(a) Definitions. As used in this section, the following words shall have the following meanings in the interpretation and enforcement of this section:
(1) "Person" means any person, firm, partnership, association, corporation, company or organization of any kind.
(2) "Property" means any real property within the Municipality which is not a street or highway.
(3) "Automobile" means and includes any portion or parts of any vehicle as detached from the vehicle as a whole.
(4) "Scrap metal" means and includes pieces of or parts of steel, iron, tin, zinc, copper, aluminum, or any alloy thereof, whether covered with porcelain or any other material, whether intact or in parts, which has served its usefulness in its original form and can no longer be used or useful for its originally intended purpose.
(5) "Junk" means scrap metal as defined herein together with other type of metal and also salvaged rope, bags, paper, rags, glass or rubber or any other material attached thereto and similar or related articles or property.
(6) "Disabled vehicle" means any motor vehicle which is incapable of being operated or propelled by the vehicle's own power.
(7) "Unlicensed vehicle" means any motor vehicle which is not registered for and carrying a current license for use on the public highway.
(b) Outside Storage of Unlicensed or Disabled Motor Vehicle. No person, firm or corporation shall store or permit to be stored, for a period of more than seventy-two hours, any unlicensed or disabled vehicle on any property within this Municipality, unless such vehicle shall be within a completely enclosed building or garage. The seventy-two hour period shall be deemed to run on the date that such person shall have been notified in writing by the Mayor, his agent, the Police Department, or agents thereof, that such vehicle is being stored in violation of this section. A business place, upon a written request to Council, may receive a time extension if sufficient cause is shown. Sufficient cause and the time of extension shall be at the discretion of Council.
(c) Automobile Parts, Scrap Metal or Junk. No person in charge of or in control of any property within the Municipality, whether as an owner, tenant, occupant, lessee or otherwise, shall allow any automobile parts, scrap metal or junk to remain on such property longer than ten days after receipt of a written notice from the Police Department to remove such automobile parts, scrap metal or junk from such property. This section shall not apply to automobile parts, scrap metal or junk in an enclosed building or in other sheds or enclosures specially designed for the purpose of storage of such material unless such enclosures become a nuisance.
(d) Storage of Automobile Parts, Scrap Metal and Junk.
(1) When the storage of automobile parts, scrap metal or junk in any building or specially designed enclosure within the Municipality has become a nuisance by the reason that such building or enclosure harbors rats, roaches or other vermin or is a nuisance by reason of danger of fire or entry therein by juveniles or suspicious persons or upon repeated complaints by residents of the Municipality, the Chief of Police or any member of the Police Department designated by the Chief shall give notice to the person in charge of or in control of such property that the building or enclosure has become a nuisance.
(2) No person in charge of or in control of any property within this Municipality, whether as owner, tenant, occupant, lessee or otherwise, shall allow any automobile parts, scrap metal or junk or junked vehicle to remain in any building or enclosure within the Municipality longer than thirty days after receipt of a written notice from the Chief of Police or any member of the Police Department designated by the Chief that the building or enclosure has become a nuisance.
(3) Any person served with notice of a violation and who fails to cause such violation to cease within seventy-two hours of the date upon which the notice provided in subsection (e) was issued, shall be subject to the penalties provided in this section. A separate offense shall be deemed committed upon each day during or on which the violation occurred or continues beyond such seventy-two hour period and no additional notice of violation is required to be given in such cases.
(e) Subsequent Violations. Once a seventy-two hour notice has been sent to a property owner advising him that he has on his premises a motor vehicle in violation of this section, should a second violation occur, after the expiration of the first seventy-two notice or the same vehicle appear in violation on the same premises, there shall be no further requirement for a seventy-two hour notice and the property owner involved may be subject to immediate citation.
(f) Notice. Notice under this section shall be in writing and shall be served upon the person in charge of or in control of such property within the Municipality, whether as owner, tenant, occupant, lessee or otherwise, either personally or at the usual place of residence of such person in charge of or in control of such property, or by registered or certified mail, addressed to such person's last known place of residence.
(g) Exceptions. Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, it shall not be unlawful for any person in charge of or in control of any property within the Municipality to purchase new or used building materials and to place or store them upon any lot, lots, parts of lots, or parcel of land within the Municipality when such materials are to be used by the purchaser or person in charge of or in control of such property in later construction on the same lot or any lot owned or controlled by such person. However, such material shall not remain on the lot, lots, parts of lots, or parcel of land for a period of more than thirty days, unless actual construction or erection planned for the use of the material has commenced and continues unabated daily. Furthermore, such materials must be used or consumed in the construction on or removed from the premises within a period of four months from the time the materials are first placed on the lot, lots, parts of lots, or parcel of land. No person or persons shall move any materials so stored or placed to another location within the Municipality for the purpose of avoiding the intent of this section. Such materials may be moved to another lot, lots, parts of lots, or parcel of land when the materials have been sold to a bona fide purchaser for value for such purchaser's own use.
(h) Penalty. Whoever violates this section is guilty of a minor misdemeanor. A separate offense shall be deemed committed each day during or on which the violation occurs or continues.
(Ord. 98-161. Passed 1-7-99.)