Correct signs or not — this photo shows one that was improperly installed last week before being removed a day later — the borough contends its resident-permit parking zones are valid.
Answering a lawsuit that challenges its resident-permit parking ordinances, the Borough of Red Bank contends that there’s no question that the laws are on solid legal grounds.
In a 24-page brief filed in state Superior Court in Freehold last week, Borough Attorney Tom Hall counters claims by Broad Street postal service employee Tai Truong that there are no ordinances on the books prohibiting non-residents from parking on resident-permit streets.
Hall also rejects Truong’s broader claims, made in the lawsuit filed by private attorney Bill McCarter, of McCarter & Higgins, that there are no state laws allowing the passage of resident-permit ordinances in New Jersey, and that such laws are unconstitutional.
“Four separate state statutes provide clear and unambiguous authority for the Borough’s residents-only parking Ordinance,” Hall writes, and an appeals court has “specifically held that N.J.S.A. §39:4-8 authorizes a municipal residents-only parking restriction.”
Noting that the U.S. Supreme Court “has held that residents-only parking restrictions achieve reasonable public policy goals, including the reduction of air pollution and enhancement of residents’ quality of life,” Hall goes on to say that it is “indisputable that the BoroughÂ’s ordinance was enacted with a view towards reducing air
and noise pollution and improving the residentsÂ’ quality of life.”
Supporting evidence submitted with the court filing includes a number of Red Bank ordinances dating back to 1994 establishing permit-parking zones. All of them, Hall argues, cite air and noise pollution and quality of life concerns.
“At best, all the plaintiff has done and can do is to demonstrate that reasonable minds may differ,” Hall argues. “That is not enough. Therefore, the Complaint should be dismissed with prejudice in its entirety.”
The two sides are due in court Friday, September 26, for a hearing on the borough’s motion to dismiss Truong’s suit.
Here’s Red Bank’s 24-page brief: Download rb_brief_re_truong.pdf. And here’s he appendix: Download rb_brief_support_re_truong.pdf
