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The director of code compliance and all duly authorized employees of the department of code compliance shall have the authority to enforce provisions of the city code relating to zoning, multifamily dwellings, minimum building standards, nuisance, environmental and health, according to specific procedures set forth in said code chapters and ordinances, including, but not limited to:
(a) Chapter 7, Article IV (minimum building standards);
(b) Chapter 7, Article IX (registration and inspection of multifamily dwelling complexes);
(c) Chapter 12.5, Article VIII (solid waste and recycling);
(d) Chapter 22, Section 22-160 (parking of vehicles in front and side yards);
(f) Chapter 22, Article IX (junked vehicles);
(g) Appendix A (comprehensive zoning ordinance); and
(h) Appendix B, Chapter 11A (department of code compliance).
(Ord. 12931, § 1, passed 3-25-1997; Ord. 14698, § 1, passed 7-17-2001; Ord. 18162-07-2008, § 8, passed 7-8-2008)
ALLEY. A street that is not used primarily for through traffic and which provides access to rear entrances of buildings or lots along a street.
ANIMAL. Any living, domestic, vertebrate creature, other than homo sapiens.
COMPOSTING. The controlled biological decomposition through microbial activity of compatible organic wastes that have been diverted from the solid waste stream for conversion into soil amendment or mulch.
DIRECTOR. The director of code compliance for the City of Fort Worth or the director’s authorized representative.
ECTOPARASITES. Bedbugs, lice and mites.
GARBAGE. Putrescible animal and vegetable waste materials and/or residue from the handling, preparation, cooking or consumption of food, including waste materials from markets, storage facilities and the handling and sale of produce and other food products.
GRAFFITI. Any unauthorized inscription, word, signature, symbol, design or other marking of any sort which is etched, written, painted, drawn or applied in any other way to any structure, building, fence, wall, roadway, sidewalk or any property of any sort or to any portion or element thereof, whether the property is public or private.
LITTER. Garbage, rubbish and solid waste as herein defined and all other material which when discarded tends to endanger the public health, safety and welfare.
OWNER. Any person who is the owner of record to any real property, or any person having or claiming to have any legal or equitable interest in real or personal property.
PARKWAY. The unimproved portion of any street, between the roadway and the private property line.
PERSON. Any individual, partnership, firm, company, corporation, association, joint stock company, trust, estate, governmental entity or any other legal entity or their legal representatives, agents or assigns. This definition includes all federal, state and local governmental entities.
PUTRESCIBLE WASTE. Organic waste such as garbage and grease trap waste that is capable of being decomposed by microorganisms with sufficient rapidity as to cause odors or gases or is capable of providing food for or attracting birds, animals and vectors.
RECYCLABLES. Materials which have been recovered or diverted from the solid waste stream for purposes of reuse, recycling or reclamation.
RECYCLING FACILITY. A facility in which recyclables are collected or removed from the waste stream for transport off-site for recycling.
RIGHT-OF-WAY. Any street, roadway, alley, sidewalk or other property upon which the public has the right to travel by foot or by vehicle.
RUBBISH. Non-putrescible solid waste, excluding ashes, that consists of combustible waste materials, including paper, rags, cartons, wood, excelsior, furniture, rubber, plastics, yard trimmings, leaves and similar materials; or noncombustible waste materials, including glass, crockery, tin cans, aluminum cans, metal furniture and similar materials that do not burn at ordinary incinerator temperatures (1600°F to 1800°F).
SOLID WASTE. Any garbage, rubbish, recyclables, sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply treatment plant or air pollution control facility, and other discarded material including solid, liquid, semi-solid or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, municipal, commercial, mining and agricultural operations, and from community and institutional activities, but does not include:
(1) Solid or dissolved material in domestic sewage, or solid or dissolved material in irrigation return flows or industrial discharges subject to regulation by permit issued pursuant to the Tex. Water Code Chapter 26;
(2) Soil, dirt, rock, sand and other natural or human-made inert solid materials used to fill land if the object of the fill is to make the land suitable for the construction of surface improvements; or
(3) Waste materials which result from activities associated with the exploration, development or production of oil and gas and are subject to control by the railroad commission of Texas.
STREET. The width between the boundary lines of a publicly maintained way, part of which is designed for vehicular traffic.
UNAUTHORIZED. Without the permission of the owner or the person in control of property, whether public or private.
VECTOR. An animal or insect that transmits a disease-producing organism.
(Ord. 12931, § 1, passed 3-25-1997; Ord. 14698, § 1, passed 7-17-2001; Ord. 14676, § 1, passed 6-26-2001)
(a) Any property upon which weeds or grass exceed 12 inches in height, is hereby declared to be a nuisance.
(b) A person commits an offense if the person owns, occupies or controls any real property upon which weeds or grass exceed 12 inches in height.
(c) A person commits an offense if the person owns, occupies or controls any real property and fails to maintain the parkway adjacent to the property free of weeds and grass that exceed 12 inches in height.
(d) In a prosecution or other enforcement action of subsections (a) or (b) above, it is an exception that the real property was a lot, tract or parcel of land of two or more acres under common ownership and the high grass or weeds was no closer than 100 feet to:
(1) Any adjacent street; or
(2) Any structure or other improvement on any adjacent property owned by another person.
(e) The provisions of this section apply to real property located within the City of Fort Worth.
(Ord. 12931, § 1, passed 3-25-1997; Ord. 20277-07-2012, § 1, passed 7-10-2012)
(a) The director is hereby authorized to give notice to the owner of any property upon which high grass and weeds exist to abate the nuisance.
(b) If the owner of the property does not comply with an abatement notice issued by the director within ten days after the date the notice is received, the director may:
(1) Enter the property and do or cause to be done the work required to abate the nuisance; and
(2) Pay for the work done and charge the expenses to the owner of the property.
(c) The notice must be given:
(1) Personally to the owner in writing;
(2) By letter addressed the owner at the owner’s post office address; or
(3) If personal service cannot be obtained or the owner’s post office address is unknown:
a. By publication at least twice within ten consecutive days;
b. By posting the notice on or near the front door of each building on the property to which the violation relates; or
c. By posting the notice on a placard attached to a stake driven into the ground on the property to which the violation relates, if the property contains no buildings.
(d) Notice will be deemed to have been received:
(1) For personal service, as of the date the notice was given personally to the owner;
(2) For mailed notice, three days after it was mailed;
(3) For notice by publication, on the date that the last notice was published in the official newspaper; or
(4) For notice by posting, ten days after notice was posted.
(e) The director in the notice of a violation may inform the owner by certified mail, return receipt requested, that if the owner commits another violation of the same kind or nature that poses a danger to the public health and safety on or before the first anniversary of the date of the notice, the city without further notice may correct the violation at the owner’s expense and assess the expense against the property.
(f) If a violation covered by a notice under subsection (e) above occurs within the one-year period, and the director has not been informed in writing by the owner of an ownership change, then the city without notice may take any action permitted by subsections (a)(1) and (a)(2) above and assess its expenses as provided by § 11A-11.
(Ord. 12931, § 1, passed 3-25-1997; Ord. 20277-07-2012, § 1, passed 7-10-2012)
(a) The director may abate, without notice, weeds or grass that:
(1) Have grown higher than 48 inches; and
(2) Are an immediate danger to the health, life or safety of any person.
(b) Not later than the tenth day after the date the director abates weeds or grass under this section, the director shall give notice to the property owner in the manner required by § 11A-9.
(c) This notice shall contain:
(1) An identification, which is not required to be a legal description, of the property;
(2) A description of the violations that occurred on the property;
(3) A statement that the city abated the weeds or grass; and
(4) An explanation of the property owner’s right to request an administrative hearing about the city’s abatement of weeds or grass.
(d) The director shall conduct an administrative hearing on the abatement of weeds or grass under this section if, not later than the thirtieth day after the date of the abatement of the weeds, the property owner files with the director a written request for a hearing.
(e) An administrative hearing conducted under this section shall be conducted not later than the twentieth day after the date a request for a hearing is filed. The owner may testify or present any witnesses or written information relating to the city’s abatement of the weeds.
(f) The director may assess expenses and create liens under this section in accordance with § 11A-11.
(Ord. 12931, § 1, passed 3-25-1997; Ord. 20277-07-2012, § 1, passed 7-10-2012)
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