(A) Definition: For the purpose of this chapter the following term shall mean:
NUISANCE: Any act or offense which is a nuisance according to the common law or the statutes of the state of Illinois or declared or defined to be a nuisance by the ordinances of this village. In addition, the officials of this village shall be authorized to abate any nuisance while not specifically defined within this section which shall constitute the unreasonable, unwarranted or unlawful use by a person of property, real or personal, or from his own improper, indecent or unlawful personal conduct which works an obstruction or injury to the right of another, or of the public, and produces a material, annoyance, inconvenience, discomfort or hurt that the law will presume an actionable nuisance. Nuisances may be abated which are public or which are both public and private in nature. A nuisance is also any condition or use of premises or of building exteriors which is detrimental to the property of others or which causes or tends to cause substantial diminution in the value of other property in the neighborhood in which such premises are located. Nuisances include, but are not limited to, the following:
1. To deposit, keep, scatter or store lumber, junk, trash or debris.
2. To deposit, keep, scatter or store abandoned, discarded or unused objects or equipment such as furniture, stoves, refrigerators, freezers, cans or containers.
3. To deposit, keep or store junk motor vehicles or disabled motor vehicles which includes any vehicle, including trailers, without currently valid license plates, or in either substantially wrecked, discarded, dismantled, inoperative or abandoned condition or as defined in title 6, chapter 7 of this code.
4. To keep diseased animals.
5. To keep any house of prostitution, indecent exhibition or use any real estate or personalty for lewdness, assignation or for the use of controlled substances as defined by statute.
6. To cause or allow the carcass of any animal or any offal, filth or noisome substance to be collected, deposited or remain under ownership control to the prejudice of others.
7. To throw or deposit any offal or other offensive matter, or the carcass of any dead animal in any watercourse, lake, pond, spring, well or common sewer, street or public way.
8. To corrupt or render unwholesome or impure the water of any spring, river, stream, pond or lake, to the injury or prejudice of others.
9. To obstruct or encroach upon public highways, private ways, streets, alleys, commons, landing places and ways to burying places.
10. To erect, continue or use any building or any real estate or any other place for the exercise of any trade, employment or manufacture, which, by occasioning noxious exhalations, offensive smells or otherwise, is offensive or dangerous to the health of individuals or of the public.
11. To advertise wares or occupation by painting notices of the same on, or affixing them to fences, walls, windows, building exteriors, utility poles or on hydrants or other public or private property, or on rocks or other natural objects without the consent of the owner, or if in the highway or other public place, without permission of the proper authorities.
12. To dump, abandon, deposit, dismantle or burn upon any public property or right of way, highway, park, street or parkway anywhere in the village, any trash, garbage, ashes, junk, junked or wrecked motor vehicles or parts thereof, or miscellaneous waste.
13. To own, maintain or keep a dwelling unit unfit for human habitation, or dangerous or detrimental to life, safety or health because of lack of repair, defects in the plumbing system, lighting or ventilation, the existence of contagious diseases or unsanitary conditions likely to cause sickness among the persons residing in the premises or residing in proximity thereof.
14. To store or place any materials in a manner which may harbor rats or rodents.
15. To produce or permit to be produced whether on public or private property any offensive noise to the disturbance of the peace or quiet of any person residing in the vicinity.
16. To keep a tent erected on any property within the village for more than fourteen (14) continuous days or to use a tent for other than recreational purposes as a shed, or as living quarters. A tent, for the purposes of this section, is not a decorative structure used to cover summer patio furniture.
17. Possession, cultivation, manufacture, or delivery of cannabis as defined in the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act (410 ILCS 705/1-10), except as authorized by the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act (410 ILCS 705/1 et seq.).
(B) Duty Of Maintenance Of Private Property: 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 a manner causing substantial diminution in the value of other property in the neighborhood in which such premises are located.
(C) Notice To Abate: It shall be the duty of the police chief or his designee to serve or cause to be served upon the person in control of any private property, whether as owner, lessee, tenant, occupant or otherwise to remove from the property any nuisance or abate any nuisance as defined under the terms of this chapter.
(D) Form Of Notice: The notice shall allow the person five (5) days to remove or abate the described nuisance; and in the event the nuisance is not so removed or abated the provisions of this code shall apply. The notice shall be given by personal service or by first class mail, addressed to the person occupying or in control of the premises in question or engaging in the conduct that constitutes the nuisance.
(E) Penalty For Failure To Abate A Nuisance: If a person allows a nuisance to exist as defined in this chapter and fails to abate the nuisance within the period allowed by this code, then, upon conviction thereof, the person shall be fined not less than twenty five dollars ($25.00) nor more than seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00) for each offense, and a separate offense shall be deemed committed on each day during or on which the nuisance is permitted to exist.
(F) Abatement By Village: In addition to the penalty provided for in this code, whenever any person fails to abate the nuisance within the period allowed by this code, then the village shall cause the nuisance to be abated, including the right to seek injunctive relief to enjoin continuation of a nuisance where there is no adequate remedy at law, and the expenses therefor shall be recoverable from the owners, jointly and severally, and the cost thereof shall also be a lien upon the land until paid. Any person who by reason of another's violation of any provision of this section suffers damage to himself different from that suffered by any other property owners throughout the village generally may bring an action to enjoin or otherwise abate the existing violation.
(G) Summary Abatement: Whenever, in the opinion of an officer of the village possessing police powers, the maintenance or continuation of a nuisance creates an imminent threat of serious injury to persons or serious damage to persons or real property, or if the nuisance can be abated summarily without or with only minor damage to the items or premises which are creating the nuisance, and the continuation of the nuisance poses a substantial threat of injury to persons or property or a substantial interference with the quiet enjoyment of life normally present in the village, the officer shall proceed to abate the nuisance; provided, further, that whenever the owner, occupant, agent or person in possession, charge or control of the real or personal property which has become a nuisance is unknown or cannot readily be found, the municipal officer with police power may proceed to abate the nuisance without notice. Where abatement of the nuisance requires continuing acts by the village authorities beyond the initial summary abatement and any other additional emergency abatements, it shall seek abatement of the nuisance on a permanent basis through judicial process as soon as reasonably possible.
(H) Recording Of Notice Of Lien: Within sixty (60) days after the costs and expenses are incurred by the village for abatement, the village may file a notice of lien in the office of the recorder of deeds of Tazewell County, Illinois. The notice shall consist of a sworn statement setting out: 1) a description of the real estate sufficient for identification thereof for purposes of recording; 2) the amount of money representing the costs and expenses incurred or payable for the service; and 3) the date or dates when the costs and expenses were incurred by the village.
(I) Payment And Release: Upon payment of the costs and expenses by the owner or persons interested in the property to which a lien is attached, the lien shall be released by the village and, if notice of a lien has been filed, the village shall provide to the owner or interested party a release that may be filed of record; provided, however, no lien shall be released until the total costs and expenses, including the actual costs, filing fees and other costs of administration and interest, are satisfied by payment in full. (Ord. 463-03, 7-14-1993; amd. Ord. 575, 11-14-2001; Ord. 783, 5-27-2015; Ord. 816, 6-22-2016; Ord. 898, 1-22-2020)
Notes
| 1 | 1. See also title 6, chapter 2 of this code, "Miscellaneous Offenses"; especially section 6-2-24, "Creating, Maintaining Nuisances". |