[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:
BOND
When a bond is required, an undertaking, in writing, shall be sufficient.
COMPUTATION OF TIME
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.
COUNTY
The County of Fairfield, in the State of Connecticut.
GENDER
Words importing the masculine gender include the feminine and neuter.
GENERAL STATUTES, or G.S.
The revision of 1958 of the General Statutes of the State of Connecticut and all amendments thereto.
JOINT AUTHORITY
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.
MONTH
A calendar month.
NUMBER
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.
OATH
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."
OWNER
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.
PERSON
Extends and shall be applied to associations, firms, partnerships and bodies politic and corporate as well as to individuals.
PRECEDING and FOLLOWING
Next before and next after, respectively.
SIDEWALK
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.
SIGNATURE or SUBSCRIPTION
Includes a mark when the person cannot write.
STREET
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.
STATE
The State of Connecticut.
TENANT OR OCCUPANT
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.
TOWN
The Town of Fairfield in the County of Fairfield, in the State of Connecticut.
WRITTEN OR IN WRITING
Includes any representation of words, letters or figures, whether by printing or otherwise.
YEAR
A calendar year.
A. 
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. 
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. 
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. 
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. 
Any ordinance or regulation adopted subsequent to May 24, 1982.
B. 
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. 
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. 
Any franchise, license, right, easement or privilege heretofore granted or conferred by the Town.
E. 
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. 
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. 
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. 
Ordinances authorizing the purchase, sale, lease or transfer of property or any lawful contract or obligation.
I. 
The levy or imposition of taxes, assessments or charges.
J. 
The dedication of property or approval of preliminary or final subdivision plats.
K. 
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. 
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. 
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. 
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. 
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.