This chapter shall be known as the "Property Maintenance Ordinance
of the Township of Harrison."
It is hereby found and declared that there exists, in the Township
of Harrison, buildings and premises used for residential and nonresidential
purposes which are or may become substandard with respect to structural
integrity and maintenance, and, further, that such conditions including
but not limited to structural deterioration, lack of maintenance of
the exterior of the premises, infestation and existence of fire hazards
constitute a menace to the health, safety, welfare and reasonable
comfort of the citizens and inhabitants of the Township of Harrison.
The purpose of this chapter is to provide minimum standards
of property maintenance:
A. To promote the public health, welfare and safety.
B. To make buildings and premises fit for human habitation, occupancy
and use.
C. To fix certain responsibilities and duties upon owners and operators.
D. To foster a clean community.
E. To prevent blighting conditions.
F. To authorize and establish procedures for the inspection of such
premises.
G. To correct violations or to fix penalties for the violations of this
chapter.
H. To preserve the quality, character and property values of the Township.
I. To provide owners and operators with a system to enforce the standards
set forth herein.
J. To avoid, prevent and eliminate conditions which, if permitted to
exist or continue, will depreciate or tend to depreciate the value
of adjacent or surrounding properties.
K. To avoid, prevent and eliminate the maintenance of or creation of
hazards to the public health and safety.
For this purpose of this chapter, the following words and phrases
shall be defined as set forth herein:
BLIGHT
A destructive force; something that spoils or damages things
severely.
BUILDING
Any structure which has enclosing walls, floor and roof,
is affixed to the land and has one or more floors or stories. A building
shall not include such structures as billboards, signs, fences, or
structures with interior surfaces not normally accessible to human
use, such as gas tanks or similar structures. A building may be used
for agricultural, commercial, industrial, public, institutional, or
residential purposes.
DETERIORATION
The condition of a building or a part thereof characterized
by holes, breaks, rot, crumbling, cracking, peeling, rusting or other
evidence of physical decay, neglect, lack of maintenance or excessive
wear.
DRIVEWAY
A private roadway providing access for vehicles to a parking
space, garage, dwelling or other structure.
DUMPSTER
Any container that has the ability to hold more than two
fifty-gallon trash cans of debris.
DWELLING UNIT
That part of a dwelling designed for use by one family only
and containing one or more rooms and facilities for living, including
cooking, sleeping, storage of possessions, and sanitary needs.
EXPOSED TO PUBLIC VIEW
Any building or premises or part thereof which may be lawfully
viewed by the public or any member thereof from a path, sidewalk,
walk, street, alleyway or parking lot.
EXTERIOR OF PREMISES
Those portions of a building or structure which are exposed
to public view or are visible from adjoining or adjacent lots, including
all outside surfaces and appurtenances thereto and the open land space
of any premises outside of any building or structure erected thereon
viewed by adjoining property owners or the public.
EXTERMINATION
The control and elimination of insects, rodents and other
pests as determined by the County Department of Health by eliminating
their harborage places, by removing or making inaccessible materials
that may serve as their food by poison, spraying, fumigating, trapping
or by any other approved pest elimination methods.
FIRE HAZARD
Any thing or any act which increases or may cause any increases
of the hazard or menace of fire to a greater degree than that customarily
recognized as normal by persons in the public service of preventing,
suppressing or extinguishing fire or which may obstruct, delay or
hinder or may become the cause of an obstruction, delay, hazard or
hindrance to the prevention, suppression or extinguishment of fire.
GARBAGE
Waste resulting from handling, preparing, cooking and consumption
of food or other products. (See also "refuse" or "rubbish.")
HABITABLE SPACE
A space in a structure which is used for living, sleeping,
eating, cooking, etc.; does not include basements, attics, patios,
porches, garages, etc. A habitable space must have a clear height
from finished floor to finished ceiling of not less than 7 1/2
feet. A habitable room must have a minimum area of 70 square feet
between enclosing walls, exclusive of closet space. A habitable space
which is partly below and partly above grade must have at least one
half its height above grade. The grade is a reference line representing
the average of finished ground level adjoining the building at all
exterior walls. Spaces under sloping roofs must be at least five feet
in height to be considered habitable space.
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
Materials or liquids that pose a threat present or future
to the environment, whether in use, storage or transit.
INFESTATION
Inhabited or overrun in numbers or quantities large enough
to be harmful, threatening or obnoxious.
MAINTENANCE
Work that is done regularly to keep a building or premises
in good condition.
MIXED OCCUPANCY
Any building containing one or more dwelling units and also
having a portion thereof devoted to nonresidential uses. The applicable
provisions for residential and nonresidential buildings shall control.
MOBILE TRANSPORT VEHICLE
A trailer, horse trailer, utility trailer or other mobile
device licensed to be lawfully used on public streets and which attaches
to and is pulled or pushed by a powered vehicle and used for transporting
or carrying a personal recreational vehicle, recreational home, watercraft,
off-road vehicle or any other similar device, or any other types of
items such as wood, dirt, building materials, etc.
MULTIFAMILY DWELLING
A freestanding residential building of three or more dwelling
units, with common walls and floors, constructed on one lot or adjacent
lots, having an indirect entrance from the outside to each dwelling
unit, and having yard area as common to all dwelling units.
NUISANCE
A.
An interference with the enjoyment and use of property.
B.
Any public or private condition that would constitute a nuisance
according to the statues, laws and regulations of the State of New
Jersey, its governmental agencies or the ordinances of the Township.
C.
Any physical condition existing in or on the exterior of any
premises which is potentially dangerous, detrimental or hazardous
to the life, health or safety of persons on, near or passing within
the proximity of the premises where such conditions exists.
D.
Inadequate or unsanitary sewerage or plumbing facilities in
violation of this chapter.
OCCUPANT
Any person residing, living or sleeping in or on the premises
or having actual possession, use or occupancy of a dwelling, premises
or unit or operating a business therein, or any person or entity in
possession of or using any premises or part thereof, whether or not
the owner thereof and regardless of the duration of time of such possession,
use or occupancy.
OPERATOR
Any person, persons or entity, but not the owner, who has
charge, care or control of a dwelling or premises or a part thereof,
with or without the knowledge, consent or authority of the owner.
OWNER
Any person, persons, or entity who shall have legal or equitable
title in any form whatsoever to any premises or part thereof, with
or without accompanying actual possession thereof or who shall have
charge, care or control of any lot, premises, building, structure
or part thereof, as owner or agent of owner, or as a fiduciary, trustee,
receiver, guardian, lessee or mortgagee in possession, regardless
of how such possession was obtained. Any person, group of persons
or entity who is a lessee, sublessee or assignee of a lease of any
part or all of any building, structure or land shall be deemed to
be co-owner with the lessor for the purposes of this chapter and shall
have responsibility over the portion of the premises so sublet, leased
or assigned.
PATH
A cleared way for pedestrians and/or bicycles that may or
may not be paved or otherwise improved.
PORTABLE ON-DEMAND STORAGE UNIT STRUCTURE
Any container, storage unit, shed-like container, or other
portable structure designed for the storage of personal property that
is typically rented to owners or occupants of property for their temporary
use, and which is customarily delivered and removed by truck, and
which is located for such purposes outside an enclosed building other
than an accessory building or shed complying with all building codes
and land use requirements. For the purpose of this chapter, a "portable
storage unit" may also be identified as simply a "unit(s)."
PREMISES
All buildings, structures or objects erected or placed upon
any land, in addition to the land itself, and right-of-way or multiples
thereof, which includes any naturally occurring conditions or things
thereon.
PUBLIC AREA
Includes any street, sidewalk, highway, public lane, alley,
right-of-way, Township parking lot or other public place in the Township.
RECREATIONAL HOME
Any enclosed mobile structure that can be used as temporary
living accommodations, and which contains either built-in cooking
facilities or lavatory facilities, and is self-motorized, placed on
another vehicle for transport, or towed by another vehicle, including,
but not limited to, items such as motor coaches, motor homes, fifth-wheelers,
recreational vehicles, campers, or camper trailers.
RECREATIONAL VEHICLE
Any motorized, human-powered, electrical-powered, or wind-powered
vehicle used primarily for recreational purposes, including, but not
limited to, such items as boats, sailboats, snowmobiles, canoes, kayaks,
motorbikes, off-road vehicles, jet skis and other equipment or vehicles
of a similar nature.
REFUSE or RUBBISH
All solid waste matter or materials, combustible or noncombustible,
including but not limited to garbage, trash, ashes, paper goods and
products, wrappings, cans, bottles, containers, yard clippings, garden
refuse, brush and containers of waste materials, chemicals or oil
other than garbage containers used and intended to be picked up in
the normal weekly scavenger collection service; debris, junk, glass,
boxes, crockery, wood, mineral matter, plastic, rubber, leather, furniture,
household goods, appliances, fixtures, bedding, scrap lumber, scrap
metal, construction material (except during construction); inoperable
machinery or parts thereof, dead or rotting vegetation, excluding
compost piles which are not otherwise prohibited in this section,
abandoned, inoperative, unused or unusual automobiles and vehicles,
or parts or components of automobiles, motor vehicles, motorcycles
or vehicles of any kind, and solid commercial or industrial waste.
SIDEWALK
A paved, surfaced, or leveled area, paralleling and usually
separated from the street, used as a pedestrian walkway.
STRUCTURE
A combination of materials to form a construction for occupancy,
use or ornamentation, having a fixed location on, above or below the
surface of land or attached to something having a fixed location on,
above or below the surface of land, including without limitation buildings,
fences, tanks, towers, signs, advertising devices, patios and swimming
pools.
TOXIC
Material which is capable of causing detrimental effects
to the physical or economic well-being of individuals, animals, or
other living organisms.
TRASH
Discarded, unwanted, or worthless materials or objects.
UNIFORM CONSTRUCTION CODE
The New Jersey State Uniform Construction Code (UCC) Act authorizes the Commissioner of the Department of Community
Affairs to adopt and enforce rules pertaining to construction codes
and provides for the administration and enforcement of those rules
throughout the State. The Uniform Construction Code contains the UCC
Act and all rules issued under the Act relating to the administration
and enforcement of construction regulations. The UCC is comprised
of four basic technical subcodes for construction: building, electrical,
fire protection, and plumbing. In addition, the UCC contains technical
subcodes for fuel gas installations; mechanical installations; one-
and two-family dwellings; accessible (barrier-free) construction;
the rehabilitation of existing buildings; the construction of manufactured
homes; asbestos hazard abatement; radon hazard abatement; and playground
safety.
VERMIN
Destructive animals or insects, such as rats or cockroaches,
that are destructive, annoying or injurious to health and harm people,
livestock, property or crops as determined by the County Department
of Health.
WALK
Any sidewalk or walkway that is intended and suitable for
pedestrian use.
WEATHERING
The deterioration, decay or damage caused by exposure to
the elements.