(a) Notice to Abate; Compliance.
(1) No person shall suffer, permit or allow to exist within the City any act, thing or condition of a kind which has been or may hereafter be defined by ordinance as a public nuisance.
(2) Whenever a public nuisance exists, the Safety-Service Director shall direct the appropriate City department or division to cause the owner, tenant or person in charge of such property upon which such public nuisance exists to be served with a notice to abate the public nuisance. Compliance shall be required within not less than three days after receipt of such notice. Such notice shall be personally served upon the owner, tenant or person in charge of the premises. If such notice is not able to be served personally on the owner, tenant or person in charge, such notice shall be posted in a conspicuous place in or about the premises affected by the notice and such notice shall be mailed to the person who did not receive personal service by certified U.S. Mail, return receipt requested, and regular U.S. Mail, evidenced by certificate of mailing, to his or her last known address. Such service shall be deemed received three days after posting or three days after mailing, whichever is later. Service of such notice in the foregoing manner upon the owner's agent or upon the person in charge of the premises shall constitute service of notice upon the owner.
(3) Whoever fails to comply with such notice shall be deemed guilty of a minor misdemeanor and each day of such noncompliance shall constitute a separate offense. A second offense for violation of this section within six months is a misdemeanor of the fourth degree and each day of such noncompliance shall constitute a separate offense.
(Ord. 97-102. Passed 5-19-97.)
(b) Public Nuisance Defined. The following shall be deemed to constitute a public nuisance within the City:
(1) The erection, continuance, use or maintenance of a building, structure, place or property for the operation or exercise of a trade, employment or business, or the keeping or feeding of any animal, either upon public or private real property, which, by causing noxious exhalations, noise disturbances, or offensive smells becomes injurious to the health, comfort or property of any person or the public, or which causes damage to any person or property of any person or the public;
(Ord. 74-174. Passed 6-17-74; Ord. 2011-68. Passed 6-6-11.)
(2) The storage of a motor vehicle unlicensed or three years old or older, extensively damaged, such damage including but not limited to, missing wheels, tires, motor or transmission, apparently inoperable and having a fair market value of one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500.00) or less upon public or private property for more than five days without being stored within an enclosed garage or obscured from public view. The notice required by division (a) of this section shall also be posted in a conspicuous place upon the motor vehicle. The appropriate City department or division directed by the Safety-Service Director to serve such notice shall be deemed to have permission to enter upon such premises to post the notice upon the motor vehicle. Posting of such notice upon the motor vehicle shall be deemed service upon the owner and the person having possession of the motor vehicle. Three days after service of notice as provided in division (a) of this section, such motor vehicle shall be deemed to be stored without permission of the person having the right to possession of the property and "a nuisance motor vehicle" under this section, subject to being impounded as provided in Section 303.08.
(Ord. 78-232. Passed 10-16-78; Ord. 2001-114. Passed 7-9-01.)
(3) The storage of garbage and/or offal, which means and includes all refuse and waste of animals, fish, fowl, fruit and vegetable matter or other accumulations in the use and preparation of food for the table, or which has been discarded and abandoned and is of no future use or value to the owner for domestic consumption, contrary to the rules and regulations of the City Department of Health;
(4) The suffering, permitting, allowing to remain or maintaining of rubbish, refuse or junk, which includes is not limited to wire, chips, shavings, bottles, broken glass, crockery, tin, cast or wooden ware, boxes, rags, weeds, paper, circulars, handbills, boots, shoes or ashes, or discarded or abandoned iceboxes, refrigerators, washing machines or other airtight or semi-airtight containers, or any other waste material upon public or private property contrary to these Codified Ordinances or regulations of the Department of Health; and
(5) The maintenance or allowance of building materials upon public or private property constitutes a public nuisance if such building materials, which include all residue from building construction and new building materials, are not removed or utilized in construction within thirty days after such materials are placed upon a premises. However, if construction is initiated upon such premises and such building materials are to be used in the construction, then such building materials shall be allowed to remain upon such premises for a period of time not to exceed thirty days after the completion of the construction. For the purpose of the prevention of rodents and other unsanitary conditions, any storage of building materials or deposit of the same upon any property shall consist of building materials being placed at least six inches off the ground at any time.
(Adopting Ordinance)
(6) The accumulation or stockpiling of scrap tires on the open ground or in any container on public or private property by any person in violation of any Federal, State or local law, rule or regulation or Health Department order, rule or regulation.
(Ord. 99-269. Passed 11-15-99.)
(7) The storage, suffering, permitting, allowing to remain or maintaining of scrap tires on the open ground or in any type of container or vehicle or trailer on any public or private property; or the storage of scrap tires on or in public or private property in violation of any Federal, State or local law, rule or regulation; or in violation of any order or regulation of the Health Department Board of Health as authorized in Sections 157.02 and 157.03 of the Administrative Code. The registered owner, lessee or any other person in control of any vehicle or trailer containing scrap tires shall be presumed to have allowed the existence of said nuisance.
(Ord. 2000-48. Passed 3-20-00.)
(c) Enforcement. Whenever any public nuisance exists, upon his own action or at the request of Council, the Law Director may institute proceedings, either legal or equitable, that may be appropriate or necessary for the enforcement or abatement of the public nuisance. This section shall not relieve any person from criminal prosecution or punishment under these Codified Ordinances or any other criminal law enforced in the City.
(d) Remedy of City. If the owner or person having charge of any premises within the City upon which exists a public nuisance fails to comply with any notice established herein or fails to prohibit the existence of such public nuisance, the City has the authority to take whatever action is necessary to abate the public nuisance, including, but not limited to, entering upon any public or private property, and expending or furnishing labor and materials necessary to abate the public nuisance. All such expenses and costs shall be paid out of City funds appropriated therefor, and the City shall thereafter report such expenses to the County Auditor. Such amounts shall thereupon be entered upon the tax duplicate and be a lien upon such lands from and after the date of the entry thereon, and shall be collected as other taxes and returned to the City when so collected.
(Ord. 2004-154. Passed 10-18-04.)