Town guide

Filming in Manville, New Jersey

A production guide to Manville’s 2023 filming ordinance: what triggers a permit, the three-day filing floor, the published fees, the insurance and off-duty police conditions, and the two places where the enacted text does not say what it appears to say.

Manville is a Film Ready certified locality in Somerset County, at the confluences of the Millstone and Raritan Rivers.

The law here is short, complete enough to plan against, and defective in two specific places. Both are quoted exactly rather than repaired. Three things still have to come from the Borough in writing: the current application form, the real trigger for the expedited fee, and the off-duty police rate.

Information checked September 3, 2026

Checked Sep 3 2026

County: Somerset County
Film Ready treatment: Film Ready certified locality
Governing ordinance: Ordinance 2023-1295, introduced June 12, 2023 and adopted June 26, 2023
Municipal starting point: Office of the Borough Clerk
Business Administrator, Borough Clerk: Gabriella Siboni
Clerk contact: gsiboni@manvillenj.org, Borough main line 908-725-9478
Borough Hall: 325 North Main Street, Manville, NJ 08835
Application: No public film permit application located on the Borough site, checked September 3, 2026
Decision-maker: The Borough Clerk issues the permit; the Borough Administrator refuses, waives and is appealed from
Standard lead time: Applied for prior to three days before the requested shooting date. The ordinance does not say business days
Basic permit: $100
Expedited permit: $150, priced by reference to a Section 3A provision that Section 3A does not contain
Public-property daily fee: $200 per day
Major motion picture daily fee: $1,000 per day when filming entirely on public property
Nonprofit and student permit: $25, no daily rate required
Private-property daily fee: No daily filming fee imposed
Public-land insurance: $500,000 bodily injury to any one person and $1,000,000 in the aggregate for any occurrence, plus $300,000 property damage for each occurrence in the aggregate, with a written indemnity
Off-duty police: Mandatory on public lands. Section 3B(3) requires the hiring of an off-duty officer for the times indicated on the permit
Filming hours: None published in Ordinance 2023-1295, checked September 3, 2026
Appeals: To the Borough Council, filed within 10 days, heard within 30 days, with a deemed-reversal clause
Penalties: Up to $2,000, up to 90 days in jail, or up to 90 days of community service, or a combination. Each day is a separate violation

Documented location character

The Borough’s own history page places Manville at the confluences of the Millstone and Raritan Rivers, describes development accelerated by the construction of the Delaware and Raritan Canal and its barge service between New Brunswick and Trenton, and records that the Johns-Manville Products Corporation sited its plant here because of those waterways together with the railroads and major highways. The Borough was created by referendum in 1929 and named after the corporation.

The Borough parks page lists municipal recreation sites by neighbourhood section: Lincoln Park, Huff Avenue Sports Complex and Cooper Street Park in the Lost Valley section, Papawick Park in Weston, Haran Avenue Park in Little Weston, Memorial Park on Colorado Avenue, and 10th Avenue Park, Dukes Park and Gerber Field on the Northside. The page records fields, courts, playgrounds, pools and a picnic grove.

Read this first

Industrial history is not a location. The history page establishes what happened here, not who owns any former industrial parcel today, what condition it is in, or whether anyone may film on it. Nothing on the Borough site offers a filming location.

The parks list is an inventory of municipal recreation facilities, not a statement that any of them is available to a production. Scout and clear every location separately from the permit, and expect Recreation to have its own scheduling.

Current source set

Manville publishes its filming law and very little else about filming. That shapes what this guide can say.

Ordinance 2023-1295, “An Ordinance By The Borough Of Manville Establishing ‘Film-Ready’ Standards for Motion Picture Filming in the Borough”, published in full as a PDF in the Borough document centre and read in full for this guide.
The Borough ordinance index, which lists the ordinance among the Borough’s enacted legislation.
The Borough Contact Us page, which names the Business Administrator and Borough Clerk and publishes a direct email address.

A Borough site search for filming material on September 3, 2026 returned the ordinance PDF, Economic Development Committee minutes from June 14, 2023 recording that a councilperson was working on an ordinance to have Manville designated Film Ready, and unrelated newsletter items. No film permit application, fee worksheet, insurance instruction sheet, notice template or designated film liaison was published anywhere on the Borough site. That is a dated absence, not a finding that none exists internally.

Film Ready status

Manville appears on the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission’s certified-localities list, verified September 3, 2026.

Certification describes process readiness at the municipal level. It does not guarantee a permit, does not shorten the published filing period, and does not reach County, State, federal, school or private property inside the Borough.

No checked Borough page names a Film Ready liaison, film permit representative or film commission. Section 8 of the ordinance requires copies of an approved permit to be sent to the New Jersey Film Commission, which is a reporting duty rather than a designated local role. Ask the Borough to confirm in writing who holds the film contact and who signs.

When a permit is required

Section 2A requires a permit to film on public property, and 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.

The permit 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 site of the filming.

Section 1 defines filming as still or motion pictures on film, videotape or a similar recording medium, for commercial or educational purposes intended for viewing on television, in theatres or for institutional uses. The chapter expressly does not reach the filming of news stories within the municipality.

What counts as a major motion picture here

Section 1 lists Universal, Warner Brothers including New Line, Castle Rock, Village Road Show and Bel-Aire, Paramount including MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movie, 20th Century Fox including Fox Searchlight, Sony/Columbia, Disney/Miramax, MGM/United Artists and Dreamworks, plus any major streaming service such as Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime Video, any film budgeted at least $5,000,000, and recurrent weekly television series programming.

This is a 2023 list and it has not been refreshed since. Newer New Jersey ordinances written on the same State template name A24, Amazon MGM Studios, Netflix Studios and Warner Bros. Discovery, and set the budget threshold at $20,000,000. Manville’s threshold is $5,000,000, which is five times more likely to catch a mid-budget production. Read the definition as printed, and price accordingly.

Application and timing

Applications are made to the office of the Borough Clerk during normal business hours, on a form approved by the Borough Clerk, accompanied by the fee set by Section 10.

Standard route: Section 3A says no permit will be issued unless applied for prior to three days before the requested shooting date. The ordinance says three days, not three business days.
Waiver: the Borough Administrator may waive the three-day period where, in the Administrator’s judgment, the applicant has obtained all related approvals and adjacent property owners or tenants do not need to be notified. Both conditions are written together.
Weather: if filming does not take place on the permitted dates because of inclement weather or other good cause, the Clerk may issue a new permit for other dates at the applicant’s request, with no additional fee.

Unresolved defect in the enacted text

The expedited fee is priced against a rule the ordinance does not contain, and this guide does not repair it.

Section 10A reads: the basic filming permit is $100, and “Where an applicant requests a waiver of the provision of Section 3A requiring expedited processing of a permit application within 24 hours of the filming date, the basic filming permit fee for processing the application on an expedited basis shall be $150”.

Section 3A has no 24-hour provision. It sets a three-day floor and gives the Administrator a waiver power. So the $150 charge is real and enacted, but the circumstance that triggers it is described by reference to text that is not there.

Practical effect: you cannot tell from the ordinance how late an application may be filed, or at what point the fee changes from $100 to $150. Ask the Borough Administrator for that in writing before you rely on any short-notice date, and keep the answer with the permit.

There is no published application form. Contact the Borough Clerk’s office for the current approved form rather than submitting a letter or another municipality’s form, and ask whether email submission and electronic payment are accepted.

Published fees

Section 10 sets the schedule. Unlike the newer State-template ordinances used in Newton, Robbinsville and Hopewell Township, Manville’s table is not headed “not to exceed”, so these read as charges rather than ceilings. Confirm the total in writing anyway, because Section 9 adds reimbursement on top.

Category	Published amount
Basic filming permit	$100
Expedited basic filming permit	$150, on the defective trigger described above
Daily filming fee, entirely on public property	$200 per day
Daily filming fee, major motion picture entirely on public property	$1,000 per day
Nonprofit applicants filming for educational purposes, including student films	$25, no daily rate required
Filming on private property	No daily filming fee imposed

Section 9 requires the applicant to 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. That is separate from the permit fee and is not capped in the ordinance. Ask how it is calculated and when it is billed.

Section 11 sets penalties: a fine of up to $2,000, imprisonment for up to 90 days, or up to 90 days of community service, or any combination, as determined by the Municipal Court Judge. Each day on which a violation exists is a separate and distinct violation carrying its own penalty.

Insurance, police and the electrician

Section 3B makes three things conditions of any permit for filming upon public lands. All three must be satisfied before the permit issues.

Insurance: 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 for each occurrence in the aggregate.
Indemnity: a written agreement indemnifying and saving harmless the municipality from any and all liability, expense, claim or damages resulting from the use of public lands.
An off-duty police officer: the ordinance requires the hiring of an off-duty police officer for the times indicated on the permit.

Budget this from day one

Manville’s off-duty officer is mandatory, not conditional. Several New Jersey towns written on the newer State template, Newton and Hopewell Township among them, make the officer conditional on the Chief of Police requiring one. Manville does not. Section 3B(3) lists the hiring of an off-duty officer alongside insurance and indemnity as proof the applicant must supply before a public-lands permit issues.

Budget it as a line item for every public-property day, and ask for the current hourly rate, minimum call, scheduling lead time and cancellation policy. None of those numbers is published.

Section 5B adds two discretionary requirements on top. The Borough reserves the right to require one or more on-site patrolmen 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 to be used by the production, an on-site licensed electrician may be required if the production company does not have a licensed electrician on staff.

The ordinance does not publish a certificate holder, additional-insured wording, automobile or workers compensation requirements, or a bond. Request the exact wording from the Borough before binding coverage, and do not assume the absence of a bond requirement means no deposit will be asked for.

Notice to neighbours

Section 4A requires the permit holder to conduct filming so as to minimise inconvenience or discomfort to adjoining property owners, and, to the extent practicable, to abate noise and park production vehicles off the public streets.

Section 4B is the notice rule. Where the production will directly involve or affect businesses, merchants or residents, those parties must be given written notice of the filming at least three days before the requested shooting date, and must be told that objections may be filed with the Borough Clerk. Objections form part of the application and are considered in reviewing it.

Unresolved timing

The proof-of-service deadline does not say before or after, and this guide does not choose.

Section 4B: “Proof of service of notification to adjacent owners shall be submitted to the Borough Clerk within two days of the requested shooting date.”

Read one way that is two days before the shoot, which would sit inside the three-day notice window. Read the other way it is two days after, which would mean the Clerk approves a permit before seeing proof that neighbours were told. The ordinance supports both readings.

Ask the Clerk for the exact due date and the accepted form of proof, and get it in writing. The same wording appears in several New Jersey ordinances and no municipality has yet published a clarification of it.

No notice template is published. Ask whether the Borough has an approved letter format and what it must contain.

Hours, and what the ordinance does not say

No published hours

Ordinance 2023-1295 sets no filming hours at all. There is no start time, no camera wrap, no crew wrap, and no separate treatment of residential zones. Checked September 3, 2026 against the full text.

That is an absence, not permission. It means the schedule is negotiated through the permit and through the conditions the Administrator and the Police Department attach, rather than being fixed by law. Put your intended call and wrap times in the application, ask for them to be written into the permit, and expect noise, parking and traffic conditions to arrive with the approval.

Borough Hall office hours are not filming hours, and a Borough Council meeting schedule is not a permit timetable. Nothing in the checked sources sets a curfew, and nothing in them authorises overnight work either.

Refusal, waiver and appeal

Section 5A lets the Borough Administrator refuse a permit on the basis of objective facts, after reviewing the application and a report on it from the Police Department and other Borough agencies involved with the proposed site, where filming at that location or time would violate a 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.

Section 7 lets the Administrator waive any requirement of the chapter where that can be done without endangering public health, safety and welfare. The stated factors are traffic congestion at the location, the applicant’s ability to remove vehicles and equipment from public streets or other public property, the extent of any requested restriction on public streets or parking facilities, the nature of the filming including whether it is indoors or outdoors and the proposed hours, the effect on adjoining and nearby owners and occupants, and the Borough’s prior experience with the applicant.

Section 6 sets the appeal. A person aggrieved by a decision denying or revoking a permit, or requesting relief, may appeal to the Borough Council by filing a written notice of appeal with the Borough Administrator within 10 days of the decision. The Council sets a hearing within 30 days of filing and decides by resolution at its first regular meeting after the hearing, unless the appellant agrees in writing to a later date. If no resolution is adopted in time, the Administrator’s decision is deemed reversed and a permit issues in conformity with the application, or the relief is deemed denied.

Section 8 requires copies of the approved permit to go to the Police and Fire Departments before filming and to the New Jersey Film Commission. The Fire Prevention Bureau and other Borough inspectors may inspect the site and the equipment, and their safety instructions must be followed.

A drafting artifact worth knowing about

Ordinance 2023-1295 numbers its provisions SECTION 1 through SECTION 14, and then restarts. After SECTION 14, Severability, the document continues with “SECTION 5: Inconsistency with other Ordinances” and “SECTION 6: Effective Date”.

So the ordinance contains two provisions numbered 5 and two numbered 6. The first Section 5 is the refusal and patrolmen provision and the first Section 6 is the appeal route, both quoted throughout this guide. The second pair are boilerplate repealer and effective-date clauses.

This matters for one practical reason: if you cite “Section 5” or “Section 6” in correspondence, say which one you mean by quoting its heading. It is also a reminder that this text has not been through a codification pass, which is consistent with the defective Section 10A trigger described above.

Who controls the location?

A Manville permit reaches Borough public property. It does not reach the following, and the ordinance says nothing that changes this:

Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park

The canal corridor the Borough’s own history page describes is State park land. Commercial filming there runs through the New Jersey State Park Service and its own permit, not through the Borough Clerk. A municipal Film Ready designation grants no access to it.

County and State roads, and river access

Somerset County and the State control their own roadways, bridges and river access points. Confirm which authority owns the surface you intend to stand on before you file anything.

Former industrial property

The Johns-Manville legacy is history, not availability. Any former industrial parcel is controlled by its current owner or operator, and parts of the wider area carry federal environmental history. Nothing on the Borough site offers such a site for filming, and this guide does not name one.

Schools, houses of worship and private property

Every private interior, storefront and residence needs the owner’s written permission in addition to the Borough permit. Section 10E removes the daily municipal fee for filming entirely on private property; it does not remove the permit requirement where public property is used for vehicles, equipment or traffic control, and it grants no access.

Documented productions

No completed production credit for Manville was located in the official sources checked for this guide. The Borough’s own newsletters record a locally owned company, Mariano Films, producing a documentary about the town, which is the Borough describing a resident business rather than certifying a location or a permit history.

A past credit is never evidence that a location is available now, that the same terms would apply, or that a property played itself on screen. Do not infer a Manville shoot from a Somerset County reference.

Practical production planning

A working sequence for Manville, based only on the checked sources:

Decide first whether any part of the day touches public property, including parking a truck on a Borough street. That is what pulls a private-property shoot into the permit process.
Call the Borough Clerk’s office for the current approved application form. There is no downloadable version, so leave time for that exchange before the three-day floor even starts running.
Ask in writing how the $150 expedited fee is actually triggered, because the ordinance points at a rule it does not contain.
Budget an off-duty officer for every public-property day. It is mandatory here, and no rate is published.
Bind insurance to the stated limits early and ask for the certificate holder and additional-insured wording, which are not published.
Serve neighbour notice at least three days out, and ask the Clerk for the exact proof-of-service due date rather than guessing which way the two-day clause runs.
Put your intended call and wrap times in the application. The ordinance sets no hours, so whatever you agree becomes a permit condition rather than a legal default.
Raise power tie-ins early. Using existing Borough power lines can trigger a required on-site licensed electrician at your cost.
Ask what Section 9 reimbursement is likely to cover for your streets, including metered parking, and when it is billed.

Common questions

Is Manville a Film Ready certified community?

Yes. Manville appears on the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission’s current certified-localities list, verified September 3, 2026. The Borough adopted Ordinance 2023-1295 on June 26, 2023 after introducing it on June 12, 2023. Certification does not guarantee a permit and does not reach County, State, federal, school or private property inside the Borough.

How far ahead do I have to apply for a Manville film permit?

Section 3A says no permit will be issued unless it is applied for prior to three days before the requested shooting date. The ordinance says three days, not three business days. The Borough Administrator may waive that period where the applicant has obtained all related approvals and adjacent owners or tenants do not need to be notified. There is no published application form, so allow extra time to obtain the current one from the Clerk.

How much is a Manville film permit?

Section 10 sets a $100 basic permit, a $150 expedited permit, $200 per day for filming entirely on public property, $1,000 per day for a major motion picture filming entirely on public property, and $25 for nonprofit applicants filming for educational purposes including student films. Filming on private property carries no daily municipal fee. Section 9 adds reimbursement for lost Borough revenue such as parking meter income, which is not capped.

What is wrong with Manville’s expedited fee?

Section 10A prices the $150 expedited permit by reference to a waiver of “the provision of Section 3A requiring expedited processing of a permit application within 24 hours of the filming date”. Section 3A contains no such provision; it sets a three-day filing floor and a general waiver power. The fee is enacted but its trigger points at text that is not in the ordinance. Ask the Borough Administrator in writing how late an application may be filed and when the fee changes.

Do I need a police officer on a Manville shoot?

On public lands, yes. Section 3B(3) makes the hiring of an off-duty police officer for the times indicated on the permit a condition of issuing the permit, listed alongside insurance and indemnity. Section 5B separately lets the Borough require one or more additional on-site patrolmen where the production may impede traffic, at the applicant’s cost. No hourly rate, minimum or cancellation policy is published, so ask for all three in writing.

What are Manville’s filming hours?

Ordinance 2023-1295 sets none. There is no start time, no camera wrap, no crew wrap and no separate residential rule anywhere in the text, checked September 3, 2026. That is an absence rather than permission. Put your intended hours in the application and ask for them to be written into the permit, and expect noise, parking and traffic conditions to come with the approval.

What insurance does Manville require?

For filming upon public lands, Section 3B requires 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 for each occurrence in the aggregate, together with a written agreement indemnifying and saving harmless the municipality. The ordinance does not publish certificate-holder or additional-insured wording, automobile or workers compensation requirements, or a bond. Request the exact wording before binding coverage.

Is there a Manville film permit application I can download?

No. A Borough site search on September 3, 2026 found the ordinance and related council material but no application form, fee worksheet, insurance instruction or notice template. Section 2B says applications are made on a form approved by the Borough Clerk, so the form exists as a matter of law even though it is not published. Contact the Borough Clerk’s office for the current version rather than adapting another municipality’s form.

Official sources

Checked September 3, 2026 against the full text of Ordinance 2023-1295 as published by the Borough, the Borough ordinance index, Contact Us, Clerk’s Office, Borough History and Borough Parks pages, a Borough site search for a film permit application, and the State certified-localities list. 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.