Wayne, NJ Public Conduct: Public Urination (2026)

Wayne Township adopted this rule as Ord. No. 20-2019 and placed it in Chapter 123, Public Health Nuisances, as § 123-4.2. The prohibition names the street, highway, road, alley, sidewalk and thoroughfare, then widens to any public or semi-public place and to anywhere in the public view. The section supplies its own definition for those three terms: a location where the prohibited conduct can reasonably be expected to be viewed, or could be viewed, by others. Under that wording the Township does not have to show that anyone actually saw the act.

The same sentence also reaches outdoors upon any private property without the consent of the property owner or lawful occupant, so a backyard is covered when the owner has not agreed. Designated restrooms are the stated exception. Enforcement is carved out of the Health Department's usual role. Section 123-5 gives the Health Officer or a designee the rest of Chapter 123 but assigns §§ 123-4, 123-4.1 and 123-4.2 to the Chief of Police or a designee. Section 123-6 then treats these three sections differently from the Public Health Nuisance Code, whose violations carry a penalty of not less than $5.00 nor more than $500.00.

A violation of § 123-4.2 instead leads, on conviction, to the penalties stated in Chapter 1, Section 1-15. That section allows imprisonment in the county jail for up to 90 days, a fine up to $2,000, or community service up to 90 days. It also adds a separate fine for a repeat conviction within one year of a previous violation of the same provision, and § 1-15.8 leaves the Municipal Court judge free to impose a lesser or nominal penalty. Township parks add a related duty: § 129-20(A)(2) bars failing to cooperate in keeping park rest rooms and washrooms neat and sanitary.