[HISTORY: Adopted by the Mayor and Borough Council of the Borough of Berlin 6-17-1968 by Ord. No. 68-3 as Ch. 22 of the 1968 Code. Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Uniform construction codes — See Ch. 129.
Zoning regulations — See Ch. 335, Zoning.
For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms used herein shall be deemed to mean:
HOTEL, BOARDINGHOUSE, ROOMING HOUSE and/or LODGING HOUSE
Any building used for housing purposes in which a person or persons is or are boarded, roomed or lodged, either with or without the service of meals, for a consideration.
[Amended 11-5-2012 by Ord. No. 2012-16]
MOTEL, TOURIST LODGE, TOURIST HOME, CABIN AND/OR AUTO COURT
Any building, structure or place in which or at which overnight or temporary sleeping or resting accommodations are rented, leased, kept, operated, conducted or provided to tourists, travelers or transients for a consideration; also, any such building or structure, or group thereof, being devoted primarily or exclusively to the conduct and operation of what are commonly known and designated as tourist lodges, tourist cabins, tourist courts, motor lodges, motor courts, motels and/or auto courts, with or without the service of meals, for a consideration.
PERSON
Includes any individual, person, firm, association, partnership, corporation and other legal entity.
[Amended 11-5-2012 by Ord. No. 2012-16]
No person shall operate, conduct and/or engage in the business of operating and/or conducting a hotel, boardinghouse, rooming house, lodging house, motel, tourist home, tourist lodge, cabin or auto court, without first having applied for and obtained from the Borough Council of the Borough of Berlin a license so to do. No such license shall be issued to any person who has been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude, nor shall any such license be issued to any corporation in which any stockholder holding 10% or more of the stock thereof, or of which any director or officer, shall have been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude.
A. 
Each applicant for a license hereunder shall make written application setting forth the following information in detailed form:
(1) 
The full name, residence and/or business office (including post office) address of the applicant.
(2) 
The exact location of the proposed licensed premises, giving the street address, tax lot and block number as shown on the official tax map, and the exact dimensions of the lands on which the business is to be conducted.
(3) 
A description of the buildings, structures and accommodations situate upon said lands, or those proposed to be erected thereon, including the number of housing or lodging units either erected or proposed, together with the maximum number of persons who can be or may be in the future accommodated at any given time, a description of the character of the buildings or structures as to size, type of construction and whether or not the same are or will be fireproof, and a description of the automobile parking space and facilities.
(4) 
The name and address (including post office) of the owner of said lands and buildings.
(5) 
The name or names of the person or persons on the licensed premises designated to be designated as agent of the applicant upon whom process may be served.
(6) 
Whether any person constituting the individual or partnership applicant, or whether the corporate applicant or any stockholder holding 10% or more of the stock thereof, or any director or officer thereof, has been convicted of a crime, misdemeanor or violation of any municipal ordinance, and if so, the details thereof, including with respect to each conviction the name of the person convicted, the date thereof, the nature of the offense, the court in which the conviction was had and the punishment imposed. (Traffic and motor vehicle violations are not included herein nor required to be given.)
(7) 
In the case of corporate applicants, the name and residence of each stockholder holding 10% or more of stock of the corporation, the name and residence of each member of the board of directors, and the name and residence of each officer of the corporation, and the office held.
B. 
Each application shall be prepared in triplicate and shall be signed and sworn to by the applicant; three executed copies thereof shall be presented to the Borough Clerk, together with a certified check or cash in the amount of the applicable license fee as fixed herein. All physical descriptions called for above shall be accompanied by a sketch or plan of the premises, showing all buildings and structures, their size and location, and the parking area location or locations.
C. 
Any change in any fact set forth in such application after filing the same but before the issuance of a license shall be communicated to the Borough Clerk within three days of such change. No such change shall be made or permitted to occur or exist after the issuance of a license unless the proposed change shall first be communicated to the Borough Clerk and approved by the Borough Council. All notifications shall be made in the same manner as the original application.
A. 
The Borough Clerk shall forthwith forward copies of said application to the Secretary of the Board of Health and to the Fire Chief and the Building Inspector of the Borough of Berlin, who shall inspect the premises or cause the same to be inspected in order to determine whether the premises complies with all Board of Health and fire ordinances and regulations of the Borough. If the premises does not comply, said officers shall attach to said application a written list of failures and their recommendations and return the same to the Borough Clerk, who shall return a copy of said application with such list of recommendations to the applicant. If the premises does so comply, said officers shall attach certificates thereto so stating.
[Amended 11-20-1978 by Ord. No. 78-18]
B. 
The Borough Clerk shall thereafter present said application, with said certificates of compliance attached, to Borough Council. Borough Council may thereupon cause to be made such further investigation of the premises and of the information set forth in said application as it deems necessary and advisable and shall determine whether or not such license shall be granted.
A. 
Each licensee shall procure and at all times cause to be maintained on the licensed premises a register consisting of a permanently bound volume of consecutively numbered pages, immediately following the effective date of his license, and shall submit such register to the Chief of Police of the Borough of Berlin for his approval. The Chief of Police shall endorse the first or title page thereof with the words "Official Register," followed by the name of the licensee, the date of endorsement and the signature of said Chief. In the event of the absence or disability of the Chief, the endorsement may be made by the Acting Chief or by such other person as Borough Council shall direct. No registration herein required to be made shall be made in any register other than the Official Register endorsed as aforesaid, unless and until said Official Register shall have been completely filled. Upon the filling of any register, it shall be preserved for not less than six years upon the licensed premises, and a new register endorsed as aforesaid shall thereupon be used for subsequent registrations.
B. 
No person shall occupy, and no licensee shall permit any person to occupy, any housing or lodging units on the licensed premises unless the person renting such housing or lodging unit shall first:
(1) 
Display to the licensee or to his duly authorized agent or employee in charge of the Official Register, written evidence of his or her identity and residence and, in addition thereto, the official state registration certificate of the motor vehicle, if any is then being used by the registrant, and enter such information in registrant's handwriting, in ink, in said Official Register; and
(2) 
Write in the Official Register immediately following his registration, in ink, the full and true name, address and relationship, if any, to the registrant of every other person who is to occupy such housing or lodging unit, together with the make, year and state license or registration number of the motor vehicle then being used by such registrant.
C. 
Thereafter, the licensee shall cause to be entered in the Official Register, in ink, the number or name of the housing or lodging unit assigned to each such registrant, the date and hour of registration, a brief description or designation of the identification displayed to the licensee by the registrant pursuant to § 98-5B(1) hereof, the signature of the agent or employee of licensee making or accepting the registration, together with the date of such registration and thereafter the date when the occupant or occupants of each housing or lodging unit quits and surrenders the same.
D. 
The Official Register shall be kept and preserved by the licensee and shall be available on request at any hour of the day or night to any law enforcement officer.
The license required by this chapter, together with a copy of this chapter, shall be posted in a conspicuous place in the lobby or main entrance hall of every licensed premises.
A. 
No premises shall be operated or conducted as licensed premises hereunder which does not provide at least one single and separate lavatory for each four sleeping rooms or fraction thereof.
B. 
The least horizontal dimensions of every sleeping room in licensed premises hereunder shall be not less than seven feet, and every such room shall have a floor area of not less than 70 square feet.
C. 
Every room in any licensed premises hereunder which is occupied or is intended, arranged or designed to be occupied for sleeping purposes shall be of such size as to provide at least 250 cubic feet of airspace for each person 12 years of age and older, and at least 200 cubic feet of airspace for each child under 12 years of age. No greater number of occupants than so determined shall be permitted to sleep in any one room. No room in any licensed premises shall be used or occupied by more than four persons over the age of 15 years, for sleeping purposes, at any one time. No such room shall be used for sleeping purposes which does not open to the outside of the building on a street, alley, yard or court; each such sleeping room shall have at least one window not less than eight square feet in area and one door for ingress and egress.
D. 
No basement, kitchen, garage, lobby, hallway or barn shall be used or occupied for sleeping purposes; no porches shall be so occupied unless the adjoining space or room is occupied by the same registrant, and then only if the cubic content and floor space thereof shall comply with all provisions of this chapter.
E. 
No gas, coal or electric range or stove or any other apparatus or appliance shall be used for cooking or the preparation of food, or be installed, in any room or unit in any licensed premises which is occupied or is intended, arranged or designed to be occupied for sleeping purposes, nor shall any food be cooked, prepared or stored in any such room or unit.
F. 
No licensee hereunder shall let, underlet, rent or permit any licensed premises or any part thereof for the purpose of being occupied by any registrant with the privilege of installing in any room occupied or intended, arranged or designed to be occupied as a sleeping room, any gas, coal or electric range or stove or any other apparatus or appliance to be used for the purpose of cooking, storing or preparing food.
G. 
No registrant hereunder or occupant of any licensed premises shall store food or cook or otherwise prepare food in any room in such licensed premises which is occupied or intended, arranged or designed to be occupied for sleeping purposes.
H. 
Every licensed premises in the Borough of Berlin providing accommodations for persons on and above the third floor thereof shall be provided with some means of escape in the event of fire, other than one stairway leading to such accommodations.
[Amended 11-20-1978 by Ord. No. 78-18; 7-19-2004 by Ord. No. 2004-13; 11-5-2012 by Ord. No. 2012-16]
The annual fee for a license to engage in the business of conducting, operating or maintaining a licensed premises hereunder shall be the sum of $50 for each unit of a licensed premises. All licenses issued hereunder shall be for the calendar year or fraction thereof.
Any person violating the terms of this chapter or refusing or neglecting to comply with any of its provisions shall, upon conviction thereof, be subject to a fine of not more than $200 or imprisonment in the County Jail at Camden, New Jersey, for a period of not more than 30 days, or both, in the discretion of the Judge before whom such conviction is had.