(a) The owner or tenant in possession of each and every tract of real estate in the City is responsible for the observance of all provisions of this chapter and any other ordinance or regulation of the City relative to signs situated on premises owned by him or her or of which he or she has possession.
(b) No person shall locate, erect, construct, reconstruct, enlarge, change, maintain or use any sign or device in violation of any of the provisions of this chapter or any regulation promulgated pursuant to this chapter.
(c) If any sign is or is proposed to be located, erected, constructed, reconstructed, enlarged, changed, maintained or used in violation of any of the provisions of this chapter or any regulation promulgated pursuant to this chapter, the Code Enforcement Officer or other designated officer of the City, or any adjacent or neighboring property owner who would be damaged by such violation, in addition to other remedies provided by law, may institute a proceeding in any proper court to enjoin, abate or remove such unlawful use of a sign as stated in this section.
(d) Signs are to be installed, placed, and maintained in the City only in compliance with this chapter. If provisions of this chapter are in conflict with any other City ordinance, the more restrictive requirement(s) shall apply. The responsibility for compliance with this chapter rests jointly and severally upon the sign owner, the permit holder, and any parties holding the present right of possession and control of the property where a sign is located, mounted, or installed, and the legal owner of the lot or parcel, even if the sign was mounted, installed, erected or displayed without the consent or knowledge of the owner and/or other parties holding the legal right to immediate possession and control.
(e) The Code Enforcement Officer is authorized to require removal of any sign installed in violation of this chapter. Furthermore, the Code Enforcement Officer is authorized to remove or require the immediate removal or repair without written notice of any unsafe sign that creates an immediate hazard to persons or property or that is in the public right-of-way.
(f) The costs of removal or repair of a sign by the City shall be borne by the person who installed the sign, and, if unknown, the owner or lessee of the sign and of the property on which the sign is located. If the City incurs costs in the removal or repair of a sign, the City may bring an action in municipal or common pleas court to recover its costs or, in the alternative, such amount shall be certified by the Director of Finance to the County Auditor, and placed by the Auditor upon the tax duplicate to be a lien against the real estate from and after the date of entry upon the duplicate, to be collected as other taxes and returned to the City, with the effect that the total cost of such work constitutes a lien on the property which has priority ahead of any mortgages on the premises. Such collection proceedings or certification to the County Auditor shall only be initiated by the City after property owners and/or others with an interest in the property have been offered at least a fourteen calendar day period to remit full payment for charges incurred.
(Ord. 82-7. Passed 2-9-82; Ord. 18-01. Passed 2-27-18.)