TITLE 4
HEALTH AND SANITATION

CHAPTER 1
NUISANCES AND WEED CONTROL

SECTION:

4-1-1: Definitions

4-1-2: Declaration Of Nuisance

4-1-3: Toilet Or Sewer Facilities

4-1-4: Restrictions On Blocking Water

4-1-5: Weeds And Deleterious Objects

4-1-6: Nuisances On Property

4-1-7: Reserved

4-1-8: Penalty For Failure To Comply

4-1-1: DEFINITIONS:

As used in this chapter, the following words and terms shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section:

AUTHOR: Where a nuisance exists upon property and is the outgrowth of the usual, natural or necessary use of the property, the landlord or his agent, the tenant or his agent, and all other persons having control of the property on which such nuisance exists, shall be deemed to be the authors thereof and shall be equally liable and responsible. Where any such nuisance shall arise from the unusual or unnecessary use of such property or from the business thereon conducted, then the occupants and all other persons contributing to the continuance of such nuisance shall be deemed the authors.

NUISANCE: Whatever is dangerous to human life or health and whatever renders soil, air, water or food impure or unwholesome is declared to be a nuisance and unlawful. It shall be unlawful for any person either as an owner, agent or occupant to create or aid in creating or contributing to or maintaining a nuisance. (1980 Code §§ 10-311, 10-312)

4-1-2: DECLARATION OF NUISANCE:

   A.   Statement: Every act or condition made, permitted, allowed or continued in violation of section 4-1-1 of this chapter, is hereby declared to be a nuisance and may be abated and punished as hereinafter provided.

   B.   Specified: Nuisances include, but are not limited to:

      1.   Befouling Water: Befouling water in any spring, stream, well or water source supplying water for culinary purposes.

      2.   Privies, Cesspools: Allowing any privy vault or cesspool, or other individual wastewater disposal system, to become a menace to health or a source of odors or contamination to air or water.

      3.   Garbage Containers, Offensive: Permitting any garbage container to remain on premises when it has become unclean and offensive.

      4.   Garbage Accumulation: Allowing vegetable waste, garbage, litter, filth or refuse of any nature to accumulate within or upon any private alley, yard or area, except when it is temporarily deposited for immediate removal.

      5.   Manure Accumulation: Permitting the accumulation of manure in any stable, stall, corral, feed yard, yard or in any other building or area in which any animals are kept.

      6.   Discharging Offensive Water Or Liquid Waste: Discharging or placing any offensive water, chemical spray, liquid waste or refuse of any kind into any street, alley, sidewalk, gutter, stream, wash, natural watercourse, ditch, canal or any vacant lot or which, as the result of continued discharge, will render the place of discharge offensive or likely to become so.

      7.   Collecting Grease, Offensive Matter: Keeping or collecting any stale or putrid grease or other offensive matter.

      8.   Flies And Mosquitos: Having or permitting upon any premises any fly or mosquito producing condition.

      9.   Public Drinking Vessels: Keeping any drinking vessel for public use without providing a method of decontamination between uses.

      10.   Ablutions Near Drinking Fountain: Permitting or performing any ablutions in or near any public drinking fountain.

      11.   Boarding House Or Factory, Sanitary Condition: Failing to furnish any dwelling house, boarding house or factory or other place of employment with such privy vaults, water closets, sinks or other facilities as may be required to maintain the same in sanitary condition.

      12.   Cleaning Privy Vaults: Neglecting or refusing to discontinue use of, clean out, disinfect and fill up all privy vaults and cesspools or other individual wastewater disposal systems within twenty (20) days after notice from an enforcement officer or official of the town.

      13.   Stagnant Water; Offensive Substances: Permitting any lot or excavation to become the repository of stagnant water or any decaying or offensive substances.

      14.   Obstructing Public Ways, Watercourses, Parks: Obstructing or tending to obstruct or interfere with or render dangerous for passage any street or sidewalk, lake, stream, drainage, canal or basin, or any public park without first obtaining the written permission of the town council. (1980 Code § 10-313; amd. 2010 Code)

   C.   Enumeration Not Exclusive: The types of nuisances above stated shall be deemed in addition to and in no way a limitation of the nuisances subject to this chapter. (1980 Code § 10-314)

4-1-3: TOILET OR SEWER FACILITIES:

All toilet or sewer facilities shall be constructed and maintained in accordance with state law, the Salt Lake Valley health department and town ordinances. All such facilities that do not comply with such provisions are hereby declared to be a nuisance and are subject to abatement as herein prescribed. (1980 Code § 10-315; amd. 2010 Code)

4-1-4: RESTRICTIONS ON BLOCKING WATER:

   A.   It shall be unlawful for any person to permit any drainage system, canal, ditch, conduit or other watercourse of any kind or nature, natural or artificial, to become so obstructed as to cause the water to back up and overflow therefrom, or to become unsanitary.

   B.   Maintenance of any such watercourse in such condition shall constitute a nuisance and the same shall be subject to abatement. (1980 Code § 10-316)

4-1-5: WEEDS AND DELETERIOUS OBJECTS:

   A.   Weeds Defined: Weeds shall include any vegetation commonly referred to as a weed or which shall have been designated a noxious weed by the state commissioner of agriculture.

   B.   Standard Of Weed Control; Removal of Cut Weeds:

      1.   It is hereby declared that the above stated weeds constitute a nuisance when they create a fire hazard, a source of contamination or pollution of the water, air or property, a danger to health, a breeding place or habitation for insects or rodents or other forms of life deleterious to humans or are unsightly or deleterious to their surroundings.

      2.   The cut weeds shall be removed from the premises within forty-eight (48) hours after cutting.

   C.   Penalty: It shall be an infraction and, upon conviction, subject to penalty as provided in section 1-4-1 of this code, for any person owning or occupying real property to not remove from such property any cuttings of such weeds or any refuse, unsightly or deleterious objects after having been given notice as provided in Title 12. (1980 Code §§ 3-321, 3-323, 10-322; amd. 2010 Code; Ord. 2023-O-4, 2-14-2024)

4-1-6: NUISANCES ON PROPERTY:

   A.   Definition: For the purpose of this section, the term "nuisance" is defined to mean any condition or use of premises or of building exteriors which are deleterious or injurious, noxious or unsightly, which includes, but is not limited to, keeping or depositing on or scattering over the premises any of the following:

      1.   Lumber, junk, trash or debris. (1980 Code § 10-331)

      2.   Abandoned, discarded or unused objects or equipment such as automobiles, furniture, stoves, refrigerators, freezers, cans, containers or other discarded items not currently in use. (1980 Code § 10-331; amd. 2010 Code)

   B.   Duty Of Maintenance: No person owning, leasing, occupying or having charge of any premises shall maintain or keep any nuisance thereon, nor shall any such person keep or maintain such premises in any manner causing substantial diminution in the value of the other property in the neighborhood in which such premises are located. (1980 Code § 10-332)

   C.   Storage Of Personal Property: Unsheltered storage of old, unused, stripped and junked machinery, implements, equipment or personal property of any kind which is no longer safely usable for the purposes for which it was manufactured, for a period of thirty (30) days or more within the town, is hereby declared to be a nuisance and dangerous to the public safety. (1980 Code § 10-333; amd. 2010 Code)

   D.   Abatement By Owners: The owner, owners, tenants, lessees or occupants of any lot within the town on which such storage, as defined in subsection C of this section, is made, and also the owner, owners or lessees of the above described personal property involved in such storage, shall jointly and severally abate such nuisance by its prompt removal into completely enclosed and secured yards or buildings to be used for such purposes, or otherwise remove such property from the town. (1980 Code § 10-334)