Hightstown Council Back to the Drawing Board on Taxi Regulations

A controversial ordinance limiting the number of taxis in Hightstown was voted down at Monday's council meeting after it was met with opposition, and loopholes were pointed out in the proposed regulation.

The ordinance would have regulated the number of taxi companies and cabs in the Borough to five companies with an allotment of four cars each, allowing for a total of 20 cabs who could pick up fares in the Borough. However, .

“Nobody is going to lose their ability to do business in the Borough of Hightstown,” said J.P. Gibbons, a resident who worked on the ordinance with council member Lynne Woods. “The original ordinance had four [companies], because they thought there were three [companies]. We changed it to five [companies] to accommodate the people who currently have a license in the Borough.”

A concern that resonated among cab company owners throughout the nearly two-hour public hearing was that when a taxi drops off a fare in Hightstown, there is nowhere for them to wait in town for the return trip without being ticketed.

Police Director James Le Tellier told the council that the current Borough code and proposed ordinance contradict each other. The current code says no taxis can park on a Borough street at any time, or in a commercial property without the owners written permission. Currently if one is parked, they will be ticketed, Le Tellier said.

Le Tellier asked the council if he could meet with taxi owners, find out numbers of trips they do in the Borough, hear their concerns and make a recommendation to the governing body on the number of cabs he thinks should be the limit. He pointed to a Sunday night church service that serves the Spanish-speaking community that many people use cabs to get to. 

Former council member Isabel McGinty questioned many parts of the ordinance, including how much an owner would pay for the number of cars on an application, and if they would need to pay more if cars were added after the application was approved, saying it was not spelled out in the ordinance. McGinty also said the taxi vehicle number is not defined.

“This is very broadly phrased in its language,” McGinty said.

Borough Attorney Frederick C. Raffetto said Wednesday he took detailed notes during the public hearing and all comments and concerns would be taken into consideration when the next version of the ordinance is drafted. The Borough has been working on the ordinance for about five months.

Raffetto, who also works in Jamesburg, Asbury Park and Spring Lake Heights, said he isn’t seeing taxi ordinances being revised in other towns, but also said cabs are very active in Hightstown. 

“Hightstown is taking this process very, very seriously and deliberatively. They are really taking into consideration all of the comments and concerns, and are trying to make sure they are adopting the best ordinance possible. And in so doing it, it is taking them a bit longer than they originally had mentioned, but in the end they will end up with a better product.”

There is no date set as to when the newly drafted ordinance will be reintroduced.