Here at RPA, we do a lot of digging through zoning ordinances. In fact, we’re doing it for every area surrounding a commuter rail station in the 31-county region, in order to see which municipalities are friendliest for transit-oriented development and inclusive communities – both things we’ll be emphasizing in our Fourth Regional Plan.
Usually, sorting through ordinance data is a fairly mundane task, heavy on things like density requirements and height regulations. But there are some exceptions. Here are a few interesting things we’ve found in various local ordinances around the region during this project.
Our favorite chapter title comes from the town of Valley Stream in Nassau County, where Chapter 28 is officially legislated to be referred to as “The Explosive Ordinance of the Village of Valley Stream.” And who says local laws have to be boring? (The ordinance itself regulates guns, firework and other explosives, and may also be officially referred to as “ordinance no. 96 of the Village of Valley Stream”).
Also in Nassau, leaving your wagon on a public street in the Village of Island Park will earn you a fine of $10. That’s a good deal compared with the $25 fine you’ll get in the Town of Montclair in Essex County, New Jersey, for jogging side-by-side, though.
Speaking of Essex County, the township of Bloomfield, New Jersey, “Fortune-Telling” gets a chapter all to itself, which reads:
It shall be unlawful for any person in the Township, for hire or reward, to foretell, reveal, disclose, divine or attempt to foretell, reveal, disclose or divine any event, past, present or future, by means of the possession or alleged possession of any occult or mysterious power, whether the same is manifested through medium sitting, medium control, table rappings, hand readings, cards, hypnotism, clairvoyancy, fortune-telling, palmistry or phrenology or any other mode of fashion.
Our favorite part of this ordinance is that, legally, it is specifically written to outlaw fortune telling not only by your typical $20 storefront palm reader, but also by people with the genuine ability to predict the future, as both “possession” and “alleged possession” of “any occult or mysterious power” is forbidden. Obviously this ordinance wouldn’t play down in Asbury Park.
But perhaps the most interesting ordinance is Chapter 66 of the Norwalk Connecticut code, simply entitled “Milk.” We’ll spare you all eight subsections, but it starts
No person shall engage in the sale or distribution of milk in the city, except in accordance with the general statutes, the provisions of this chapter and the rules and regulations which have been or shall hereafter be adopted by the Milk Regulation Board of the State.
Who knew Connecticut had a Milk Regulation Board?