[HISTORY: Adopted by the Representative Town Meeting of the Town
of Fairfield as indicated in article histories. Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Power of RTM to enact ordinances — See Charter, § 4.1.
Adoption of ordinances — See Charter § 4.5.
Referenda on ordinances — See Charter, Art. XIII.
[Adopted as part of Ch. 1 of the Code of the Town of Fairfield 1968]
In the construction of this Code and of all ordinances of the Town,
the following definitions and rules of construction shall be observed, unless
they are inconsistent with the manifest intent of the legislative body or
the context clearly requires otherwise:
When a bond is required, an undertaking, in writing, shall be sufficient.
The time within which an act is to be done shall be computed by excluding
the first and the last day; and if the last day is Sunday or a legal holiday,
that day shall be excluded.
The County of Fairfield, in the State of Connecticut.
Words importing the masculine gender include the feminine and neuter.
The revision of 1958 of the General Statutes of the State of Connecticut
and all amendments thereto.
All words giving a joint authority to three or more persons or officers
shall be construed as giving such authority to a majority of such persons
or officers unless otherwise specifically provided.
A calendar month.
A word importing the plural number only may extend and be applied
to several persons or things, and a word importing the singular number may
apply to one person or thing.
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" shall be equivalent to the words "affirm" and "affirmed."
Applied to a building or land, includes any part owner, joint owner,
tenant in common, tenant in partnership or joint tenant of the whole or of
a part of such building or land.
Extends and shall be applied to associations, firms, partnerships
and bodies politic and corporate as well as to individuals.
Next before and next after, respectively.
Any portion of the street, usually lying on either side thereof,
between the curb and the adjacent property line, intended for the use of pedestrians.
Includes a mark when the person cannot write.
Includes avenues, boulevards, highways, roads, alleys, lanes, viaducts,
bridges and the approaches thereto, and all other public thoroughfares in
the Town and means all that part thereof from property line to property line
of the premises abutting thereon.
The State of Connecticut.
Applied to a building or land, any person who occupies the whole
or a part of such building or land, whether alone or with others.
The Town of Fairfield in the County of Fairfield, in the State of
Connecticut.
Includes any representation of words, letters or figures, whether
by printing or otherwise.
A calendar year.
A.Â
Whenever, in this Code or in any other ordinance, rule
or regulation promulgated by any officer or agency of the Town under authority
vested in him or it by law or ordinance, any act is prohibited or declared
to be unlawful or the doing of any act is required or the failure to do any
act is declared to be unlawful, and no specific penalty is provided therefor
either by this Code or state law, the violation of any such provision of this
Code or any other ordinance, rule or regulation shall be punished by a fine
not exceeding $25.
B.Â
Each day any violation of this Code or any such ordinance,
rule or regulation of the Town continues shall constitute a separate offense.
[Adopted 6-27-1983]
The compilation of the Charter, Town ordinances and rules and regulations
of the Town codified and consolidated into titles, chapters and sections in
the form attached hereto and made a part hereof is hereby approved, adopted,
ordained and enacted as and to be called the "Code of the Town of Fairfield,
Connecticut."
A.Â
All ordinances of the Town of Fairfield heretofore enacted
and in force and effect on the date of adoption of this article and not contained
in the Code of the Town of Fairfield, Connecticut, or which have been heretofore
enacted and are inconsistent with any provisions of any ordinance contained
in the Code, are hereby repealed as of the effective date of this Adopting
Ordinance, except as hereinafter provided.
B.Â
Nothing herein shall be construed as repealing or altering
the Charter or any special act pertinent to the Town of Fairfield or any rule
or regulation promulgated by any agency, board or commission of the Town of
Fairfield.
The adoption of this Code and the repeal of ordinances provided for in § 1-4 of this article shall not affect the following ordinances, regulations, rights and obligations, which are expressly saved from repeal:
A.Â
Any ordinance or regulation adopted subsequent to May
24, 1982.
B.Â
Any right or liability established, accrued or incurred
under any legislative provision of the Town of Fairfield prior to the effective
date of this article, or any action or proceeding brought for the enforcement
of such right or liability.
C.Â
Any obligation or liability by reason of any offense
or act committed or done before the effective date of this article in violation
of any legislative provision of the Town of Fairfield, or any penalty, punishment
or forfeiture which may result therefrom.
D.Â
Any franchise, license, right, easement or privilege
heretofore granted or conferred by the Town.
E.Â
Any prosecution, indictment, action, suit or other proceeding
pending or any judgment rendered prior to the effective date of this article
brought pursuant to any legislative provision of the Town of Fairfield.
F.Â
Any ordinance of the Town of Fairfield providing for
the laying out, opening, altering, widening, relocating, straightening, establishing
of grade, permitting of encroachment, changing of name, improvement, acceptance
or vacation of any right-of-way, easement, street, road, highway, park or
other public place within the Town of Fairfield, or any portion thereof.
G.Â
Any ordinance or resolution of the Town of Fairfield
appropriating money or transferring funds, promising or guaranteeing the payment
of money or authorizing the issuance and delivery of any bond of the Town
of Fairfield or other instruments or evidence of the Town's indebtedness.
H.Â
Ordinances authorizing the purchase, sale, lease or transfer
of property or any lawful contract or obligation.
I.Â
The levy or imposition of taxes, assessments or charges.
J.Â
The dedication of property or approval of preliminary
or final subdivision plats.
K.Â
Any ordinance omitted from the Code by mistake or error.
All provisions contained in the compilation provided for herein and
known as the "Code of the Town of Fairfield, Connecticut," shall be in full
force and effect on and after the effective date of this article.
A.Â
In compiling and preparing the ordinances of the Town
of Fairfield for adoption as part of the Code of the Town of Fairfield, certain
grammatical changes, changes in nomenclature and/or technical or minor changes
were made in one or more of said ordinances. It is the intention of the Representative
Town Meeting of the Town of Fairfield that all such changes be adopted as
part of the Code of the Town of Fairfield, Connecticut, as if the ordinances
so changed had been previously amended to read as such.
B.Â
In printing and publishing the Code of the Town of Fairfield,
Connecticut, certain changes in the order of things, titling and indexing
and certain changes in the number of provisions, certain grammatical changes,
changes in spelling, punctuation, etc., were made for the purposes of organization,
style and consistency to make the Code more usable. Such changes are in no
way intended to change the meaning of any legislation in anyway nor to supersede
the powers of the authority that promulgated such legislation should such
authority be other than the Representative Town Meeting.
A copy of the Code of the Town of Fairfield, Connecticut, in loose-leaf
form, has been filed in the office of the Town Clerk of the Town of Fairfield
and shall remain there for use and examination by the public during all business
hours until final action is taken on this article; and if this article shall
be adopted, such copy shall be certified to by the Town Clerk of the Town
of Fairfield by impressing thereon the Seal of said Town, and such certified
copy, as from time to time amended and recertified as hereinafter provided,
shall remain on file in the office of the Town Clerk, to be made available
during business hours to persons desiring to examine the same.
A.Â
Any and all amendments or supplements to the legislation
in the Code of the Town of Fairfield, or repeal thereof in whole or in part,
adopted pursuant to applicable state law subsequent to the aforesaid date
of May 24, 1982, shall, upon the adoption of said change, become a part of
the Code of the Town of Fairfield under the numbering system established by
the Code, notwithstanding that such legislation may be adopted with another
numbering system. In addition, any legislation of the Town, whether adopted
prior to or after the effective date of this article, that the Representative
Town Meeting determines is appropriate for inclusion in the Code established
by this article may be included in the Code under the numbering system established
by the Code, notwithstanding that such legislation was adopted without reference
to the Code under a different numbering system.
B.Â
All changes in the Code as aforesaid shall be deemed
to be incorporated into such Code, so that reference to the Code of the Town
of Fairfield, Connecticut, shall be understood and intended to include such
additions and amendments. Any such additions, amendments, supplements or repeals
as adopted shall thereafter be printed and, as provided hereunder, inserted
in the loose-leaf, book containing said Code, as amendments and supplements
thereto.
It shall be the duty of the Town Clerk or such other person authorized
and directed by the Town Clerk to keep up-to-date, in loose-leaf form, a copy
of the book containing the Code of the Town of Fairfield, Connecticut. Said
up-to-date copy of the Code shall be filed in the office of the Town Clerk
of the Town of Fairfield and shall remain there for use and examination by
the public and shall be made available to persons desiring to examine the
same during business hours. All changes in said Code shall be included in
the Code by reference until such changes or new ordinances are printed as
supplements to said Code, at which time such supplements shall, upon certification
by the Town Clerk, be inserted therein.
It shall be the duty of the Town Clerk to have printed and distributed
copies of the Code of the Town of Fairfield, Connecticut, together with amendments
and supplements thereto, from time to time, to comply with Connecticut General
Statutes, Sec. 7-148a, as amended.
Nothing contained herein shall abridge the legal authority of any board,
commission or agency of the Town of Fairfield to make, publish, adopt, repeal,
change or amend its rules, regulations or bylaws in accordance with law.
Each section of the Code and every part of each section is an independent
section or part of a section, and the holding of any section or a part thereof
to be unconstitutional, void or ineffective for any cause shall not be deemed
to affect the validity or constitutionality of any other sections or parts
thereof.
Each section of this article is an independent section, and the holding
of any section or part thereof to be unconstitutional, void or ineffective
for any cause shall not be deemed to affect the validity or constitutionality
of any other sections or parts thereof.
It shall be unlawful for anyone to improperly change or amend, by additions
or deletions, any part or portion of the Code of the Town of Fairfield, or
to alter or tamper with such Code in any manner whatsoever which will cause
the law of the Town of Fairfield to be misrepresented thereby. A violation
of this section shall be punishable, upon conviction, by a fine of not to
exceed $100.
This article shall be effective 14 days after its adoption.
