(a) Application of the Chapter. The provisions of this chapter shall be enforceable within this Municipality concurrently with the State and Federal laws relative to sanitation and health and the ordinances or orders of the local health district relative thereto, and shall not be construed as modifying, repealing, limiting, or affecting in any manner such laws, ordinances, or orders.
(b) Definitions. For the purpose of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
(1) “Nuisance” means that which is defined and declared by statutes or ordinances to be such and also means any place in or upon which lewdness, assignation, or prostitution is conducted, permitted, continued, or exists, or any place in or upon which lewd, indecent, lascivious or obscene films or plate negatives, film or plate positives, films designed to be projected on a screen for exhibition films, or glass slides either in negative or positive form designed for exhibition by projection on a screen, are photographed, manufactured, developed, screened, exhibited, or otherwise prepared or shown, and the personal property and contents used in conducting and maintaining any such place for any such purpose. This chapter shall not affect any newspaper, magazine, or other publication entered as second class matter by the post office department.
(2) “Person” includes any individual, corporation, association, partnership, trustee, lessee, agent or assignee.
(3) “Place” includes any building, erection, or place or any separate part or portion thereof or the ground itself.
(c) Nuisances Generally; Injunctions; Violation; Contempt.
(1) Any person who uses, occupies, establishes, or conducts a nuisance, or aids and abets therein, and the owner, agent, or lessee of any interest in any such nuisance together with the persons employed in or in control of any such nuisance by any such owner, agent, or lessee is guilty of maintaining a nuisance and shall be enjoined as provided in Ohio R.C. 3767.03 through 3767.06.
(2) In case of the violation of any injunction or closing order granted under Ohio R.C. 3767.01 through 3767.11, or of a restraining order or the commission of any contempt of court in proceedings under such sections, the court or, in vacation, a judge thereof, may summarily try and punish the offender. The trial may be had upon affidavits or either party may demand the production and oral examination or witnesses.
(3) Whoever is guilty of contempt under this subsection is guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree.
(d) Maintaining Certain Nuisances.
(1) No person shall erect, continue to use, or maintain a building, structure, or place for the exercise of a trade, employment, or business or for keeping or feeding an animal which, by occasioning noxious exhalations or noisome or offensive smells, becomes injurious to the health, comfort, or property of individuals or of the public.
(2) No person shall cause or allow offal, filth, or noisome substances to be collected or remain in any place to the damage or prejudice of others or of the public.
(3) No person shall unlawfully obstruct or impede the passage of a navigable river, harbor, or collection of water, or corrupt or render unwholesome or impure a watercourse, stream of water, or unlawfully divert such watercourse from its natural course or state to the injury or prejudice of others.
(4) Persons who are engaged in agriculture-related activities, as agriculture is defined in Ohio R.C. 519.01, and who are conducting those activities outside the Municipality, in accordance with generally accepted agricultural practices, and in such a manner so as not to have a substantial, adverse effect on the public health, safety, or welfare, are exempt from subsections (d)(1) and (2) above and from any ordinances, resolutions, rules, or other enactments of the municipality that prohibit excessive noise.
(5) Whoever violates this subsection is guilty of a misdemeanor of the third degree.
(e) Collection of Cost of Abating Dangerous Property Condition; Injunction; Rehabilitation.
(1) Collection of costs of abating dangerous property conditions.
A. As used in this subsection, “total cost” means any costs incurred due to the use of employees, materials, or equipment of the Municipality, any costs arising out of contracts for labor, materials, or equipment, and costs of service of notice or publication required under this subsection.
B. The Municipality may collect the total cost of removing, repairing, or securing insecure, unsafe, structurally defective, abandoned, deserted, or open and vacant buildings or other structures, of making emergency corrections of hazardous conditions, or of abating any nuisance by any of the following methods:
1. The Clerk may certify the total costs, together with a proper description of lands to the County Auditor who shall place the costs upon the tax duplicate. The costs are a lien upon such lands from and after the date of entry. The costs shall be collected as other taxes and returned to the Municipality.
2. The Municipality may commence a civil action to recover the total costs from the owner.
C. Subsection (e)(1) hereof applies to any action taken by the Municipality pursuant to Ohio R.C. 715.26, which authorizes the inspection, removal and repair of buildings, or pursuant to the Ohio Constitution, Article XVIII, Sec. 3.
D. The Municipality shall not certify to the County Auditor for placement upon the tax list and duplicate the cost of any action that it takes under subsection (e)(1)B. hereof of this section if the action is taken on land that has been forfeited to the state for delinquent taxes, unless the owner of record redeems the land.
(2) Injunction may be granted for failure to comply. No person shall erect, alter, repair or maintain any residential building, office, mercantile building, workshop or factory, including a public or private garage, or other structure, within the Municipality unless all ordinances or resolutions enacted pursuant to Ohio R.C. 715.26 through 715.30 are fully complied with. In the event any building or structure is being erected, constructed, altered, repaired or maintained in violation of such ordinances or resolutions, or there is imminent threat of violation, the Municipality or the owner of any contiguous or neighboring property who would be especially damaged by such violation, in addition to any other remedies provided by law, may institute a suit for injunction to prevent or terminate such violation.
(3) Appropriation of property to rehabilitate; demolition or sale.
A. In order to rehabilitate a building or structure that the Municipality has determined to be a threat to the public health, safety or welfare, that has been declared a nuisance under Ohio R.C. Chapters 3707, 3709 or 3781, and that either has been found to be insecure, unsafe, structurally defective, unhealthful, or unsanitary under Ohio R.C. 715.26 through 715.30 or violated a building code or ordinance adopted under Ohio R.C. 731.231, the Municipality may appropriate, in the manner provided by Ohio R.C. 163.01 through 163.22, any such building or structure and the real property of which it is a part. The Municipality shall rehabilitate the building or structure or cause it to be rehabilitated within two years after the appropriation so that the building or structure is no longer a public nuisance, insecure, unsafe, structurally defective, unhealthful or unsanitary, or a threat to the public health, safety, or welfare, in violation of a building code or ordinance adopted under Ohio R.C. 731.231. Any building or structure appropriated pursuant to this subsection which is not rehabilitated within two years shall be demolished.
B. If, during the rehabilitation process, the Municipality retains title to the building or structure and the real property of which it is a part, then within 180 days after the rehabilitation is complete, the Municipality shall appraise the rehabilitated building or structure and the real property of which it is a part, and shall sell the building or structure and property at public auction. The Municipality shall advertise the public auction in a newspaper of general circulation in the Municipality once a week for three consecutive weeks prior to the date of sale. The Municipality shall sell the building or structure and real property to the highest and best bidder. No property that the Municipality acquires pursuant to this subsection shall be leased. (1998 Code Secs. 93.01 to 93.05)