11.
Every junk dealer is hereby required to keep a written book or record at the premises licensed which shall at all times be open to the inspection of any of the persons mentioned in §§ 185-11 and 185-12 and in which book the licensee shall currently and daily record the description of all articles purchased, and in addition thereto no licensee shall at any time trade with or make any purchase of any person under the age of 17 years.
No junk dealer shall conduct his business or
occupation at any premises in the Township on a Sunday or at any time
other than between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. in the evening.
The number of junkyard licenses in the Township
in effect at the same time shall not be more than four.
The Mayor and Township Council may revoke any
license granted hereunder or may suspend any license granted hereunder,
after reasonable opportunity for the licensee to be heard, for violation
of any provision of this chapter or any Township ordinance which may
affect the operation or in the event the licensee is convicted of
a crime involving moral turpitude, and this provision authorizing
the suspension or revocation of such license shall be in addition
to the penalties herein provided.
Nothing herein shall apply to persons maintaining
a licensed motor vehicle junk business or motor vehicle junkyard under
the provisions of N.J.S.A. 39:11-1 to and including N.J.S.A. 39:11-11,
as amended and supplemented.
