(a) When any condition in violation of this Article is found to exist, the City Manager or his designee shall give notice of the owner of the premises to abate or remove such conditions within seven (7) days. Such notice shall be in writing, shall include a description of the premises sufficient for identification and shall set forth the violation and state that, if the violation is not corrected within seven (7) days, the City may proceed to correct the same as authorized by this Article. Service of such notice shall be any one of the following methods:
(1) By delivery to any owner personally or by leaving the notice at the usual place of abode of the owner with a person who is over the age of sixteen (16) years old and a member of the family of the owner.
(2) By mailing a copy of the notice by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, addressed to the person to be served and delivered to the addressee;
(3) By delivering a copy of the notice to any officer, employee or agent of a corporation, partnership or business; or
(4) By posting, for ten (10) days, a copy of the notice in placard form, in a conspicuous place on the premises on which the violation exists, when notice cannot be served by (1), (2) or (3) above.
(b) When the owner of any property fails to comply with a notice given pursuant to this Article, within seven (7) days after the service of such notice, he or she shall be subject to any criminal or civil penalties authorized by Chapter 1 of the City Code in accordance with law and each day that such failure continues shall be a separate offense. In addition, the City Manager or his designee may have the condition described in the notice abated, removed or otherwise corrected and all expenses incurred thereby shall be chargeable to and paid by the owner of the property and shall be collected as taxes and levies are collected. All such expenses shall constitute a lien against the property on which the work was done.
(c) The city may notify a chronic violator of the City's public nuisance ordinance that, if the violator's property is found to be in violation of the ordinance, the City shall, without further notice in the calendar year in which notice is given, take action to remedy the violation, and the expense of the action shall become a lien upon the property and shall be collected as unpaid taxes. The notice shall be sent by certified mail. A chronic violator is a person who owns property whereupon, in the previous calendar year, the City took remedial action at least three times under any provision of the public nuisance ordinance.
(d) The procedure set forth in this article shall be in addition to any other remedies that may now or hereafter exist under law for the abatement of public nuisances, and this chapter shall not prevent the City from proceeding in a criminal action against any person, firm or corporation violating the provisions of the Article as provided in G.S. 14-4.
(Ord. No. O-12-06-19-4, § 2, passed 6-19-12)