It shall be unlawful for any person to keep, except within a fully enclosed building or structure or otherwise shielded or screened from public view, on any property zoned for residential, industrial, agricultural or business purposes any motor vehicle, trailer or semitrailer, as defined in VA Code § 46.2-100, as amended, which is not in operating condition, or which for a period of 60 days or longer had been partially or totally disassembled by the removal of tires and wheels, the engine, or other essential parts required for operation of the vehicle or on which there are displayed neither valid license plates nor a valid inspection decal; provided, however, that the provisions of this section shall not apply to a licensed business which on June 26, 1970 is regularly engaged in business as an automobile dealer, salvage dealer or scrap processor. The owners of property zoned for residential, industrial, agricultural or commercial purposes shall, at such time or times as the Town Council may prescribe, remove therefrom any such inoperative motor vehicles, trailers or semitrailers that are not kept within a fully enclosed building or structure or otherwise shielded or screened from public view. The Town Council through its own agencies or employees may remove any such inoperative motor vehicles, trailers or semitrailers, whenever the owner of the premises, after reasonable notice, has failed to do so. In the event the town, through its own agents or employees, removes any such motor vehicles, trailers or semitrailer after giving additional notice of the owner of the vehicle, the cost of any such removal and disposal shall be chargeable to the owner of the vehicle or premises and may be collected by the town as taxes and levies are collected. Every cost authorized by this section with which the owner of the premises shall have been assessed shall constitute a lien against the property from which the vehicle was removed, the lien to continue until actual payment of such costs shall have been made to the town.
(1996 Code, § 159-6) Penalty, see § 70.99