Parsippany-Troy Hills, NJ Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Sit-Lie Rules (2026)

The Township of Parsippany-Troy Hills addresses sidewalk conduct through Chapter 271, Obstruction of Public Places, not a sit-lie ordinance. Section 271-2A provides that a person, having no legal privilege to do so, shall not purposely or recklessly obstruct the use of any public place, whether alone or with others. Nobody is guilty of recklessly obstructing solely because of a gathering of persons to hear him speak or otherwise communicate, or solely because of being a member of such a gathering.

The key definitions are in § 271-1. OBSTRUCT means to render impassable without unreasonable inconvenience or hazard. A PUBLIC PLACE is any place to which the public or a substantial group has access, and the list expressly includes streets, highways, roads, alleys, sidewalks, transport facilities, schools, places of business or amusement, the front of any store, shop, restaurant or tavern, public grounds, parks and parking lots or other vacant private property not owned or controlled by the person charged. The code also defines PURPOSELY and RECKLESSLY, the mental states the Township must show. Recklessly means consciously disregarding a substantial and unjustifiable risk, in a way that is a gross deviation from what a reasonable person would do.

The operative enforcement step is § 271-2B. No person or persons shall assemble in a gathering in such a manner as to obstruct the use of public places within the Township. When a police officer, in the exercise of reasonable judgment, decides that a gathering is obstructing a public place, the officer can order the persons to leave. Refusing after being ordered is a violation of the chapter.

Section 271-2C limits the power: an order to move a person whose speech or other lawful behavior attracts an obstructing audience is not reasonable if the obstruction can be readily remedied by police control of the size or location of the gathering. The trigger is therefore blocked passage, not the act of sitting or lying down. Camping and shelter rules, if any, sit in other chapters.