Town guide

Filming in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey

Hillsborough was certified in the February 2023 Somerset County inaugural cohort — three and a half years ago — and still publishes no filming ordinance, application or fee schedule anywhere we could find.

That is a gap in what is published, not a finding that you can film without asking. Start with the Township Clerk.

Of all the certified municipalities on this site, Hillsborough has been certified longest without publishing anything a producer can plan against. That is worth stating plainly, and it is also worth asking the Township about directly, because three and a half years is long enough that the answer is probably sitting in a drawer rather than pending.

Information checked September 22, 2026

Checked Sep 22 2026

County: Somerset County
Film Ready status: Film Ready certified locality. Confirmed on the State’s published certified-localities list, read in full September 22, 2026. Certified in the February 2023 Somerset County inaugural cohort.
Published filming ordinance: None found as of September 22, 2026
Who to contact: The clerk’s office
Permit fee: Not published. Ask the clerk’s office
Lead time: Not published. Ask the clerk’s office
Insurance: Not published. Ask the clerk’s office
What this page is not: It is not a finding that filming is unregulated here. Street closures, parking, noise and police staffing are governed by other chapters, and the municipality is certified, which implies a process exists
Date of this finding: September 22, 2026

Read this first

An absent ordinance is not permission. We could not find a published filming ordinance. That is a statement about what is published, not a statement that you may film without asking.

Street closures, parking, noise, obstruction of the sidewalk and police staffing are regulated in every New Jersey municipality, filming chapter or not. And this municipality is State-certified as Film Ready, which means the Commission was satisfied there is a process. Call the clerk.

What we found, and did not find

Exactly where we looked in Hillsborough Township, and on what date

We publish the search rather than just the conclusion, so you can judge it and so we can be corrected.

Where we looked	What we found
eCode360 HI0602, the codified Township code	No Filming chapter
eCode360’s New Laws register, every entry read	Six entries: salaries, an easement, a vehicles and traffic amendment, a budget cap bank, a land use amendment and a redevelopment plan. None is filming
The Township’s published document corpus	Hundreds of items across Legislation, Minutes, Agendas and Misc. Documents; the filming-related hits are proclamations and press releases, not an ordinance
The State certified-localities list, read in full	Hillsborough is certified, and has been since February 2023

Both the codified code and the uncodified-laws register were checked, which closes the gap that Fanwood and Warren Township both fell through elsewhere in this State: an ordinance adopted but not yet codified would appear in that register. Nothing about filming does.

Certified, and still nothing online

How a town can be certified and still have no ordinance online

Film Ready certification is a determination by the New Jersey Motion Picture & Television Commission, made on material a municipality submits to it: a designated liaison, a permit process, and an inventory of locations. It is not a publication requirement.

So nothing obliges a municipality to put the resulting ordinance on its own website, or to file it with a commercial code host like eCode360 or Municode. Small clerk’s offices in particular sometimes adopt an ordinance, file the signed copy, and never get it codified. The document exists; it simply is not on the internet.

Which means the most likely explanation here is a publication gap rather than an absence of process — and that the clerk’s office can almost certainly hand you the document over the counter or by email.

Three and a half years is worth asking about

Film Ready certification requires a municipality to have a filming process and a designated liaison. Hillsborough satisfied the Commission of that in February 2023.

So the useful question is not “is there a process?” but “what document did you show the Commission, and may I have it?” That is a narrower and much easier question for a clerk to answer than a general inquiry about filming, and it is the one we would lead with here.

What to ask when you call

Five questions, in this order. They are the same five that the published ordinances elsewhere on this site answer, and asking them in one call is faster than discovering them one at a time.

Is there an adopted filming ordinance, and can I have a copy? Ask for the ordinance number and the adoption date. If it exists, that is your governing document and everything else follows from it.
What does a permit cost, and is there a daily fee? Get both figures. A basic fee with an unmentioned daily rate on top is the most common budgeting surprise in this State.
How far ahead do you need the application? And separately: how long does approval actually take. Those are different questions and the answers often differ by a week or more.
What insurance limits, and who is the named insured? Get the exact wording, because your broker needs it verbatim rather than paraphrased.
Do I need an off-duty police officer, and how do I book one? This is usually the longest-lead item on any small-town shoot.

Ask for the answers by email. A written answer from the clerk’s office is worth more on a shoot day than a clear memory of a phone call.

If the clerk does not answer

If the clerk’s office does not answer, OPRA will

New Jersey’s Open Public Records Act gives you a statutory response clock, and it works perfectly well for this. A request that names the four documents is usually enough:

“Under the Open Public Records Act, I request: (1) the ordinance, resolution or adopted code of conduct governing commercial filming, including its number and adoption date; (2) the current film permit application; (3) the current schedule of film permit fees and municipal service charges; (4) the name and title of the designated Film Ready liaison. If any item does not exist, please state that in writing.”

That last sentence is the one that matters. A written “no such record exists” is itself a sourced, dated fact you can rely on and build a schedule around, which is a great deal more than an absence somebody observed on a website.

If we have this wrong, we want to know

This page reports an absence, and an absence is the hardest thing to report honestly: it can be disproved by a single document we did not find. If a filming ordinance exists here — published, unpublished, adopted last month or a decade ago — we would rather replace this page with a proper guide.

The finding is dated September 22, 2026. Treat it as a snapshot. If you obtain the ordinance from the clerk, or if the municipality publishes one, tell us and we will rewrite this page around the document.

Common questions

Does Hillsborough Township, NJ require a film permit?

Almost certainly yes, but the municipality does not publish the rules. We searched its codified code and its uncodified-laws register on September 22, 2026 and found no filming chapter. Hillsborough Township is nonetheless certified Film Ready by the State, which means the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission was satisfied that a process and a liaison exist. Contact the clerk's office and ask for the filming ordinance and the permit application.

How much does a film permit cost in Hillsborough Township, NJ?

We do not know, and we are not going to guess. No fee schedule is published in the municipal code or on the municipal website as of September 22, 2026. Neighboring Somerset County municipalities charge $100 for a basic permit and $150 a day under the State model, and Watchung charges $500 a day, but nothing published by Hillsborough tells you which pattern it follows. Ask the clerk's office for the fee and whether a daily rate applies on top, and get the answer in writing.

Is Hillsborough Township Film Ready certified?

Yes. Hillsborough Township appears on the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission's published certified-localities list, which we read in full on September 22, 2026. Certification means the Commission was satisfied there is a designated liaison, a permit process and a location inventory. It does not require the municipality to publish the ordinance online, which is the most likely explanation for the gap.

Can I film in Hillsborough Township without a permit?

Do not assume so. An ordinance we cannot find is not permission. Street closures, parking, sidewalk obstruction, noise and police staffing are regulated in every New Jersey municipality whether or not there is a filming chapter, and this municipality is State-certified, which implies a filming process exists. Call the clerk's office before you commit to a location. A single phone call is cheaper than a crew standing on a street it has no right to be on.

Official sources

Checked September 22, 2026 against the official municipal sources listed above. 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.

More town production guides

Comparing municipalities? See every Film Ready town in New Jersey, or search a specific town’s published permit, fee and contact details in the New Jersey Film Permit Finder.