Eatontown Council discusses ‘nuisance ordinance’

By Coleen Burnett

At their July 9th workshop meeting, the Eatontown Borough Council discussed the idea of putting together a so-called “nuisance ordinance”.

Under current New Jersey laws, these so-called “private nuisances” include vibration, pollution of a stream or soil, smoke, foul odors, excessive light, and loud noises. The discussion on adopting an entirely new ordinance specific to Eatontown was begun last year.

Borough Administrator and Police Chief William Lucia said a new ordinance is needed because police see new situations all the time while out in the field. For another, the borough no longer employs a noise officer, nor does the borough own any meters or other equipment to measure noise levels. Officers sometimes must make multiple trips to the same address. “It’s very antiquated and needs to be updated,” he said of the law, “We want something that solves the problem, but also doesn’t bring problems in the future. We don’t have those capabilities anymore.”

Councilwoman Hope Corcoran felt the new ordinance as currently written might create more problems than it solved.

“We need to look at this closer and focus {on specifics}…it’s way too broad. There are too many variables,” she told the council, “I definitely think this needs lots and lots of work.”

Councilwoman Jasmine Story agreed. “I think she’s right that it opens up a lot of doors with disputes with neighbors.”

Mayor Anthony Talerico said enforcing such an ordinance can be difficult. “There are a lot of real-world situations that officers find themselves in,” he said, “Everybody should reach out to Billy {Lucia} and give him their input so we can come up with an ordinance we can support.”

Flowers by Van Brunt “When Ordinary Just Isn’t Enough”

Let’s make sure we have something good…I think it’s okay that council wants to make sure we have a functioning ordinance, and were not going to {formally} introduce it until we do,” Mayor Talerico said.

The new ordinance can be found at the borough website at www.Eatontownnj.com