Filming in Garwood, New Jersey

Read the top of the fee table before you read the numbers

Two gaps in the table that we are not going to fill for you. The budget tiers read under $20 million and over $20 million, so a project budgeted at exactly $20,000,000 falls in neither band. And § 162-3A sets the filing floor at four business days while the fee table puts “4 or less days advance notice” inside the expedited band, so four days appears to be both the minimum and expedited. Ask the Clerk which applies to you rather than assuming the cheaper reading.

Section 162-9 sits on top of every fee. In addition to any other fees or costs, you reimburse the Borough for any lost revenue such as parking meter revenue, repairs to public property, or other revenue the Borough was prevented from earning because of the filming.

How to begin

Filming in Garwood runs through the Office of the Borough Clerk, but the substantive decisions belong to the Borough Administrator. The Clerk takes the application and issues the permit; the Administrator refuses permits under § 162-5, grants waivers under § 162-7, and is the person a § 162-6 appeal is filed with. Knowing which office to call for which question saves a week here.

• Nicole Kotiga, Borough Clerk and Registrar
• John Arthur, Borough Administrator
• Borough Administration Office, 403 South Avenue, Garwood, NJ 07027 · 908-789-0710
• Hours: Monday, Wednesday and Thursday 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Tuesday 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.; Friday 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Note the Tuesday evening hour and the short Friday. If you are filing against a four business day floor, those hours are part of the arithmetic.

Filing. Section 162-3A: no permit will be issued unless applied for at least four business days prior to the requested shooting date. It is at the Borough Administrator’s discretion to waive the four-day period if the applicant has obtained all related approvals and adjacent property owners or tenants do not need to be notified.

The permit itself sets out the approved location and the approved duration by specific reference to day or dates, and must be readily available for inspection by Borough officials at all times at the filming site.

If the weather turns, § 162-2C lets the Borough Clerk issue a new permit for other dates at your request, subject to full compliance with everything else, and no additional fee is paid.

What triggers a permit

Section 162-2A is one of the more precisely drawn triggers in New Jersey. A permit is needed to film on public property, and also on private property where the filming involves the use of public property for the operation, placement or temporary storage of vehicles or equipment, including any temporary structure, barricade or device intended to restrict or block off pedestrian or vehicular traffic.

So the test is not whether your camera is on a private lawn. It is whether anything you are doing occupies public property. A truck on the street, a generator at the curb, cones narrowing a sidewalk: any of those pulls a private-property shoot inside the chapter.

The definition of filming was written for the current market. Section 162-1 covers still or motion pictures on film, videotape or a similar medium, for commercial or educational purposes intended for viewing on television, in theatres, on a major linear broadcast network or streaming platforms, or for institutional uses. Most New Jersey filming chapters were drafted before streaming was named in them. This one names it.

News is outside the chapter. The definition expressly excludes the filming of news stories within the municipality.

Filming entirely on private property, with no public footprint, carries no municipal daily fee under the § 162-10 line for daily filming on private property. Read that alongside the § 162-2A trigger rather than as a separate permission.

Insurance, police and the public safety plan

Insurance. Section 162-3B(1) requires, before any permit issues for filming on public lands, satisfactory proof of coverage for:

• Bodily injury: $500,000 to any one person, and $1,000,000 in the aggregate for any occurrence
• Property damage: $300,000 in the aggregate for each occurrence

Section 162-3B(2) adds a written agreement to indemnify and hold the municipality harmless from any and all liability, expense, claim or damages resulting from the use of public lands. There is no cash deposit or bond in this chapter, which distinguishes Garwood from Roseland and Pompton Lakes, both of which require $500.

The Borough still reserves a separate right. Section 162-5B allows the Borough to require one or more on-site patrolmen where the proposed production may impede the proper flow of traffic, at your cost as a cost of production. Where existing electrical power lines will be used, an on-site licensed electrician may be required if the production company does not have one on staff.

The rates are not in the chapter. The fee table points to “the municipality’s standard hourly rates for police and fire”. Ask the Clerk for the current schedule. Do not read the absence of a printed number as an indication that police or fire attendance is free.

Fire inspections are named alongside police in the same public safety line, and § 162-8 lets the Fire Prevention Bureau or other Borough inspectors inspect the site and the equipment where deemed necessary, with compliance required for any safety instruction they issue.

Copies of the approved permit go to the Police and Fire Departments before filming, and to the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission at njfilm@njeda.gov. Garwood is one of the few municipalities to write the State’s address into its own ordinance.

Hours are not in this chapter, and we are not going to supply them

What to do instead of guessing. Put your proposed hours in the application, in writing, and ask the Clerk and the Administrator to confirm them in the permit. Section 162-7 gives the Administrator power to waive any requirement, provision or restriction of the chapter, and one of the six factors is expressly “the nature of the filming, including whether filming will take place indoors or outdoors, and the proposed hours for filming”. Hours are clearly something the Administrator expects to consider, even though the chapter sets none.

The other five waiver factors are potential traffic congestion at the location; your ability to remove your vehicles and equipment from public streets or other public property; the extent to which you are requesting restrictions on public streets or public parking facilities; the extent to which the filming may affect adjoining and nearby property owners and occupants; and the Borough’s prior experience with you, if any.

We will not publish hours borrowed from a neighbouring town’s ordinance. Several nearby New Jersey chapters run 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. in residential zones, but none of them is law in Garwood.

Notice, refusal and an appeal that can win by default

Neighbour notice. Where the production will directly involve or affect any businesses, merchants or residents, § 162-4B requires written notice at least three days before the requested shooting date, telling them that objections may be filed with the Borough Clerk. Those objections form part of your application and are considered in reviewing it.

Note the interaction with the filing rule: the application is due four business days out, while the notice is due three days out. Serve the notice when the application goes in rather than waiting for the three-day floor.

The proof-of-service deadline is ambiguous in the enacted text. Section 162-4B requires proof of service to be submitted to the Clerk “within two days of the requested shooting date” without saying before or after. The identical wording appears in Gloucester Township, Florence Township and Pompton Lakes. Filing early is the safe reading either way.

Refusal. Under § 162-5A the Borough Administrator may refuse a permit on the basis of objective facts, after reviewing the application and a report from the Police Department and other Borough agencies involved with the proposed site, where filming at that location or time would violate any law or ordinance, unreasonably interfere with the use and enjoyment of adjoining properties, unreasonably impede the free flow of vehicular or pedestrian traffic, or otherwise endanger public health, safety or welfare.

Penalties. A fine not exceeding $2,000, imprisonment in the county or municipal jail for up to 90 days, or a period of community service up to 90 days, or any combination, as the Municipal Court Judge determines. Each day a violation exists is a separate and distinct violation.

What we are not publishing for Garwood

Stated plainly rather than guessed at:

• Filming hours. Chapter 162 sets none. We are not importing them from another municipality.
• The standard hourly rates for police and fire. The fee table points to them without stating them.
• Any fee as a fixed price. Every figure in § 162-10 is capped, not posted.
• A downloadable application. None is published. Section 162-2B says the form is one approved by the Borough Clerk.
• A Clerk email address. The Borough’s Administrator and Clerk page publishes the office address and telephone number but no email, so we publish those.
• A named Film Ready Liaison or Film Permit Representative. No official source names one.
• Any location or its availability. Nothing on this page asserts that a Borough street, park, business frontage or private property is available to film.

Chapter 162 reaches land within the Borough’s jurisdiction and control. Union County roads and parks, State highways, the rail corridor and privately held land each have their own controlling authority, and a Borough permit does not reach them.

Common questions

How much does a film permit cost in Garwood, NJ?

Every figure in section 162-10 is a ceiling, not a price: the column is headed "Fee (Not to exceed)". The basic permit is capped at $100 with five or more days advance notice, or $250 expedited with four or fewer days. Nonprofit and student films are capped at $25. Daily filming on public property is capped at $150 for projects budgeted under $20 million and $500 for those over $20 million. Filming on private property carries no municipal fee. A street closure is capped at $1,000 per day. Ask the Clerk for the amount that will actually be charged for your application.

How far in advance do I need a film permit in Garwood?

At least four business days before the requested shooting date, under section 162-3A. Garwood is the only town in this group whose chapter says business days rather than just days. The Borough Administrator has discretion to waive the four-day period where all related approvals are in hand and adjacent owners or tenants do not need notice. Note that the fee table treats four or fewer days advance notice as expedited, so confirm with the Clerk which fee applies.

What are the filming hours in Garwood?

Chapter 162 does not state any. There is no residential window, no wrap time and no night-scene provision anywhere in the chapter. That is an absence in the ordinance rather than permission to film at any hour: section 162-4A still requires the permit holder to minimise inconvenience to adjoining owners and abate noise where practicable, and the Police Department reports on every application. Put your proposed hours in the application and ask for them to be confirmed in the permit.

Do I need to hire a police officer to film in Garwood?

Only if the Chief of Police requires it. Section 162-3B(3) conditions the hiring of an off-duty officer on the Chief's requirement under an agreed public safety plan, which is different from Roseland, Florence Township and Pompton Lakes, where an officer is a flat precondition of any public-lands permit. The Borough separately reserves the right under section 162-5B to require on-site patrolmen where the production may impede traffic. Rates are the municipality's standard hourly rates for police and fire and are not published in the chapter.

Do I need a permit to film on private property in Garwood?

Section 162-2A requires a permit for filming on public property, and also for filming on private property where the filming involves the use of public property for the operation, placement or temporary storage of vehicles or equipment, including any temporary structure or barricade restricting pedestrian or vehicular traffic. So the question is not where the camera sits but whether anything you are doing occupies public property. A production truck at the curb is enough. Filming on private property carries no municipal daily fee.

What happens if Garwood denies my film permit?

You appeal to the Borough Council. Written notice of appeal is filed with the Borough Administrator within 10 days of the decision, and the Council sets a hearing within 45 days. Section 162-6B adds an unusual default: if the Council does not adopt its resolution within the required time, the Administrator's decision is deemed reversed and a permit is to be issued in conformity with the application. Forty-five days is longer than most schedules, so resolve problems at the application stage rather than relying on the appeal.

Official sources

• OfficialBorough of Garwood Code, Chapter 162 “Filming”, § 162-1 to § 162-11, adopted July 24, 2025 by Ordinance No. 25-21. Code root GA1932, which eCode reports current through May 14, 2026. Read in full August 26, 2026
• OfficialThe same chapter in eCode’s print view, which renders every section in one document. This is the copy that was read for this guide
• OfficialBorough of Garwood Borough Administrator and Borough Clerk page, for the named Administrator and Clerk, the office address, the telephone number and the office hours, checked August 26, 2026
• OfficialNJMPTVC Film Ready certified-localities list, checked August 26, 2026

Checked August 26, 2026 against Chapter 162 of the Borough of Garwood Code read in full through the eCode print view under code root GA1932, the Borough’s own Administrator and Clerk page and the State certified-localities list. No prior research existed for Garwood in this project; this is a first full pass on the primary sources Report a correction or updated permit requirement.

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