(a) General Maintenance Requirements and Owner/Occupant Responsibility For Structures. Every owner, occupant or other person having charge of real estate within the Village shall be responsible for the safe, clean and orderly maintenance of all parts of any dwelling, building, structure, and/or exterior premises located within the limits of the Village of Orwell, which responsibility shall include the following minimum standards:
(1) All dilapidated structures or structures in serious disrepair shall be removed, repaired or rehabilitated.
(2) All building surfaces shall be maintained free of broken glass, loose shingles, crumbling stone or brick, peeling paint or other conditions reflective of deterioration or inadequate maintenance, to the ends that the property may be preserved safely, fire hazards eliminated and adjoining properties and neighborhoods protected from blighting influences.
(3) Fences, exterior stairways and retaining walls or similar structures shall be anchored firmly in the ground, shall be constructed in a workmanlike manner and maintained in the same manner so that such fences, exterior stairways and retaining walls or similar structures shall always be in a state of good structural repair, or in the alternative, such fences, docks, seawalls, exterior stairways and retaining walls or similar structures shall be removed or replaced.
(b) General Maintenance Requirements and Owner/Occupant Responsibility For Condition of Exterior Property Areas. No owner, occupant or other person having charge of real estate within the Village shall maintain or permit to be maintained at or on the exterior property areas of such real estate any condition which deteriorates or adversely alters the appearance of the neighborhood, reduces property values in the neighborhood, creates a fire, safety or health hazard or which is a public nuisance. Such conditions include but are not limited to the following:
(1) Storage or maintaining of out of use or nonusable appliances and dilapidated automobiles or automobile parts.
(2) Storage or maintaining of broken, dilapidated or unusable furniture, mattresses or other household furniture, plastic materials, paints, miscellaneous coverings, and/or any other unsightly materials placed at or on the premises in such a manner as to be unsightly or offensive.
(3) Permitting or failing to control conditions which unreasonably or offensively cause, promote or encourage the growth, proliferation or harboring of insects, harmful rodents or other pests.
(4) Failure to keep the occupied area and premises in a clean, safe and sanitary condition and in conformity with the terms of this section at all times.
(5) Failure to properly store and dispose of rubbish or garbage in a neat and sanitary manner.
(6) Storage, maintaining or parking of motor vehicles, utility trailers, motor homes, campers, boats lacking current State registration, on undeveloped lots. Undeveloped lots as herein referenced shall be defined to include any lot which does not contain a permitted residence and driveway.
(c) General Maintenance Requirements and Owner/Occupant Responsibility For Lawns, Hedges, Bushes, Trees, Weeds, Vines, Grasses and Other Vegetation. Every owner, occupant or other person having charge of developed real estate within the Village shall be responsible for the clean and orderly maintenance of all exterior property areas of such real estate. "Developed real estate" as herein referenced, shall refer to all real estate upon which a dwelling or other building has been constructed, including lots contiguous thereto owned by the owner or occupant of such dwelling or other building. Such responsibility shall include the avoidance of all conditions which deteriorate or adversely effect the appearance of surrounding properties, reduces property values or creates a safety or health hazard. Such conditions include, but are not limited to, the following minimum standards:
(1) All exterior premises shall be appropriately maintained and lawns, hedges, bushes, trees, weeds, vines, grasses and other vegetation shall be kept trimmed and from becoming overgrown and unsightly, with cuttings properly disposed of, where exposed to public view or where such vegetation may constitute a blighting influence on adjoining properties. However, this provision shall not preclude the maintenance of undeveloped or underdeveloped land in its natural state. Lawns, hedges, bushes, trees, weeds, vines, grasses and other vegetation, as herein referenced, includes, but is not limited to, lawn, ragweed, grasses, daisies, goldenrod, burdock, yellow dock, dandelions, thistle, and wild carrot.
(2) All lawn, weeds, vines, grasses or other vegetative growth growing upon real property within the village shall be periodically cut and properly disposed of so as to insure no weeds, vines, grasses or other vegetative growth exceeds twelve inches (12"). This section shall not apply to trees, shrubs, cultivated plants or growing crops.
(3) If any owner or occupant of any real property located within the corporate limits of the Village fails to cut lawn or cut and properly dispose of all weeds, vines, grasses or vegetation as defined herein between the first day of May and through the first day of November of each calendar year, the Mayor may cause such lawn, weeds, viens, grasses or vegetation to be cut and properly disposed of. Thereafter, the owner of the real property upon which the lawn, weeds, vines, grasses or vegetation were cut shall be indebted to the Village in the amount of not less than one hundred dollars ($100.00), of for any actual expenses in excess thereof incurred by the Village, in cutting and disposing of the lawns, weeds, vines, grasses or vegetation.
(4) In the event the owner or occupant of any real property located within the corporate limits of the Village fails to reimburse the Village the cost of cutting and disposing of lawn, weeds, vines, grasses or vegetation, under the terms hereof, the Clerk Treasurer shall certify such costs along with a penalty of five percent (5%) to the Ashtabula County Auditor with a request that said amount should be assessed against the subject real property and entered upon the real property’s tax duplicate for collection by the County Auditor. The amount so entered shall be a lien upon the subject real property and/or any premises located thereon from the date the same was entered; shall be collected as other real property taxes; and shall, upon collection by Ashtabula County, be returned to the Village for deposit into the general fund of the Village.
(d) Authority of Village Officials.The zoning/building inspector shall have the authority to investigate suspected violations of this section in accordance herewith. The zoning/building inspector, upon reviewing any suspected violations of this section, shall, if a violation is discovered, serve written notice of such violation upon the property owner, occupant or other person having charge of the real estate, by directly handing such notice to such person, mailing a notice to such person or by posting such notice upon any entrance to any structure upon the real estate.
(e) Appeal. Whoever violates or fails to comply with any of the provisions of this section as determined by the zoning/building inspector, after having been served with written notice thereof, within fourteen (14) days of having been served with notice, may appeal the determination of the zoning/building inspector to the Zoning Board of Appeals by serving a written notice of appeal upon the zoning/building inspector. The Zoning Board of Appeals shall schedule a meeting to hear the appeal within thirty (30) days of having received the notice of appeal. The Zoning Board of Appeals may affirm, modify, or overturn the determination of the zoning/building inspector, and shall rule thereon within fourteen (14) days of the date of the appeal hearing.
(f) Compliance with Official Notices. No person shall fail to comply with the directions set forth by the officer in any written notice of violation.
(g) Penalty. In addition to any other remedy, charges or fees herein provided, whoever violates or fails to comply with any of the provisions of this section is guilty of a minor misdemeanor and shall be fined not more than one hundred dollars ($100.00) for each offense. A separate offense shall be deemed committed each day during or on which a violation or noncompliance occurs after the expiration of the time period detailed in the notice of the violation. If within the previous year, the offender has been convicted of a violation of any of the provisions of this section, a violation of or failure to comply with any of the provisions of this section is a fourth degree misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than thirty (30) days and/or a fine of not more than two hundred fifty dollars ($250.00).
(Ord. 05-10-02. Passed 2-14-06.)