Township adopts ordinance refining dog-waste rules after debate over lawns and sidewalks

The Springfield Township Committee adopted Ordinance 2025-18, which amends chapter 5-30 of the township code to update animal-waste removal provisions and to clarify how the rule applies where sidewalks or curbs are absent. The measure was put on a recorded roll call and the transcript records four members voting in favor and one opposed.

Committee discussion focused on how to draw the boundary where a dog walker may use a homeowner’s adjacent grass in streets without sidewalks. Members said the change is intended to identify “the first three feet of public right-of-way adjacent to the edge of the street” as the area referenced in the ordinance, and speakers noted the provision does not remove the owner’s duty to clean up after their animal. One committee member recorded in the transcript said, “People got to do a better jobing up after their dog.”

Several members told the committee they had received calls from homeowners who invest heavily in their landscaping and worried the ordinance would encourage people to let dogs repeatedly trample lawns. Other speakers said the rule largely formalizes behavior that already occurs on some streets and that enforcement will be a practical concern for the Department of Public Works and code officers.

The ordinance text read in public session does not include an effective date in the transcript; the committee record does not specify when the ordinance will take effect or what enforcement steps, if any, will follow. The roll-call recording in the transcript uses the exact speaker labels as provided in the meeting record.