(A) General definition. A NUISANCE consists in doing any unlawful act, or omitting to perform a duty, or suffering or permitting any condition or thing to be or exist, which act, omission, condition, or thing either:
(1) Injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health, or safety of others;
(2) Offends decency;
(3) Is offensive to the senses;
(4) Unlawfully interferes with, obstructs, tends to obstruct, or renders dangerous for passage any stream, public park, parkway, square, street, or highway in the municipality;
(5) In any way renders other persons insecure in life or the use of property; or
(6) Essentially interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life and property, or tends to depreciate the value of the property of others.
(B) Specific definition. The maintaining, using, placing, depositing, leaving, or permitting of any of the following specific acts, omissions, places, conditions, and things are hereby declared to be NUISANCES:
(1) Any odorous, putrid, unsound, or unwholesome grain, meat, hides, skins, feathers, vegetable matter, or the whole or any part of any dead animal, fish, or fowl;
(2) Privies, vaults, cesspools, dumps, pits, or like places which are not securely protected from flies or rats, or which are foul or malodorous;
(3) Filthy, littered, or trash-covered cellars, houseyards, barnyards, stable-yards, factory-yards, mill yards, vacant areas in rear of stores, granaries, vacant lots, houses, buildings, or premises;
(4) Animal manure in any quantity which is not securely protected from flies and the elements, or which is kept or handled in violation of any ordinance of the municipality. The depositing of garbage, pet waste, meat scraps, or other materials that may attract animals or vermin which may provide an obnoxious odor shall be prohibited;
(5) Liquid household waste, human excreta, garbage, butcher’s trimmings and offal, parts of fish or any waste vegetable or animal matter in any quantity; provided, nothing herein contained shall prevent the temporary retention of waste in receptacles nor the dumping of non-putrefying waste in a place and manner approved by the governing body. Grass, sod, earth, garden debris, leaves, brush and tree clippings that are one-half inch in diameter or less, and other materials accumulated as the result of the maintenance of lawns, shrubbery, and vines; fruits, vegetables, eggshells, coffee grounds, houseplant materials, and cut flowers are acceptable only when placed in a properly maintained compost pile. Said pile shall not be less than 25 feet from a neighboring dwelling unit and not less than five feet from a rear or side lot line, and shall not exceed 100 square feet of ground space. In no case may a compost pile be in the front yard of a dwelling. It shall be contained within a structure to prevent the materials within to be windblown, and shall not contain any animal matter or waste;
(6) Tin cans, bottles, glass, cans, ashes, small pieces of scrap iron, wire metal articles, bric-a-brac, broken stone or cement, broken crockery, broken glass, broken plaster, and all trash or abandoned material, unless the same be kept in covered bins or galvanized iron receptacles;
(7) Trash, litter, rags, accumulations of barrels, boxes, crates, packing crates, mattresses, bedding, excelsior, packing hay, straw, or other packing material, lumber not neatly piled, scrap iron, tin, or other metal not neatly piled, old automobiles or parts thereof, or any other waste materials when any of said articles or materials create a condition in which flies or rats may breed or multiply, or which may be a fire danger or which are so unsightly as to depreciate property values in the vicinity thereof;
(8) Any buildings or structures which have any or all of the following defects are hereby declared to be unsafe or dangerous buildings or structures and a public nuisance;
(9) All places used or maintained as junkyards or dumping grounds, or for the wrecking and dissembling of automobiles, trucks, tractors, or machinery of any kind, or for the storing or leaving of worn-out, wrecked or abandoned automobiles, trucks, tractors, or machinery of any kind, or of any of the parts thereof, or for the storing or leaving of any machinery or equipment used by contractors or builders or by other persons, which said places are kept or maintained so as to essentially interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property by others, or which are so unsightly as to tend to depreciate property values in the vicinity thereof;
(10) Stagnant water permitted or maintained on any lot or piece of ground;
(11) Stockyards, granaries, mills, pig pens, cattle pens, chicken pens, or any other place, building or enclosure in which animals or fowl of any kind are confined or on which are stored tankage or any other animal or vegetable matter, or on which any animal or vegetable matter, including grain, is being processed, when said places in which said animals are confined, or said premises on which said vegetable or animal matter is located, are maintained and kept in such a manner that foul and noxious odors are permitted to emanate therefrom, to the annoyance of inhabitants of the municipality, or are maintained and kept in such a manner as to be injurious to the public health;
(12) Maintenance of weeds, grasses, or worthless vegetation of 12 inches or more in height, or eight inches or more in height of weeds, grasses, or worthless vegetation on any lot or piece of ground located within the corporate limits during any calendar year if, within the same calendar year, the city has previously acted to remove weeds, grasses, or worthless vegetation exceeding 12 inches in height on the same lot or piece of ground and had to seek recovery of the costs and expenses of such work from the owner. Weeds shall include, but not be limited to, bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis), puncture vine (Tribulus terrestris), leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula), Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense), perennial peppergrass (Lepidium draba), Russian knapweed (Centaurea picris), Johnson grass (Sorghum halepense), nodding or musk thistle, quack grass (Agropyron repens), perennial sow thistle (Sonchus arvensis), horse nettle (Solanum carolinense), bull thistle (Cirsium lanceoltaum), buckthorn (Rhamnus sp.) (tourn), hemp plant (Cannabis sativa), and ragweed (Ambrosiaceae);
(13) Dead, damaged, and diseased trees within the rights-of-way of streets, alleys, or on private property;
(14) Permitting, maintaining, or keeping conditions on a parcel of ground liable to produce disease, or which is conducive to the breeding and existence of rats, mice, flies, mosquitoes, bacteria, or any other rodents, wild animals, or insects; and
(15) All other things specifically designated as nuisances elsewhere in this code.
(Prior Code, § 94.20) (Ord. 631, passed - -; Ord. 613, passed 3-19-2013; Ord. 648, passed 10-22-2019) Penalty, see § 10.99
Statutory reference:
Related provisions, see Neb. RS 17-563, 17-555, and 18-1720