40:67-1 - Municipal ordinances - New Jersey Statutes

40:67-1.     Municipal ordinances
     The governing body of every municipality may make, amend, repeal and enforce ordinances to:

    a.   Ascertain and establish the boundaries of all streets, highways, lanes, alleys and public places in the municipalities, and prevent and remove all encroachments, obstructions and encumbrances in, over or upon the same or any part thereof;

    b.   Establish, change the grade of or vacate any public street, highway, lane or alley, or any part thereof, including the vacation of any portion of any public street, highway, lane or alley measured from a horizontal plane a specified distance above or below its surface and continuing upward or downward, as the case may be; vacate any street, highway, lane, alley, square, place or park, or any part thereof, dedicated to public use but not accepted by the municipality, whether or not the same, or any part, has been actually opened or improved; accept any street, highway, lane, alley, square, beach, park or other place, or any part thereof, dedicated to public use, and thereafter, improve and maintain the same.  The word "vacate" shall be construed for all purposes of this article to include the release of all public rights resulting from any dedication of lands not accepted by the municipality.  Any vacation ordinance adopted pursuant to this subsection shall expressly reserve and except from vacation all rights and privileges then possessed by public utilities, as defined in R.S. 48:2-13, and by any cable television company, as defined in the "Cable Television Act," P.L. 1972, c. 186 (C. 48:5A-1 et seq.), to maintain, repair and replace their existing facilities in, adjacent to, over or under the street, highway, lane, alley, square, place or park, or any part thereof, to be vacated;

    c.   Prescribe the time, manner in which and terms upon which persons shall exercise any privilege granted to them in the use of any street, highway, alley, or public place, or in digging up the same for laying down rails, pipes, conduits, or for any other purpose whatever;

    d.   Prevent or regulate the erection and construction of any stoop, step, platform, window, cellar door, area, descent into a cellar or basement, bridge, sign, or any post, erection or projection in, over or upon any street or highway, and for the removal of the same at the expense of the owner or occupant of the premises where already erected;

    e.   Cause the owners of real estate abutting on any street or highway to erect fences, walls or other safeguards for the protection of persons from injury from unsafe places on said real estate adjacent to or near such street or highway; and provide for the erection of the same by the municipality at the expense of the owner or owners of such real estate;

    f.   Regulate or prohibit the erection and maintenance of fences or any other form of inclosure fronting on any municipal street, highway, lane, alley or public place;

    g.   Prevent persons from depositing, throwing, spilling or dumping dirt, ashes or other material upon any street or highway or portion thereof, or causing or permitting the same to be done;

    h.   Regulate or prohibit the placing of banners or flags in, over or upon any street or avenue;

    i.   Cause the territory within the municipality to be accurately surveyed and a map or maps to be prepared showing the location and width of each street, highway, lane, alley and public place, and a plan for the systematic opening of roads and streets in the future.  Such map or maps may be changed from time to time;

    j.   Provide for the adoption and changing of a system of numbering all buildings and lots of land in such municipality, and the display upon each building of the number assigned to it, either at the expense of the owner thereof or of the municipality;

    k.   Provide for the naming and changing the names of streets and highways, and the erection thereon of signs, showing the names thereof, and guideposts for travelers;

    l.   Regulate processions and parades through the streets and highways of the municipality; and

    m.   Satisfy the standards embodied in the access code adopted by the Commissioner of Transportation under section 3 of the "State Highway Access Management Act," P.L. 1989, c. 32 (C. 27:7-91), for streets and highways under its control, through an access management code.  This code shall comply with the provisions of the "State Highway Access Management Act" and provide reasonable access by abutting landowners to streets and highways.

    Amended 1947,c.365; 1957,c.95; 1985,c.421; 1989, c. 32, s. 26.