No building shall be erected in the bed of any highway adopted and shown as a part of the official county map unless a permit therefor is issued by the board of chosen freeholders. For such purpose such board is hereby created a discretionary administrative body, and shall when so acting be deemed an independent statutory body and all its transactions when so acting shall be separately recorded in minutes independent of the minutes of the board of chosen freeholders when acting as a legislative body. When so acting it shall have power by a vote of a majority of all its members to grant or withhold such a permit.

In such a meeting the board shall have power in considering the application for a permit for a specific building, by a vote of a majority of all its members, to grant a permit for a building in such a highway, which will as little as practicable increase the cost of opening such highway, or tend to cause a change of such official map, and such board shall impose reasonable requirements as a condition of granting such permit, which requirements shall be designed to promote the health, convenience, safety and general welfare of the public and shall inure to the benefit of the county. Before taking such action the board shall give a public hearing at which parties in interest and others shall have an opportunity to be heard. At least ten days’ notice of the time and place of such hearing shall be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the county. The board shall refuse a permit where the land of the applicant within the mapped highway is already earning a fair return, or where he is in no way injured by placing his building outside of the mapped highway.

Whoever shall construct or begin the construction of such a building without a permit shall forfeit and pay a penalty of not more than one hundred dollars ($100.00) for each day that work on such structure continues. The county may bring an action to enjoin such construction and may also recover the penalty by a civil action in any court of competent jurisdiction.

Amended by L.1953, c. 37, p. 646, s. 53, eff. March 19, 1953.