(A) (1) Trees and shrubs, growing upon, or near the lot line, or upon public ground and interfering with the use, or construction of any public improvements shall be deemed an obstruction under this subchapter. Said trees and shrubs, or the roots thereof, may be removed by the municipality at the expense of the owner of the property upon which the tree or shrubs are located should the owner fail, or neglect, after notice, to do so. It shall be unlawful for any person, persons, firm or corporation to obstruct or encumber, by fences, gates, buildings, structures or otherwise, any of the streets, alleys, sidewalk space, sidewalks, public ways or public grounds. The prohibition against the obstruction of sidewalk space or sidewalks shall not be construed as being a prohibition of sidewalk sales in the business district, but retail merchants shall be prohibited hereby from materially obstructing or encumbering the sidewalk space or sidewalks during sidewalk sales to an extent that the area for walking thereon is materially reduced.
(2) Whenever the owner of any obstruction, encumbrance or encroachment upon any street, alley, sidewalk space, sidewalk, public way or public ground within the municipality refuses, or neglects to remove the same after receiving notice to do so, or after diligent search, cannot be found for the purpose of giving such notice to the owner, such obstruction, encumbrance or encroachment shall be deemed a public nuisance and it shall be the duty of the Street Commissioner to cause the same to be removed or taken down and the expenses thereof shall be recoverable from the owner in an action at law. In addition, the owner of the obstruction, encumbrance or encroachment shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall, upon receiving notice, and conviction, to be fined for each and every day that the obstruction, encumbrance or encroachment remains on public property.
(3) The provisions of this section shall not apply to mailboxes and supports for mailboxes upon streets within the municipality which have been designated as rural routes for postal delivery service by the United States Postal Service; provided that, said mailboxes must be approved by the Postal Service and that no part of any such mailbox or its supporting structure shall extend more than six inches over the curb from the line between the curb and sidewalk or more than 12 inches over the sidewalk from the line between the curb and sidewalk.
(1976 Code, § 8-104)
(B) (1) The municipality shall have the power to remove all obstructions from the sidewalks, curbstones, gutters and crosswalks at the expense of the person placing them there or at the expense of the municipality and to require and regulate the planting and protection of shade trees in and along the streets and the trimming and removing of such trees.
(2) The municipality shall have the power to regulate the building of bulkheads, cellar and basement ways, stairways, railways, windows, doorways, awnings, hitching posts and rails, lampposts, awning posts, all other structures projection upon or over and adjoining, and all other excavations through and under the sidewalks in the municipality.
(1976 Code, § 8-104.1)
(C) (1) The municipality shall have power to prevent and remove all encroachments, including snow, ice, mud or other obstructions, into and upon all sidewalks, streets, avenues, alleys and other municipal property.
(2) (a) If the abutting property owner refuses or neglects, after five days’ notice by publication or, in place thereof, personal service of such notice, to remove all encroachments from sidewalks, as provided in division (C)(1) above, the municipality through the proper officers may cause such encroachments to be removed and the cost of removal shall be paid out of the Street Fund.
(b) The governing body shall assess the cost of the notice and removal of the encroachment against the abutting property as a special assessment. The special assessment shall be known as a special sidewalk assessment and, together with the cost of notice, shall be levied and collected as a special assessment in addition to the general revenue taxes and shall be subject to the same penalties as other special assessments and shall draw interest from the date of the assessment.
(3) Upon payment of the assessment, the assessment shall be credited to the Street Fund.
(1976 Code, § 8-104.2)
(D) Persons engaged in the erection, construction, reconstruction, wrecking or repairing of any building, or the construction, or repair, of a sidewalk along any street, may occupy the public street space with such building material and equipment as long as is necessary if such persons shall make application to and receive a permit in writing from the Street Commissioner to do so; provided, no permit for the occupancy of the sidewalk space, and more than one-third of the roadway of the public space adjacent to the real estate on which said building is to be constructed, erected, reconstructed, wrecked or repaired shall be granted; and, provided further, a suitable passageway for pedestrians shall be maintained within the public space included in the permit which shall be protected and lighted in the manner required by the Street Commissioner.
(1976 Code, § 8-105)
(Ord. 599, passed 1-18-1979; Ord. 1111, passed 7-11-1994; Ord. 1238, passed 9-8-1997; Ord. 1461, passed 2-8-2016) Penalty, see § 151.999
Statutory reference:
Related provisions, see Neb. RS 17-555, 17-557, 17-557.01