Proliferation of vending machines for free commercial periodicals and brochures raises objections.
By: David Campbell
WEST WINDSOR Township officials say the proliferation of "honor" boxes that distribute free real estate brochures and similar commercial periodicals poses a hazard to pedestrians and is an eyesore, and an ordinance is being drafted to put a stop to it.
Township Attorney Michael J. Herbert said he is preparing an ordinance that would prohibit the boxes in the municipality while specifying locations deemed appropriate for newspaper vending boxes. The ordinance is still being drafted and is not expected to go before the Township Council at its regularly scheduled agenda session Monday night, Mr. Herbert said.
There is a distinction between newspapers and periodicals whose free speech is protected under the First Amendment and commercial advertising, the attorney said.
"Peddling or hawking products in the public right-of-way is not protected under the First Amendment," Mr. Herbert said.
In 2001, officials in Princeton Borough, where Mr. Herbert also is the municipal attorney, similarly grappled with the issue of newspaper vending machines and what are known as plastic honor boxes. He said the machines and boxes cluttered up Nassau Street, which is part of state-owned Route 27. The attorney said there used to be about 130 honor boxes along portions of Nassau Street before an agreement was hashed out with state transportation and press officials permitting the borough to enforce controls.
The problem area that first prompted West Windsor to contemplate township-wide measures of its own is the stretch of Mercer County-owned Route 571 in front of the Acme grocery story near Alexander Road. Mr. Herbert said the cluster of honor boxes that have sprung up there is a health and safety hazard and an eyesore.
"These are commercial enterprises using the public right-of-way to privately advertise," Mr. Herbert said, noting that the jurisdictional issues that arose in the borough do not apply in the case of the county road.
Borough regulations require permission for locating a box in the public right-of-way. There now exists an ordinance in West Windsor regulating newspaper and honor boxes, but it doesn’t distinguish between the two. The ordinance being crafted now would make such a distinction and include an explicit ban on honor boxes, Mr. Herbert said.
Township Councilwoman Kristin Appelget said that what started out as a few newspaper vending machines on the subject stretch of Route 571 has grown into a line of 20 or more honor boxes for real estate and apartment finder publications. The councilwoman said she looks forward to a discussion by the council on the ordinance being drafted.
"There are issues of free speech that we have to consider," Ms. Appelget said. "As a council, we haven’t yet had a complete discussion of that."
Council Vice President Alison Miller said the boxes have been an issue for some time for residents and officials working to make that part of Route 571 a walkable downtown for West Windsor. She said past efforts to have them removed have run up against the free-speech argument, which she said does not apply here.
"We just want the right to move them, and the right to not have them block the sidewalk, and the right not to have to pay to move them," Ms. Miller said. "We consider it a public safety question. I think that everybody in town sees that if we don’t do this, then we’re really not serious about maximizing the value of our little downtown."

