1337.02 ABANDONED AND INOPERATIVE GASOLINE SERVICE STATIONS.
If any gasoline service station becomes abandoned, such station shall be presumed to be a nuisance affecting or endangering surrounding property values and to be detrimental to the public health, safety, convenience, comfort, property or general welfare of the community and shall be abated. "Abandoned" means failure to operate the service station as a gasoline service station, for at least three consecutive months, or for at least three months in any eighteen-month period.
Whenever the Building Commissioner and Service Director shall find any gasoline service station to be abandoned within the meaning of this section, he shall give notice in the same manner as service of summons in civil cases, or by certified mail, express mail, or any other commercial carrier service utilizing any form of delivery requiring a signed receipt addressed to the owner of record of the premises at his last known address or to the address to which tax bills are sent, or by a combination of the foregoing methods, to abate such abandoned condition within sixty days after service of the notice, either by placing the station in operation in accordance with the ordinances of the Municipality or adapting and using all buildings and land on the premises for another purpose or purposes permitted by the ordinances of the Municipality, removing the pumps and signs, abandoning underground storage tanks in accordance with accepted safe practice as prescribed by the National Fire Protection Association in Appendix C to N. F. P. A. No. 30, under the supervision of the Fire Department of the Municipality and filling depressions to the grade level of the lot.
However, if the station is in operation as a gasoline service station at the time the notice is served, and remains in continuous operation for at least three months thereafter, the provisions of this section shall not apply; and if there should be declared a national emergency which would curtail the operation of motor vehicles or the sale of gasoline, or if Council shall determine that there exists a state of general economic depression, the provisions of this section shall not apply.
Upon the failure, neglect or refusal of any owner to comply with the notice to abate such abandonment, the Building Commissioner and Service Director shall take such action as may be necessary to abate such nuisance, including without limitation as to other remedies, the razing of the buildings on the premises, and the owner shall be liable to the Municipality for any expense incurred by the Municipality in abating the nuisance.
Inoperative gasoline service stations which do not come within the definition of abandoned service stations shall be maintained in accordance with the provisions of this chapter and the owner shall cut all grass and remove rubbish and weeds from the premises. The parking of motor vehicles upon the premises shall in such case be prohibited and the owner shall place in the window of the service station a sign of at least ten square feet in area notifying the public of this fact. Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, if the Building Commissioner and Service Director find that the notice is not complied with by the public he may order the owner of the premises on which any such station is inoperative for more than one month to install fencing or barricade approved by the Building Commissioner and Service Director which will be sufficient to block motor vehicle access to the property.
(Ord. 70-36. Passed 11-16-70; Ord. 2023-12. Passed 12-18-23.)