Town of East Greenwich, RI Definitions; Code Provisions

[Adopted 6-22-1993 by Ord. No. 595 as Ch. 1 of the 1993 Code]

[Amended 3-14-2016 by Ord. No. 849]

The ordinances embraced in this and the following chapters shall be designated and cited as the "Code of the Town of East Greenwich, Rhode Island."

§ 1-2 Definitions and rules of construction.

In the construction of this Code and of all ordinances hereafter enacted, the following interpretation shall be placed on the words and phrases hereinafter mentioned, unless such construction or interpretation shall be manifestly inconsistent with the evident intent of the Town Council or repugnant to the context or to the evident purport of any ordinance:

Definitions.

CHARTER

Refers to the Charter of the Town of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, as printed in the Code of the Town of East Greenwich.

CODE

Refers to the Code of the Town of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, as designated in § 1-1.

CORPORATE LIMITS, CORPORATION LIMITS, TOWN LIMITS

The legal boundary of the Town of East Greenwich.

COUNCIL

The Town Council of the Town of East Greenwich.

COUNTY

The County of Kent in the State of Rhode Island.

G.L.

The latest edition or reenactment of the General Laws of Rhode Island, Reenactment of 1956.

KEEPER, PROPRIETOR

Includes persons, firms, associations, corporations, clubs and partnership, whether acting by themselves or through a servant, agent or employee.

MONTH

A calendar month.

OATH

Construed to include 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, joint tenant, or tenant by the entirety of the whole or of a part of such building or land.

PERSON

Includes a corporation, firm, partnership, association, organization, club, society, body corporate or politic, or any other group acting as a unit, as well as a natural person.

PERSONAL PROPERTY

Includes every species of property except real property, as herein described.

PREMISES

Place or places.

PRESIDENT

The President of the Town Council.

PROPERTY

Includes real and personal property.

PUBLIC PLACE

Includes, without limitation, any park, cemetery, schoolyard or open space adjacent thereto, and all beaches, canals or other waterways, and any public street or way.

REAL PROPERTY

Includes lands, tenements and hereditaments and rights thereto and interests therein.

RESIDENCE

The place adopted by a person as his place of habitation, and to which, whenever he is absent, he has the intention of returning. When a person eats at one place and sleeps at another, the place where such person sleeps shall be deemed his residence.

SEAL

The Town or Corporate Seal.

SIDEWALK

Any portion of a street between the vertical curbline or edge of pavement or edge of travelled way and the adjacent property line, intended for the use of pedestrians, excluding parkways; such portion or a sidewalk is sometimes designated and known as the pavement "border" area.

STATE

The State of Rhode Island.

STREETS, HIGHWAYS, WAYS

Includes public boulevards, avenues, courts, lanes, alleys, squares, drives, roads, corners and sidewalks.

TENANT, OCCUPANT

Applied to a building or land, includes any person holding a written or oral lease of, or who occupies, the whole or a part of such building or land, either alone or with others.

TOWN

The Town of East Greenwich in the County of Kent and the State of Rhode Island.

WEEK

Seven days.

WRITTEN, IN WRITING

Includes any representation of words, letters or figures, whether by printing or otherwise.

YEAR

A calendar year.

Word usage.

(1)

Computation of time. The time in which an act is to be done shall be computed by excluding the first and including the last day, except that when the last day falls on a Sunday or a legal holiday the act may be done on the next succeeding day which is not a Sunday or a legal holiday. When a public office in which an act is to be performed is closed to the public for the entire day which constitutes the last day for doing such act, or before its usual closing time on such day, then such act may be performed on the next succeeding day which is not a Sunday or legal holiday.

(2)

Delegation of authority. Whenever a provision appears requiring the head of a department or other officer of the Town to do some act or to make certain inspections, it is to be construed to authorize the head of the department or other officer of the Town, as the case may be, to designate, delegate and authorize subordinates to perform the required act or make the required inspection, unless the terms of the provision or section designate otherwise.

(3)

Gender. A word importing the masculine gender only shall extend and be applied to females and to firms, partnerships and corporations as well as to males.

(4)

Interpretation. In the interpretation and application of any provision of this Code, it shall be held to be the minimum requirements adopted for the promotion of the public health, safety, comfort, convenience and general welfare. Where any provision of the Code imposes greater restrictions upon the subject matter than the general provision imposed by the Code, the provision imposing the greater restriction or regulation shall be deemed to be controlling.

(5)

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.

(6)

Name of officer. Whenever the name of an officer is given it shall be construed as though the words "of the Town of East Greenwich" were added.

(7)

Nontechnical and technical words. Words and phrases shall be construed according to the common and approved usage of the language, but technical words and phrases and such others as may have acquired a peculiar and appropriate meaning in law shall be construed and understood according to such meaning.

(8)

Number. A word importing the singular number only may extend and be applied to several persons and things as well as to one person and thing.

(9)

Or/and. "Or" may be read "and," and "and" may be read "or," if the sense requires it.

(10)

Preceding/following. The words "preceding" and "following" shall mean next before and next after, respectively.

(11)

Signature, subscription. The signature or subscription of a person shall include a mark when the person cannot write.

(12)

Tense. Words used in the past or present tense include the future as well as the past and present.

§ 1-3 Catchlines of sections, history notes and references.

The catchlines of the several sections of this Code printed in boldface type, the history notes, and the references scattered throughout the Code shall not be deemed or taken to be a substantive part of any section nor, unless expressly so provided, shall they be so deemed when any of such sections, including the catchlines, are amended or reenacted.

§ 1-4 Effect of repeal of ordinance.

The repeal of an ordinance shall not revive any ordinances in force before or at the time the ordinance repealed took effect.

The repeal of an ordinance shall not affect any punishment or penalty incurred before the repeal took effect, nor any suit, prosecution or proceeding pending at the time of the repeal for an offense committed or cause of action arising under the ordinances repealed.

§ 1-5 Severability of parts of Code.

It is hereby declared to be the intention of the Town Council that the sections, paragraphs, sentences, clauses and phrases of this Code are severable, and if any phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section of this Code shall be declared unconstitutional, invalid or unenforceable by the valid judgment or decree of any court of competent jurisdiction, such unconstitutionality, invalidity or unenforceability shall not affect any of the remaining phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs and sections of the Code, since such part of the Code would have been enacted by the Town Council without the incorporation in this Code of any unconstitutional phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section.

§ 1-6 Amendments to Code.

All ordinances passed subsequent to this Code which amend, repeal or in any way affect this Code may be numbered in accordance with the numbering system of this Code and printed for inclusion therein, or in the case of repealed chapters, sections and subsections or any part thereof, by subsequent ordinances, such repealed portions may be excluded from the Code by omission thereof from reprinted pages affected thereby, and the subsequent ordinances as numbered and printed or omitted, in the case of repeal, shall be prima facie evidence of such subsequent ordinances until such time that this Code and subsequent ordinances numbered or omitted are readopted as a new code of ordinances by the Town Council.

Amendments to any of the provisions of this Code should be made by amending such provisions by specific reference to the section of the Code in substantially the following language: "That section _____ of the Charter and Code of the Town of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, is hereby amended to read as follows: (Set out new provisions in full)."

If a new section not heretofore existing in the Code is to be added, the following language may be used: "That the Charter and Code of the Town of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, is hereby amended by adding a section (or article, chapter or other designation, as the case may be), to be numbered _____, which reads as follows: (Set out new provisions in full)."

In lieu of the foregoing subsection, when the Town Council desires to enact an ordinance of a general and permanent nature embracing a subject not previously existing in the Code, which the Town Council desires to incorporate into the Code, a provision in substantially the following language may be made a part of the ordinance: "It is the intention of the Town Council, and it is hereby ordained, that the provisions of this ordinance shall become and be made part of the Charter and Code of the Town of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, and the sections of this ordinance may be renumbered to accomplish such intention."

All sections, articles, chapters or other provisions of this Code desired to be repealed should be specifically repealed by section number, article number, chapter or other number, as the case may be.

§ 1-7 Ordinances to be numbered consecutively.

The Town Clerk shall number all ordinances consecutively in the order of their adoption.

§ 1-8 Supplementation of Code.

By contract or by Town personnel, supplements to this Code shall be prepared and printed whenever authorized or directed by the Town Council. A supplement to the Code shall include all substantive permanent and general parts of ordinances passed by the Town Council or adopted by initiative and referendum during the period covered by the supplement and all changes made thereby in the Code. The pages of a supplement shall be so numbered that they will fit properly into the Code and will, where necessary, replace pages which have become obsolete or partially obsolete, and the new pages shall be so prepared that, when they have been inserted, the Code will be current through the date of the adoption of the latest ordinance included in the supplement.

In the preparation of a supplement to this Code, all portions of the Code which have been repealed shall be excluded from the Code by the omission thereof from reprinted pages.

When preparing a supplement to this Code, the codifier (meaning the person, agency or organization authorized to prepare the supplement) may make formal, nonsubstantive changes in ordinances and parts of ordinances included in the supplement, insofar as it is necessary to do so to embody them into a unified Code. For example, the codifier may:

(1)

Organize the ordinance material into appropriate subdivisions;

(2)

Provide appropriate catchlines, headings and titles for sections and other subdivisions of the Code printed in the supplement, and make changes in such catchlines, headings and titles;

(3)

Assign appropriate numbers to sections and other subdivisions to be inserted in the Code and, where necessary to accommodate new material, change existing section or other subdivision numbers;

(4)

Change the words "this ordinance" or words of the same meaning to "this chapter," "this article," etc., as the case may be, or to "sections _____ to _____" (inserting section numbers to indicate the sections of the Code which embody the substantive sections of the ordinance incorporated into the Code); and

(5)

Make other nonsubstantive changes necessary to preserve the original meaning of ordinance sections inserted into the Code, but in no case shall the codifier make any change in the meaning or effect of ordinance material included in the supplement or already embodied in the Code.

§ 1-9 Certain ordinances not affected by Code.

Nothing in this Code or the ordinance adopting this Code shall be construed to repeal or otherwise affect the validity of any of the following when not inconsistent with this Code:

(1)

Any ordinance promising or guaranteeing the payment of money by the Town, or authorizing the issuance of any bonds of the Town, or any evidence of the Town's indebtedness, or any contract, agreement, lease, deed or other instrument or obligation assumed by the Town or creating interest and sinking funds;

(2)

Any right or franchise, permit or other right granted by any ordinance;

(3)

Any personnel regulations; any ordinance or resolution establishing salaries of Town officers and employees or civil service rules;

(4)

Any ordinance dedicating, naming, establishing, locating, relocating, opening, paving, widening, repairing or vacating any street, alley or other public way in the Town;

(5)

Any ordinance establishing and prescribing the street grades in the Town;

(6)

Any appropriation ordinance or any ordinance levying or imposing taxes;

(7)

Any ordinance providing for local improvements and assessing taxes therefor;

(8)

Any ordinance dedicating or accepting any plat or subdivision in the Town;

(9)

Any ordinance establishing the official plat of the Town;

(10)

Any Zoning Map amendment or land use, rezoning or Zoning Ordinance;

(11)

Any ordinance annexing territory or excluding territory from the Town;

(12)

Any ordinance prescribing traffic regulations for specific locations, prescribing through streets, parking limitations, parking prohibitions, one-way traffic, limitations on loads of vehicles or loading zones, not inconsistent with such Code;

(13)

Any subdivision ordinance;

(14)

Any ordinance creating special districts or assessing taxes therefor;

(15)

Any ordinance granting specific tax exemptions;

(16)

Any temporary or special ordinance;

(17)

Any administrative ordinance.

All such ordinances are herby recognized as continuing in full force and effect to the same extent as if set out at length in this Code.

§ 1-10 Altering Code. [1]

It shall be unlawful for any person in the Town to change or amend by additions or deletions any part or portion of this Code, or to insert or delete pages or portions thereof, or to alter or tamper with such Code in any manner whatsoever which will cause the law of the Town to be misrepresented thereby. Any person violating this section shall be punished as provided in Article III, General Penalty, of this chapter.

[1]

Editor's Note: Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. IV). This ordinance also repealed original § 1-11, General penalty; continuing violations, of the 2005 Code, which immediately followed this section.

§ 1-11 Prosecution where same act unlawful under different provisions.

In all cases where the same offense may be made punishable or shall be created by different clauses or sections of the ordinances of the Town, the prosecuting officer may elect under which to proceed, but not more than one recovery shall be had against the same person for the same offense.