Town guide

Filming in Kearny, New Jersey

Kearny prices filming by production budget, and requires a permit even for private property when public land is used alongside it.

Everything below comes from § 5-71 of the Town Code, read in full on September 18, 2026, and cross-checked against Chapter 34 (Fees) and the Town’s own Application for Filming dated July 2024, which reprints the ordinance in full. All three agree. One quirk to know before you search the code yourself: § 5-71 is filed under an article headed “Taxicabs and Taxis”.

Information checked September 18, 2026

Checked Sep 18 2026

County: Hudson County
Film Ready status: Not on the current State certified-localities list, checked September 17, 2026. Kearny has run its own filming ordinance since 1999 and last amended the fees in 2012.
Controlling source: Town Code § 5-71, Motion Picture Filming (Ord. No. 1999-(O)-18, amended 2002, 2004 and 2012)
Who decides: The Town Clerk issues the permit; the Town Administrator decides refusals, waivers and whether officers are required
Published lead time: At least five days before the requested shooting date, waivable by the Town Administrator
Basic permit fee: $100 per permit term — $50 for nonprofit organizations filming exclusively for educational purposes
Day rate, $5m budget and above: $2,000 per day
Day rate, $1m to $5m budget: $1,000 per day
Day rate, everything else: $150 per day. Nonprofit educational applicants pay no day rate
Commercial vehicles: $75 per day per vehicle, capped at $750 for all vehicles
Permit term: Not more than seven consecutive days, renewable for the same
Insurance: $500,000 bodily injury per person, $1,000,000 aggregate per occurrence, $300,000 property damage aggregate per occurrence, with the Town named as an additional insured
Hours: All filming completed within half an hour after sunset unless approved in advance; never in a residential area after 10:00 p.m.
Last verified: September 18, 2026

Quick answer

Kearny charges a $100 basic permit fee plus a day rate set by your budget: $2,000 per day at $5 million and above, $1,000 per day between $1 million and $5 million, and $150 per day for everything else. Commercial vehicles are $75 per day each, capped at $750.

The trap here is scope, not money. § 5-71.3a requires a permit even when filming happens entirely on private property, if public land is used in connection with it. Holding a curb, running cable across a sidewalk or parking a truck on the street all count.

Who issues the permit, and where the section actually lives

Permits come from the Office of the Town Clerk at Town Hall, 402 Kearny Avenue. The Clerk forwards copies of every application to the Town Administrator and the Governing Body on receipt, and it is the Administrator — not the Clerk — who refuses permits, waives the lead time, decides whether off-duty officers are needed and approves filming after sunset.

A codification quirk worth knowing

§ 5-71 is filed inside Chapter 5, Article III, “Taxicabs and Taxis”. That is an artifact of how the code was assembled, not a limit on what the section covers — its own text is entirely about filming. If you browse Kearny’s code by article heading looking for a filming chapter, you will not find one.

The current Application for Filming, dated July 10, 2024, is published on the Town Clerk’s page and reproduces the whole of § 5-71 as an appendix. Every figure on this page appears in the ordinance, in Chapter 34 (Fees) and on that form, and all three agree.

When a permit is required — including on private property

§ 5-71.3a is broader than most municipal filming ordinances in Hudson County, and the second sentence is the one to read twice:

No person or organization may film on public lands in Kearny without a permit from the Town Clerk.
A permit is required even if filming occurs wholly on private lands, if public lands are utilized in connection with it during filming.
The permit must state the approved location and the approved dates, and must be readily available for inspection by Town officials at the filming site at all times.

“Public lands” is defined in § 5-71.2 as every public street, highway, sidewalk, square, park or playground and any other public place within the Town’s jurisdiction and control. Filming is defined as taking still or motion pictures for commercial or educational purposes intended for viewing on television, in theaters, on the internet or for institutional uses — the internet was added by the 2002 amendment, which is more current than several neighboring definitions. News stories are excluded.

Fees, tiered on budget

What	Amount	Source
Basic filming permit, per permit term	$100	§ 5-71.5a
Basic permit, nonprofit filming exclusively for educational purposes	$50	§ 5-71.5a
Day rate — major motion picture, budget $5,000,000 or more	$2,000 per day	§ 5-71.5b
Day rate — budget over $1,000,000 but under $5,000,000	$1,000 per day	§ 5-71.5b
Day rate — all other applicants	$150 per day	§ 5-71.5b
Day rate — nonprofit filming exclusively for educational purposes	None	§ 5-71.5b
Each commercial vehicle used by the permittee	$75 per day	§ 5-71.5b
Cap on all commercial vehicle fees	$750	§ 5-71.5b

The tiers turn on budget alone. Crew size, camera support and parking footprint do not move you between them, which is a different logic from Hoboken’s Minor / Intermediate / Major structure. § 5-71.2 also treats anything financed or distributed by a major studio, a major television network or a cable provider as a major motion picture regardless of budget.

At $2,000 per day, Kearny matches Belleville for the highest published municipal day rate on this site — but the two bite very differently. Kearny’s $2,000 applies only at a budget of $5,000,000 or more; Belleville charges $2,000 a day for any commercial film, with no budget threshold at all. For a small shoot the same Kearny ordinance is one of the cheaper ones in the county at $100 plus $150 a day.

The seven-day permit term comes from the fee chapter, not § 5-71

§ 5-71 sets no maximum duration. Chapter 34, Fees, qualifies each filming fee with “permit term not to exceed 7 consecutive days, renewable for same”, and the Town’s application form carries a matching “(7 Day Limit)” against the filming dates. If you need longer, the published answer is renewal rather than one long permit.

One discrepancy, reported rather than smoothed over: Chapter 34’s row label for commercial vehicles reads “(maximum $500 in 1 event)” while its own amount column says $750 and § 5-71.5b says “in no event more than $750”. Two sources of three, including the ordinance text itself, say $750. Confirm with the Clerk if the difference matters to your budget.

Insurance, indemnity and police

§ 5-71.4b requires all of the following before a permit issues for filming on public lands:

Bodily injury cover of $500,000 for any one person and $1,000,000 in the aggregate for any occurrence
Property damage cover of $300,000 in the aggregate for each occurrence
A written agreement indemnifying and holding the Town harmless from any liability, expense, claim or damage resulting from the use of public lands
An off-duty Kearny police officer for the times on the permit, when the Town Administrator deems it necessary

The hold harmless agreement printed on the 2024 form requires the Town to be named as an additional insured, and it carves out liability arising from the Town’s own gross negligence or willful misconduct. That carve-out is not in the ordinance; it is in the current form, which is the document you will actually sign.

§ 5-71.4f lets the Town require one or more on-site patrol persons where a production may impede traffic or otherwise jeopardize public safety, at the production’s cost. Where existing electrical power lines are used, an on-site licensed electrician may also be required if the company does not have one on staff. The form directs fire questions to the Chief Fire Inspector on (201) 955-7422 and police questions to the Police Traffic Department on (201) 998-1313.

Notice, cleanup and lost revenue

Three obligations in § 5-71.4 attach to the permit holder and each one has a date or a cost attached to it.

Notice, and proof of it (§ 5-71.4d). Where the production will directly involve or affect businesses, merchants or residents, those parties get written notice at least three days before the requested shooting dates and must be told objections may be filed with the Town Clerk. Objections form part of the application. Proof of service must reach the Clerk at least two days before the shooting date — a separate deadline from the notice itself, and one that is easy to miss.
Daily cleanup (§ 5-71.4c). The location must be left free of debris and rubbish on each day of shooting. Where the Town Administrator deems it necessary, the permit holder must hire a waste removal service at its sole expense to clear debris daily.
Lost revenue (§ 5-71.4j). On top of every other fee, the applicant reimburses the Town for revenue it was prevented from earning — parking meter income is named explicitly — plus repairs to public property.

§ 5-71.4i requires copies of the approved permit to go to the Police and Fire Departments before filming, and to the State film commission. The ordinance calls it the “New Jersey Film Commission”; the agency is now the New Jersey Motion Picture & Television Commission. The 2024 application form is addressed to the Clerk, Fire Chief, Police Chief, Mayor, Department of Public Works, the Town’s engineering consultant and the Commission.

Hours, and what the 2024 form asks about

§ 5-71.4e sets the clock by the sun: all filming must be completed within half an hour after sunset unless the Town Administrator approves otherwise in advance. In no event may filming continue in a residential area after 10:00 p.m.

A half-hour-after-sunset finish is a real constraint on a winter exterior schedule, and the approval to run later is discretionary and has to be obtained in advance rather than negotiated on the day.

The 2024 application asks a longer set of safety questions than the ordinance implies, and every one of them can trigger a separate conversation before the permit issues:

Whether residents or businesses will be affected — a copy of the letters and the addresses must accompany the application
Whether existing power lines will be used
Whether traffic will be affected — the form states that if yes, an off-duty police officer is required
Pyrotechnics; explosives; flammable or combustible liquids; staged fires
Tents, how many and what size; tents with cooking ranges or heating apparatus
Cooking in mobile canteens or food trucks, or grilling with propane, charcoal or wood
Number of production vehicles to be parked on public streets, with a sketched map if more than three

Refusal, appeal, waivers and bad weather

§ 5-71.4f lets the Town Administrator refuse a permit on objective facts, after reviewing the application with the Police Department, the Fire Department and any other department the Administrator reasonably deems necessary, where filming would violate a law or ordinance, unreasonably interfere with the use and enjoyment of adjoining properties, unreasonably impede vehicular or pedestrian traffic, or otherwise endanger public health, safety or welfare.

An appeal goes to the Town Council. Written notice of appeal is filed with the Town Administrator within 10 days, and the Council must set a hearing within 30 days of that filing, with a resolution at the first regular public meeting after the hearing.

Then comes the unusual part. If the Council does not adopt that resolution in time, the Administrator’s decision is deemed reversed and a permit issues in conformity with the application. Silence favors the applicant here. Note carefully that the neighboring Weehawken ordinance resolves the same situation the opposite way, so do not reason from one to the other.

§ 5-71.4h gives the Town Council power to waive any requirement or limitation of the section where strict compliance would pose an unreasonable burden and a permit can issue without endangering public health, safety and welfare. That is a broader waiver power than most municipal filming ordinances contain.

§ 5-71.3c covers weather: if filming does not happen on the permitted dates because of inclement weather or other good cause, the Town Clerk may issue a new permit for other dates at the applicant’s request, and no additional fee is paid.

Penalties under § 5-71.6 run to a fine of up to $1,000 per day, imprisonment for up to 90 days, or both, with each day a separate offense.

Practical production planning

Work out your budget tier before you call. It is the only thing that sets the day rate, and the step from $150 to $1,000 is a single dollar of budget over $1 million.
Assume you need a permit even for an interior on private property, if anything of yours touches the street.
Five days is the published floor and the Town Administrator can waive it, but the waiver is conditioned on your having all related approvals already.
Diary two separate notice dates: notice to affected parties three days out, proof of service to the Clerk two days out.
Seven consecutive days per permit term, renewable. Sequence a longer schedule rather than asking for one permit to cover it.
Budget the commercial vehicle fee properly: $75 per vehicle per day mounts up fast, though it stops at $750.
Sunset governs the day unless you have written approval in advance.
Disclose pyrotechnics, explosives, staged fires, tents and any cooking on the form, and call the Chief Fire Inspector before you file rather than after.
Add the parking meter reimbursement to your budget. It is a real line item under § 5-71.4j and it is not published as a schedule.

Common questions

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

A $100 basic permit fee per permit term, plus a day rate set by budget: $2,000 per day for a major motion picture with a budget of $5 million or more, $1,000 per day for a budget over $1 million but under $5 million, and $150 per day for everything else. Commercial vehicles are $75 per day each, capped at $750. Nonprofit organizations filming exclusively for educational purposes pay a $50 basic fee and no day rate.

Do I need a film permit in Kearny if I am shooting on private property?

Possibly yes. § 5-71.3a states that a permit is required “even if filming occurs wholly on private lands if public lands are utilized in connection therewith during filming”. Public lands means any public street, sidewalk, square, park or playground in the Town’s control, so holding curb space, parking production vehicles on the street or running cable across a sidewalk brings an otherwise private shoot inside the ordinance.

How far in advance do I apply for a Kearny film permit?

At least five days before the requested shooting date, under § 5-71.4a. The Town Administrator may waive the five-day period where the applicant has obtained all related approvals and adjacent property owners or tenants do not need to be notified. Separately, proof that you served notice on affected businesses and residents must reach the Town Clerk at least two days before the shooting date.

How long does a Kearny film permit last?

Not more than seven consecutive days, renewable for the same period. That limit is set in Chapter 34 of the Town Code, which qualifies each filming fee with “permit term not to exceed 7 consecutive days, renewable for same”, and it matches the seven-day limit printed on the Town’s application form. § 5-71 itself sets no maximum.

What insurance does Kearny require for filming?

Under § 5-71.4b, bodily injury cover of $500,000 for any one person and $1,000,000 in the aggregate for any occurrence, and property damage cover of $300,000 in the aggregate per occurrence. A written indemnity holding the Town harmless is also required, and the hold harmless agreement on the Town’s current form requires the Town of Kearny to be named as an additional insured.

Do I have to hire police for a shoot in Kearny?

Sometimes. § 5-71.4b3 requires an off-duty Kearny police officer for the times on the permit when the Town Administrator deems it necessary, and the Town’s application form states plainly that if traffic will be affected, an off-duty officer is required. § 5-71.4f also lets the Town require one or more on-site patrol persons at the production’s cost. The Chief of Police determines how many officers are needed.

What hours can I film in Kearny?

All filming must be completed within half an hour after sunset unless the Town Administrator approves otherwise in advance, and filming may never continue in a residential area after 10:00 p.m. (§ 5-71.4e). The approval to run later has to be obtained in advance rather than arranged on the day.

What happens if Kearny refuses my film permit?

You may appeal to the Town Council. Written notice of appeal is filed with the Town Administrator within 10 days, and the Council must set a hearing within 30 days of that filing. If the Council does not adopt a resolution in time, § 5-71.4g deems the Administrator’s decision reversed and a permit issues in conformity with the application. The Council can also waive any requirement of the section where strict compliance would be an unreasonable burden.

Is Kearny a Film Ready certified community?

No. Kearny does not appear on the New Jersey Motion Picture & Television Commission’s current certified-localities list, checked September 17, 2026. That is a State certification program and is separate from having a permit process. Kearny has run its own filming ordinance since 1999, amended it in 2002, 2004 and 2012, and published a refreshed application form in 2024.

Who do I contact about filming in Kearny?

The Office of the Town Clerk, Kearny Town Hall, 402 Kearny Avenue, Kearny, NJ 07032, on (201) 283-5601. The current Application for Filming is published on the Town Clerk’s page. For fire-related questions the form directs you to the Chief Fire Inspector on (201) 955-7422, and for police matters to the Police Traffic Department on (201) 998-1313.

Official sources

§ 5-71, the Chapter 34 filming fee lines and the Town’s July 2024 Application for Filming were all read in full on September 18, 2026, and reconciled against each other. Film Ready status was checked against the State certified-localities list on September 17, 2026. Municipal requirements, fees and staffing change; confirm with the Town before relying on any figure. 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.

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