Town guide

Filming in Highland Park, New Jersey

A production guide to Highland Park’s 2025 filming ordinance and its October 2025 application, the published fees, bond and hours, and the one timing conflict the Borough’s two official documents have not reconciled.

Highland Park adopted Ordinance No. 25-2115 in August 2025 and is a Film Ready certified locality. It publishes a current application, a full fee schedule and named staff contacts.

Those sources give a near-complete municipal process. Two things still need to come from the Borough in writing: the proof-of-notice deadline, and a fee classification for any budget at or near $20 million.

Information checked July 30, 2026

Checked Jul 30 2026

County: Middlesex County
Film Ready treatment: Film Ready certified locality
Municipal starting point: Borough of Highland Park, film inquiries via Economic Development
Film inquiries: Rutuja Vartak, Economic Development Coordinator
Inquiry email: rvartak@hpboro.com
Inquiry phone: 732-287-5801
Borough Administrator: Teri Jover, Borough Administrator & Economic Development Director, the official who issues, refuses and waives under the chapter
Administrator email: tjover@hpboro.com
Borough Clerk: Jennifer Santiago, receives applications and proof of notice
Clerk email: jsantiago@hpboro.com
Clerk phone: 732-819-3782
Office: Borough Hall, 221 South Fifth Avenue, Highland Park, NJ 08904
Published Borough Hall hours: Monday 8:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.; Tuesday 8:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.; Wednesday and Thursday 8:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.; Friday 8:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. These are office hours, not filming hours, and the filming contact page states by appointment only
Governing ordinance: Ordinance No. 25-2115, creating Chapter 247 Article V, Filming. Introduced June 24, 2025, adopted August 12, 2025
Application: Official Application for Filming Permit, updated October 23, 2025
Standard lead time: Applied for prior to four days before the requested shooting date
Basic permit: $100 with four or more days’ advance notice
Expedited permit: $250 with three or fewer days’ advance notice
Nonprofit and student permit: $25, one time, no daily rate required
Public-property daily fee: $150 where the budget is under $20 million; $500 where the budget is over $20 million
Private-property daily fee: No fee charged by the municipality
Parking fees: No fee charged by the municipality
Public-land insurance: $500,000 bodily injury to any one person / $1,000,000 aggregate, plus $300,000 aggregate property damage per occurrence
Bond: $500 cash bond or $1,000 maintenance bond
Filming hours: Monday to Sunday, 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. camera wrap, crew wrap 10:00 p.m.
Small Production Waiver: Published on the application for productions under five people, no more than two cameras, no parking, no lighting or camera stands and no obstruction of public passage
Appeals: To the Borough Council, filed within 10 days of the Administrator’s decision

Documented location character

The Borough’s own filming page describes a walkable downtown, historic homes, scenic riverfront parks and residential neighborhoods, and positions Highland Park as minutes from New Brunswick and under an hour from New York City and Philadelphia. Highland Park sits on the north bank of the Raritan River, directly across from New Brunswick.

Highland Park also maintains a location library through the State’s Reel-Scout system and invites property and business owners to register there. That library is the practical starting point for scouting, but a listing in it is not permission to film at the property.

Read this first

A past production credit, a Reel-Scout listing and a Film Ready certification all describe interest and process. None of them is present availability for a specific address on a specific date. Confirm the location separately from the permit.

Current source set

Highland Park publishes an unusually complete set for a borough of its size: a current adopting ordinance, a dated application with a fee schedule and a requirements checklist, and named staff contacts.

Ordinance No. 25-2115, which created Chapter 247 Article V, Filming. Introduced June 24, 2025 and adopted August 12, 2025.
Application for Filming Permit, updated October 23, 2025, carrying its own fee schedule and application-requirements list.
The Borough’s "Filming in Highland Park" page, which publishes the contacts and links both documents.

Those two documents agree on fees, insurance, bond and hours. They do not agree on when proof of notice is due. That disagreement is set out below and is not resolved here.

Film Ready status

Highland Park appears on the NJ Motion Picture & Television Commission’s certified-localities list, verified July 30, 2026. The adopting ordinance states the Borough’s intent to qualify under the Film Ready New Jersey program.

Certification describes the municipality’s process readiness. It does not guarantee a permit, does not shorten the published lead time, and does not reach County, State, transit, university or private property inside the Borough.

Middlesex County is not itself on the certified-localities list as of July 30, 2026. That dated absence should not be expanded into a claim that the County was never certified or that County property is unavailable.

When a permit is required

Under § 247-42A a permit is required to film on public property, and also to film on private property where the work uses 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 pedestrian or vehicular traffic.

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

The chapter’s definition of filming excludes the filming of news stories within the municipality. It does not publish a separate exemption for small private noncommercial shoots; the application instead offers a Small Production Waiver, described below.

Application and timing

Applications go to the office of the Municipal Clerk during normal business hours, on a form approved by the Clerk, with the fee set by § 247-50.

Standard route: § 247-43A says no permit will be issued unless applied for prior to four days before the requested shooting date.
Waiver of the four-day period: the Borough Administrator may waive it where, in her judgment, the applicant has obtained all related approvals and adjacent owners or tenants do not need to be notified. Both conditions are stated together.
Expedited fee: a request to process in fewer than four days carries a $250 basic permit fee instead of $100.

The chapter does not state whether the four days are counted as calendar or business days, and it does not publish a guaranteed turnaround. Departmental sign-off from Public Works, Police and the Clerk appears on the application’s office-use page before the Administrator recommends approval. File earlier than the minimum and ask the Administrator’s office to confirm the count in writing.

Quick answer

The expedited fee buys expedited processing, not an approval and not a stated turnaround time. Nothing in the checked sources commits the Borough to a deadline once the fee is paid.

Notice and proof of notice

Where the production will directly involve or affect businesses, merchants or residents, § 247-44B requires those parties to be given written notice of the filming at least three days prior to the requested shooting date, and to be told that objections may be filed with the Municipal Clerk. Filed objections become part of the application and are considered in its review.

Unresolved conflict

The two official sources disagree on when proof of notice is due, and this guide does not resolve it.

Ordinance § 247-44B: “Proof of service of notification to adjacent owners shall be submitted to the Municipal Clerk within two days of the requested shooting date.” That wording does not say whether the two days run before or after the shooting date.

Application, updated October 23, 2025, under Application Requirements: “Proof of Notice to Adjacent Property Owners/Businesses at least 3 days prior to filming.”

On the ordinance the deadline is two days and its direction is ambiguous. On the application the deadline is three days and it is clearly beforehand. Ask the Borough Administrator’s office and the Clerk for a written instruction covering the exact date proof is due and the accepted form of service, and keep that instruction with the permit.

Insurance, bond and indemnification

For filming on public lands, § 247-43B and the application’s requirements list publish the same figures:

$500,000 bodily-injury coverage for any one person
$1,000,000 bodily-injury aggregate for any occurrence
$300,000 property damage per occurrence in the aggregate
A cash bond of $500 or a maintenance bond of $1,000 in favor of the Borough
A signed indemnification agreement holding the municipality harmless from liability, expense, claim or damages arising from use of public lands

The bond secures that the site is left free of debris, rubbish and equipment and that Borough laws and regulations are followed. The ordinance says the Borough returns it within ten days of completion where there is no damage to public or private property and no public expense caused by the filming.

The checked sources do not publish the Borough’s required certificate-holder or additional-insured wording. Request that exact wording before binding coverage.

Filming hours

§ 247-43D publishes filming as permitted Monday to Sunday, 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. camera wrap, with crew wrap at 10:00 p.m. Extended hours for non-residential areas may be approved where disturbances are de minimis, and the night restriction applies only to a project with exterior filming.

Borough Hall office hours are separate and are listed in the quick facts above. Office hours are not filming hours, and the filming contact page states that Borough Hall is by appointment only.

Police, fire and electrical review

The chapter ties public-safety staffing to an agreed public safety plan and to departmental process. Off-duty police officers are required where filming involves:

firearms, pyrotechnics or hazardous materials
costumes resembling public personnel uniforms
street or lane closures, or traffic control
stunts or special effects
animals or unusual scenes
high-profile celebrity appearances
night shooting, or other public-safety concerns at the discretion of the chief law enforcement officer

The Administrator may also require one or more on-site officers where the production may impede the proper flow of traffic, at the applicant’s cost as a cost of production. Where existing electrical power lines are used, an on-site licensed electrician may be required if the production company does not have one on staff.

Off-duty police and fire inspections are billed at the municipality’s standard hourly rates. Those rates are not published in either checked document. Request the current rate and the minimum call-out in writing.

Copies of the approved permit are sent to the Police and Fire Departments before filming and to the New Jersey Film Commission. The Fire Prevention Bureau or other Borough inspectors may inspect the site and equipment.

Current published fees

Both the ordinance fee section and the application fee schedule publish these figures.

Category	Published fee
Basic filming permit, one time, four or more days’ advance notice	$100
Expedited basic filming permit, three or fewer days’ advance notice	$250
Basic filming permit, nonprofit including student films, no daily rate	$25
Daily filming on public property, budget under $20 million	$150 per day
Daily filming on public property, budget over $20 million	$500 per day
Daily filming on private property	No fee charged by the municipality
Parking	No fee charged by the municipality
Off-duty police and fire inspections	Municipality’s standard hourly rates, not published
Properties in background or used in shot	Negotiated between production and property owner
Daily prep, and daily filming, of a business being “dressed”	Negotiated between production and business

In addition to any other fee, § 247-49 requires the applicant to reimburse the Borough for lost revenue such as parking-meter revenue, repairs to public property, or other revenue the Borough was prevented from earning because of the filming. No schedule for that reimbursement is published.

Quick answer

A budget of exactly $20 million is not classified by the fee table. The table reads “under $20 million” and “over $20 million” with nothing at the line itself.

The chapter’s own definition of a major motion picture separately captures “any film for which the budget is at least $20,000,000,” alongside a named list of studios and any recurrent weekly television series programming. Those two provisions are stated here as they appear; a production sitting at or near the line should get a written fee classification from the Borough rather than reading one across from the other.

The Small Production Waiver

The application publishes a waiver route that the ordinance text does not describe. It is available only for small productions with fewer than five people present, no more than two cameras, no parking required, no lighting equipment or camera stands used, and no obstruction to public passage.

Within that category the applicant may request a waiver of the insurance requirement, the daily filming permit fee, the expedited permit fee, the bond requirement, the neighborhood notice, or another item written in. All waiver requests are stated to be subject to administrative approval.

Because this route appears on the application and not in the checked ordinance text, treat an approved waiver as something to obtain in writing before relying on it. Do not assume any element is waived by default.

Who controls the location?

A Highland Park permit reaches Borough public property. It does not reach the following, each of which requires its own approval:

Donaldson Park is County property, not Borough property

Donaldson Park, the large riverfront park in Highland Park and the most obvious exterior in the Borough, is a Middlesex County park. It is listed in the County’s own facility directory. A Borough film permit does not authorize filming there.

Start with the Middlesex County Office of Parks and Recreation, 1030 River Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854, 732-745-3900, and get the County’s filming requirements in writing. Middlesex County does not appear on the State certified-localities list as of July 30, 2026, so do not assume a Film Ready process applies to County property.

The Raritan River and its banks

River surface, launches and shoreline may involve County, State or federal jurisdiction depending on the exact activity and location. Drone work over the river adds FAA requirements. Confirm before scheduling any on-water or over-water shot.

State highway right-of-way

Highland Park’s main commercial corridor carries a State route designation. Lane or shoulder work in a State right-of-way is an NJDOT matter, not a Borough one. Confirm the jurisdiction of the specific block with the Borough and with NJDOT before planning traffic control.

Rutgers University and New Brunswick

Rutgers controls its own campus filming approvals, and New Brunswick is a separate municipality with its own process. A Highland Park permit reaches neither, even where the shot looks across the river.

Private property, including anything found on Reel-Scout

Every private interior, storefront and residence needs the owner’s written permission in addition to the Borough permit. The fee table expressly leaves properties in the background, and businesses being dressed, to negotiation between the production and the owner.

Practical production planning

Working sequence for a Highland Park shoot, based only on the checked sources:

Establish jurisdiction for every setup first. If any part of the day touches Donaldson Park, the river or a State route, that is a separate approval on a separate timeline.
Contact Economic Development early. Rutuja Vartak is the published film inquiry contact and Borough Hall is by appointment only.
File with the Clerk more than four days out, and treat the expedited fee as a last resort rather than a schedule tool.
Serve adjacent-owner notice at least three days ahead, and get the proof-of-notice deadline in writing because the two official sources differ.
Bind insurance and post the bond early, and ask for the Borough’s exact certificate wording before the certificate is issued.
Raise firearms, pyrotechnics, stunts, animals, street closures, night work or celebrity appearances at first contact. Each triggers a required officer and a public safety plan.
Get a written fee classification if the budget is anywhere near $20 million.

Common questions

Is Highland Park a Film Ready certified community?

Yes. Highland Park appears on the NJ Motion Picture & Television Commission’s current certified-localities list, verified July 30, 2026. The Borough adopted Ordinance No. 25-2115 on August 12, 2025 for that purpose. Certification does not guarantee a permit and does not reach County, State, university or private property.

How far ahead should I apply for a Highland Park film permit?

Section 247-43A says a permit will not be issued unless applied for prior to four days before the requested shooting date. The chapter does not say whether those are calendar or business days, and departmental review by Public Works, Police and the Clerk happens before the Administrator recommends approval. File earlier and ask the Administrator’s office to confirm the count in writing.

How much is a Highland Park film permit?

The basic permit is $100 with four or more days’ advance notice and $250 on an expedited basis with three or fewer days. Nonprofit and student films are $25 with no daily rate. Daily filming entirely on public property is $150 where the budget is under $20 million and $500 where it is over $20 million. Filming on private property and parking carry no municipal fee.

What happens if the budget is exactly $20 million?

The published fee table does not classify it. It lists only “under $20 million” and “over $20 million.” Separately, the chapter’s definition of a major motion picture captures any film with a budget of at least $20,000,000. Obtain a written fee classification from the Borough rather than reading one provision across from the other.

When is proof of notice due in Highland Park?

The two official sources disagree and this guide does not resolve the conflict. The ordinance requires notice at least three days prior and says proof of service is submitted to the Municipal Clerk within two days of the requested shooting date, without stating whether that runs before or after. The application, updated October 23, 2025, requires proof of notice at least three days prior to filming. Ask the Clerk and the Administrator’s office for a written instruction.

What are Highland Park’s filming hours?

Section 247-43D permits filming Monday to Sunday, 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. camera wrap, with crew wrap at 10:00 p.m. Extended hours in non-residential areas may be approved where disturbances are de minimis, and the night restriction applies only to projects with exterior filming. Borough Hall office hours are separate and are not filming hours.

Does a Highland Park permit cover Donaldson Park?

No. Donaldson Park is a Middlesex County park listed in the County’s own facility directory, not Borough property. Contact the Middlesex County Office of Parks and Recreation at 732-745-3900 and obtain the County’s filming requirements separately.

Does Highland Park require a bond and off-duty police?

A cash bond of $500 or a maintenance bond of $1,000 is required for filming on public lands, returned within ten days of completion where there is no damage or public expense. Off-duty officers are required for firearms, pyrotechnics, hazardous materials, uniform-like costumes, street or lane closures, traffic control, stunts, special effects, animals, unusual scenes, high-profile celebrity appearances and night shooting, billed at the municipality’s standard hourly rates, which are not published.

Official sources

Checked July 30, 2026 against Ordinance No. 25-2115, the application updated October 23, 2025, the Borough’s filming and Clerk pages, the State certified-localities list and the Middlesex County facility directory. Report a correction or updated permit requirement.

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Reviewed by Sam Moskowitz, producer & director of photography

This guide is researched and reviewed by Sam Moskowitz, a New Jersey-based producer and DP who runs BLL Films. Sam’s production and cinematography credits include work for Netflix, History Channel, Hulu, the NFL and Google. Every changing fact on this page carries a verification date; see how this site is researched for the full process.