(A) Generally. A PUBLIC NUISANCE is a thing, act, occupation, condition or use of property which shall continue for such length of time as to:
(1) Substantially annoy, injure or endanger the comfort, health, repose or safety of the public;
(2) In any way render the public insecure in life or in the use of property;
(3) Greatly offend the public morals or decency; and/or
(4) Unlawfully and substantially interfere with, obstruct or tend to obstruct or render dangerous for passage any street, alley, highway, navigable body of water or other public way.
(B) Public nuisances affecting health. The following acts, omissions, places, conditions and things are hereby specifically declared to be public health nuisances, but shall not be construed to exclude other health nuisances coming within the definition of division (A) above:
(1) All decayed, harmfully adulterated or unwholesome food or drink sold or offered for sale to the public;
(2) Carcasses of animals, birds or fowl not buried or otherwise disposed of in a sanitary manner within 24 hours after death;
(3) Accumulations of decayed animal or vegetable matter, trash, rubbish, rotting lumber, bedding, packing material, abandoned vehicles or machinery, scrap metal or any material in which flies, mosquitoes, disease-carrying insects, rats or other vermin may breed; or which may constitute a fire hazard;
(4) All stagnant water in which mosquitoes, flies or other insects can multiply;
(5) Garbage cans which are not fly-tight;
(6) The escape of smoke, soot, cinders, noxious acids, fumes, gases, fly ash or industrial dust within the village limits in such quantities as to endanger the health of persons of ordinary sensibilities or to threaten or cause substantial injury to property;
(7) The pollution of any public well or cistern, stream, lake, canal or body of water by sewage, creamery or industrial wastes or other substances;
(8) Any use of property, substances or things within the village emitting or causing any foul, offensive, noisome, nauseous, noxious or disagreeable odors, effluvia or stenches extremely repulsive to the physical senses of ordinary persons which annoy, discomfort, injure or inconvenience the health of any appreciable number of persons within the village;
(9) All abandoned wells not securely covered or secured from public use;
(10) Any barn, stable or shed used for keeping animals;
(11) Any obstruction in or across any water course, drainage ditch or ravine;
(12) Any open burning contrary to the regulations of the State Pollution Control Board;
(13) The deposit of garbage, rubbish, or any offensive substance on any street, sidewalk or public place, or on any private property, except as may be permitted by ordinance; and
(14)
Any noxious weeds on private property as defined by the Illinois Compiled Statutes or as otherwise expressly exempted herein, provided that same are not elevating the risk of fire for the immediate property or the adjacent properties thereto.
(C) Public nuisances offending morals and decency. The following acts, omissions, places, conditions and things are hereby specifically declared to be pubic nuisances offending public morals and decency, but such enumeration shall not be construed to exclude other nuisances offending public morals and decency coming within the definition of division (A) above:
(1) All disorderly houses, bawdy houses, houses of ill fame, gambling houses and buildings or structures kept or resorted to for the purpose of prostitution, promiscuous sexual intercourse or gambling;
(2) All gambling devices and slot machines;
(3) All places where intoxicating liquor or fermented malt beverages are sold, possessed, stored, brewed, bottled, manufactured or rectified without a permit or license as provided for by this code; and
(4) Any place or premises within the village where ordinances or state laws relating to public health, safety, peace, morals or welfare are openly, continuously, repeatedly and intentionally violated.
(D) Public nuisances affecting peace and safety. The following acts, omissions, places, conditions and things are hereby declared to be public nuisances affecting peace and safety, but such enumeration shall not be construed to exclude other nuisances affecting public peace or safety coming within the provisions of division (A) above:
(1) All buildings erected, repaired or altered in violation of the provisions of the ordinances of the village relating to materials and manner of construction of buildings and structures;
(2) All unauthorized signs, signals, markings or devices which purport to be or may be mistaken as official traffic control devices placed or maintained upon or in view of any public highway or railway crossing;
(3) All trees, hedges, billboards or other obstructions which prevent persons driving vehicles on public streets, alleys or highways from obtaining a clear view of traffic when approaching an intersection or pedestrian crosswalk;
(4) All limbs of trees which project over a public sidewalk less than eight feet above the surface thereof or less than ten feet above the surface of a public street;
(5) All use or display of fireworks, except as provided by the laws of the state and ordinances of the village;
(6) All buildings or structures so old, dilapidated or out of repair as to be dangerous, unsafe, unsanitary or otherwise unfit for human use;
(7) All wires over streets, alleys or public grounds which are strung less than 15 feet above the surface of the street or ground;
(8) All loud and discordant noises or vibrations of any kind;
(9) All obstructions of streets, alleys, sidewalks or crosswalks and all excavations in or under the same, except as permitted by the ordinances of the village or which, although made in accordance with such ordinances, are kept or maintained for an unreasonable length of time after the purpose thereof has been accomplished;
(10) All open and unguarded pits, wells, excavations or unused basements freely accessible from any public street, alley or sidewalk;
(11) All abandoned refrigerators or ice boxes;
(12) Any unauthorized or unlawful use of property abutting on a public street, alley or sidewalk or of a public street, alley or sidewalk which causes large crowds of people to gather, obstructing traffic and free use of the streets or sidewalks;
(13) Any advertisements or signs affixed to any building, wall, fence, sidewalk, street or other private or public property without permission of the owner thereof;
(14) Any sign, marquee or awning which is in an unsafe condition, or which overhangs any roadway, or which overhangs any sidewalk less than eight feet above the sidewalk surface;
(15) Any condition or practice constituting a fire hazard;
(16) Any nuisance so defined by the Illinois Compiled Statutes;
(17) All unsheltered storage of old, unused, stripped, junked and other automobiles not in good and safe operating condition, and of any other vehicles, machinery, implements and/or equipment and personal property of any kind which is no longer safely usable for the purposes for which it was manufactured, within the corporate limits of the village;
(18) All unsheltered storage of unlicensed automobiles for a period of ten days or more within the corporate limits of the village; and
(19) All signs advertising garage sales, yard sales, house sales or other similar sales other than those located on the property on which the sale is being conducted.
(E) Landlord liability for public nuisances.
(1) Definitions.
CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE. Any group of six or more people, where one of the six occupies a position of organizer, a supervisory position, or any other position of management with respect to the other five, and which generates substantial income or resources, and is engaged in a continuing series of violations of subchapters I and II of Chapter 13 of Title 21 of the United States Code, or such groups that may be declared as such by the FBI, DOJ, or the Illinois State Police (ISP) from time to time.
LANDLORD. For the purposes of this division, any person, corporation, owner, manager or other such entity which takes part in an agreement to allow the leasing, use, rental or other occupation of real property within the village, be it through an oral agreement or written lease or contract, and which has the primary responsibility for enforcement of such agreement and/or is entitled to receipt of proceeds paid under such agreement.
LEASE. Any agreement, be it verbal or written, establishing terms for the use, renting, loan
and/or occupation of real property within the village. Monetary consideration for such use or occupancy is not required to establish a lease for the purposes of this division.
(2) That any person, firm, corporation or other entity that knowingly leases, rents, loans, or otherwise allows any organization which is a known criminal enterprise, as identified on the publically available database maintained by both the FBI and the DOJ, such person, firm, shall be guilty of committing and maintaining a public nuisance.
(3) Upon notice of such nuisance and demand to abate such nuisance delivered by an officer or authorized agent of the village to such landlord by U.S. Mail or personal service, such landlord shall immediately act to terminate such lease and prevent further possession of such space by a person, group or other entity who qualifies under the terms herein as a criminal enterprise. In additional to all other rights of civil action to compel compliance with this division, the village may take any of the following actions:
(a) After the passage of ten days from the date of service of written notice, the village may assess a daily fine not to exceed $750 per day for every day the nuisance continues; and
(b) After the passage of 30 days from the date of service of written notice, the village may revoke any and all village issued permits associated with the leased premises; and
(c) After the passage of 30 days from the date of service of written notice, the village shall have the right to seek a mandatory injunction from a court of competent jurisdiction ordering the abatement of such nuisance; and
(d) After the passage of 60 days, the village shall have the right to seek eminent domain and/or demolition of a public safety hazard for any such property being leased or rented in violation of this division;
(e) Any action instituted by the village to abate any of the nuisances contemplated in this division shall be reported to the FBI, DOJ, the ISP as well as the local State's Attorney's Office.
The Landlord and the record property owner shall be jointly and severally liable for all costs associated with enforcement of this division (E). Any costs not recovered by the village shall be filed as a lien against the property in question and may be foreclosed upon consistent with Illinois Statute. In addition to any civil penalties delineated in this chapter for maintaining a public nuisance, the entry into or continued participation in any such lease in violation of this division shall be subject to civil or criminal prosecution at the federal, state and/or local level.
(Ord. 15-O-27, passed 6-25-2015; Ord. 24-O-05, passed 3-19-2024)