A. Definitions:
ENFORCING AUTHORITY: The City Manager shall have full authority of law to enforce the provisions of this chapter. The City Manager may delegate any portion or all of this authority to his/her agents. Nothing herein shall limit the responsibility, authority, or powers of enforcement given under the City ordinances or other State law. The term "Manager" as used in this chapter, shall mean the City Manager or his/her agent. The City Manager shall have the authorization to enter into or upon subject property at reasonable times to investigate or cause the removal of the subject nuisance.
NOXIOUS VEGETATION: 1. Weeds more than twelve inches (12") high.
2. Grass more than twelve inches (12") high, and not within the exception stated in subsection 1 of this definition.
3. Poison oak, poison ivy, yellow star thistle, and puncture vine.
4. Blackberry bushes that extend into a public thoroughfare or across a property line.
5. All trees, plants, shrubs, grass, brush, weeds, or other vegetation growing or which has grown and died or dried that are found upon any property which are a fire hazard and/or otherwise a menace to public health, safety and welfare.
"Noxious vegetation" does not include vegetation that constitutes an agricultural crop, unless that vegetation is a health hazard, or a fire or traffic hazard.
NUISANCES: For the purposes of this chapter, nuisances mean rubbish, junk, noxious vegetation, and stagnant water.
PROPERTY OWNER RESPONSIBILITY: In addition to property owned, the property owner is responsible under this chapter for all vegetation on that portion of the public right-of-way abutting the property such person owns, except for the roadway. The roadway is the paved, improved, or proper driving portion of the highway designed or ordinarily used for vehicular travel. This section applies to undeveloped public rights-of-way as well as to developed public rights-of-way.
RUBBISH, DEBRIS, AND JUNK: Any open visible storage of old appliances, equipment or parts thereof, all old iron or other scrap metal, all inoperable vehicles or parts thereof, including tires, all vehicle bodies, cardboard, all lumber, old wood and mattresses, which are not being used for their intended purpose, and any other material that is piled or discarded in a manner that is unsightly, constitutes a fire hazard, or otherwise is a menace to public health, safety and welfare. Junk does not include orderly stacked firewood.
STAGNANT WATER: Accumulated and/or standing foul water, whether existing on the ground, or otherwise contained and existing in an open cistern or other container, that attracts or is likely to attract, accumulations of insects, or creates foul or unpleasant odors, or otherwise creates an unhealthy environmental condition. (Ord. 930, 9-26-2005; amd. Ord. 984, 2-13-2017)
B. Prohibition: No owner or person in charge of property may allow nuisances to be on the property or in the right-of-way of a public thoroughfare abutting on the property. It shall be the duty of an owner or person in charge of the property to cut down or to destroy grass, shrubbery, brush, bushes, weeds, or other noxious vegetation as often as needed to prevent them from becoming unsightly, from becoming a fire hazard, or in the case of weeds or other noxious vegetation, from maturing or from going to seed, and to remove all rubbish and debris. (Ord. 930, 9-26-2005)