CHAPTER 50: NUISANCES
   50.001   Public nuisance defined
   50.002   Prohibition
   50.003   Codes enforcement officer to enforce
   50.004   Abatement
   50.005   Lien Authorized
§ 50.001 PUBLIC NUISANCE DEFINED
   (A)   As used in this chapter, a public nuisance shall mean any act, thing, occupation, condition or use of property which shall continue for such length of time as to:
      (1)   Substantially annoy, injure, or endanger the comfort, health, repose or safety of the public.
      (2)   In any way render the public nuisance in life or in the use or property;
      (3)   Greatly offend the public morals or decency;
      (4)   Unlawfully and substantially interfere with, obstruct, or tend to obstruct or render dangerous for passage any street, alley, highway, sidewalk, stream, ditch or drainage; or
      (5)   Essentially interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life and property, or tend to depreciate the value of the property of others.
   (B)   Public nuisances shall include but not be limited to the following acts, conduct, omissions, conditions, or things:
      (1)   All decayed, harmfully adulterated or unwholesome food or drink sold or offered for sale to the public;
      (2)   Carcasses of household pets or other animals not buried or otherwise disposed of in a sanitary manner within twenty-four (24) hours after death;
      (3)   Accumulations of decayed animal or vegetable matter, trash, rubbish, rotting lumber, bedding, packing materials, scrap metal or any material whatsoever in which flies, mosquitoes, disease-carrying insects, rodents or other vermin may breed or may reasonably be expected to breed;
      (4)   All stagnant water in which mosquitoes, flies or other insects can multiply;
      (5)   Garbage and refuse containers which are not fly-tight;
      (6)   All noxious weeds and other rank growth or vegetation;
      (7)   The escape of smoke, soot, cinders, noxious acids, fumes, gases, fly ash or industrial dust within the city limits or within one (1) mile therefrom in such quantities as to endanger the health of persons of ordinary sensibilities or to threaten or cause substantial injury to property;
      (8)   The pollution of any public well or cistern, stream, lake, canal or body of water by sewage, creamery or industrial wastes or other substances;
      (9)   Any use or property, substances, or things within the city emitting or causing any foul, offensive, noisome, nauseous, noxious, or disagreeable odors, effluvia or stenches extremely repulsive to the physical senses of ordinary persons which annoy, discomfort, injure or inconvenience the health of any appreciable number of person within the city.
      (10)   Any building or structure which is uncompleted and abandoned, deteriorated, dilapidated, or extremely unsound, and endangers the health and safety of the public;
      (11)   Any inoperable or abandoned vehicle which exists in violation of any of the provisions of this Code;
      (12)   Any vehicle parked on private property except on a wood-free surface made of gravel, crushed stone, asphalt or portland cement concrete;
      (13)   Dumpsters, located on a public way unless the dumpster is owned, leased or under the control of the city; and
      (14)   Vegetation which is:
         (a)   Unmanaged and in excess of ten inches in height, provided that cultivated flowers, ornamentals, or food plants shall be presumed to be managed vegetation;
         (b)   Grass which is in excess of ten (10) inches in height regardless of its managed state; or
         (c)   Vegetation which interferes with or obstructs the view or passage on any street, alley, or other public way; provided that this provision shall not apply to any parcel of land five (5) acres or greater, designated by the Madison County Property Valuation Administrator to be agricultural, or is used for the production of legal agricultural products, except that all grass and weeds on such agricultural property which is within three hundred feet (300) feet of a residential area shall be mowed annually, or twice annually if within one hundred and fifty (150) feet of a residential area.
      (15)   Any condition which violates the Property Maintenance Code; and
      (16)   Other actions, conduct, omissions, conditions or things defined or specified in this Code as nuisances or as public nuisances.
(Ord. No. 14.90, 6-10-90; Amd. Ord. No. 03-06, passed 1-14-06)
§ 50.002 PROHIBITION
   (A)   No person shall erect, contrive, cause, continue, maintain or permit to exist any public nuisance within the city.
   (B)   The procedures and remedies set forth in §§ 50.003 and 50.004 may be used in the alternative or in consonance with or in lieu of any other remedy or procedure set forth in this Code for the removal of violations or nuisances.
(Ord. No. 14.90, 6-10-90)
§ 50.003 CODES ENFORCEMENT OFFICER TO ENFORCE
   (A)   All complaints alleging the existence of a public nuisance shall be filed with the codes enforcement official (CEO).
   (B)   The codes enforcement officer shall promptly inspect the premises or cause them to be inspected and shall make a written report of the findings of the inspection. Whenever practicable, photographs of the premises shall be attached to the written report. The codes enforcement officer shall keep all the written reports on file.
(Ord. No. 14.90, 6-10-90)
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