The ordinance, fashioned after similar ordinances from neighboring townships, will be the subject of a public hearing at the committee's regular meeting on April 22.
"Some of the cars are on the streets, some of them are on the yards. . . . We got many, many complaints just before we decided to do this," said Sheldon Evans, a member of the township committee who, along with fellow committee member Michael McMullen, took an informal survey of the number of abandoned or inoperative cars while driving through sections of the township in February.
The survey, Evans said, found 26 cars that did not have license plates, wheels, fenders or hoods.
Other cars, he said, had license plates but were missing basic operating parts. Evans said that township officials would keep a close watch on those cars but that he expected, as the weather became warmer, that they would be repaired and moved.
Evans said that many residents purchased used cars with the intent of repairing them but that, when repair costs got too high, they let the cars sit.
"The residents are telling us the cars are a nuisance," Evans said. "I don't think it's fair to ride by and see three or four cars sitting in someone's yard.
"If (residents) want it cleaned up, I think we should to do the best we can," he said.
