For the purpose of this subchapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates, or requires, a different meaning.
NUISANCE. Whatever is injurious to health, indecent, or unreasonably offensive to the senses or an obstacle to the free use of property, so as essentially to unreasonably interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property. NUISANCES shall include, but not be limited to, those activities and items hereinafter set forth in this section below (per Iowa Code § 657.1).
(1) The erecting, continuing, or using any building or other place for the exercise of any trade, employment, or manufacture, which by occasioning noxious exhalations, unreasonably offensive smells, or other annoyances, becomes injurious and dangerous to the health, comfort, or property of individuals or the public (per Iowa Code § 657.2(1)).
(2) The causing or suffering any offal, filth, or noisome substance to accumulate or to remain in any place to the prejudice of others (per Iowa Code § 657.2(2)).
(3) The obstructing or impeding without legal authority the passage of any navigable river, harbor, or collection of water (per Iowa Code § 657.2(3)).
(4) The polluting or rendering unwholesome or impure the water of any river, stream, or pond, or unlawfully diverting the same from its natural course or state, to the injury or prejudice of others (per the Iowa Code § 657.2(4)).
(5) The obstructing or encumbering by fences, buildings, or otherwise the public roads, private ways, streets, alleys, commons, landing places, or burying grounds (per Iowa Code § 657.2(5)).
(6) Houses of ill fame, kept for the purpose of prostitution and lewdness, gambling houses, or houses resorted for the use of opium or hashish, or houses where drunkenness, quarreling, fighting, or breaches of the peace are carried on or permitted to the disturbance of others (per Iowa Code § 657.2(6)).
(7) Billboards, signboards, and advertising signs, whether erected and constructed on public or private property, which so obstruct and impair the view of any portion or part of a public street, avenue, highway, boulevard, or alley, or of a railroad or street railway track as to render dangerous the use thereof, especially near intersecting streets (per Iowa Code § 657.2(7)).
(8) Cotton-bearing cottonwood trees and all other cotton-bearing poplar trees in the city.
(9) Any object or structure hereafter erected within 1,000 feet of the limits of any municipal or regularly established airport or landing place, which may endanger or obstruct aerial navigation, including take-off and landing (per Iowa Code § 657.2(8)).
(10) The depositing or storing of inflammable junk, such as old rags, rope, cordage, rubber, bones, and paper, by any person, including a dealer in such articles, unless it be in a building of fire resistant construction (per Iowa Code § 657.2(9)).
(11) The emission of dense smoke, noxious fumes, or fly ash (per the Iowa Code § 657.2(10)).
(12) Any condition relating to weeds which is described as a nuisance in the city municipal code of ordinances or under state law. Grass and/or weeds in excess of ten inches including dense growth of vines, brush, or other vegetation in the city so as to constitute a health, safety, or fire hazard including any city owned property between the abutting property line and the street right-of-way any condition related to weeds and or grass described or defined as a nuisance under the state code or the city municipal code (per the Iowa Code § 657.2(11)).
(a) When the property owner has been notified of a violation of this section during the previous growing season, the property owner shall be notified by letter at the beginning of the current season of the property owner’s obligation to provide for the cutting of weeds or grass on the property. The notice shall constitute reasonable notice for the entire growing season.
(b) When the property owner has not been notified of a violation of this section during the previous growing season, the property owner shall be provided, by letter, a ten-day time period in which to arrange for the removal of weeds and grass currently in violation of this section. This letter will also constitute reasonable notice for the remainder of the growing season.
(c) If subsequent violations are observed during the same growth season, the grass and weeds will be cut immediately, and the owner will be billed for the cost thereof.
(13) Trees infected with Dutch elm disease (per Iowa Code § 657.2(12)).
(14) Any article or substance placed upon a street, alley, sidewalk, public ground, or in any ditch, waterway, or gutter so as to obstruct the drainage (per Iowa Code § 716.1).
(15) Accumulations of rubbish or trash tending to harbor vermin, rodents, and rank growth of weeds or other vegetation and plants, which is conducive to hazard (per Iowa Code § 657.2).
(16) Causing or suffering any refuse, garbage, obnoxious substances, hazardous wastes, junk, or salvage materials to be collected or to remain in any place to the prejudice to others; causing or suffering any refuse, garbage, obnoxious substances, hazardous wastes, junk, or salvage materials or other offensive or disagreeable substances, to be thrown, left, or deposited in or upon any street, avenue, alley, sidewalk, park, public square, public enclosure, lot, vacant or occupied, or upon any pond or pool of water; except for compost piles established and maintained with written permission from the County Public Health Department, and junk or salvage materials properly stored in accordance with the city municipal code.
(17) Any dead, diseased, or damaged trees or shrubs, which may harbor insects or diseased pests, or diseases injurious to other trees or shrubs, or any healthy tree which is in such a state of deterioration that any part of such tree may fall and damage property or cause injury to persons.
(18) Any ditch, drain, or watercourse which is now or hereafter may be constructed so as to prevent surface water and overflow water from adjacent lands entering or draining into and through the same; any stormwater detention basins not maintained in an appropriate manner so as to allow its proper function.
(19) Stagnant water standing on any property, container, or material kept in such condition that water can accumulate and stagnate.
(20) Infestations of vermin such as rats, mice, skunks, snakes, starlings, pigeons, bees, wasps, cockroaches, or flies.
(21) Facilities for the storage or processing of sewage, such as privies, vaults, sewers, private drains, septic tanks, cesspools, and drainage fields, which have failed or do not function properly or which are overflowing, leaking, or emanating odors; septic tanks, cisterns, and cesspools which are abandoned or no longer in use unless they are empty and cleaned with clean fill; any evolved cesspool or septic tanks which does not comply with the County Department of Health regulation.
(22) Unoccupied buildings or unoccupied portions of buildings which are unsecured.
(23) Dangerous buildings or structures.
(24) Abandoned buildings.
(25) Any hazardous thing or condition on property which may contribute to injury of any person present on the property; hazards include, but are not limited to, open holes, open wells, open foundation, dangerous trees or limbs, abandoned and unsecured refrigerators, or trapping devices.
(26) (a) The storage, parking, leaving, or permitting the storage, parking, or leaving of any inoperable or obsolete vehicle upon private property within the city for a period in excess of 48 hours, unless exempted herein.
(b) This section shall not apply to any vehicle enclosed within a building on private property or to any vehicle held in connection with a legal junk yard or automobile or truck-oriented use operated in the appropriate zone and in compliance with the city municipal code of ordinances.
(27) All junk yard or salvage operations except those permitted by ordinance and operating in full compliance with the city municipal code of ordinances.
(28) (a) The open burning of trash, refuse, garbage, junk or salvage materials, yard waste, leaves and tree trimmings shall be prohibited within the city limits, provided, however, the City Council may designate up to three weekends each year to allow city residents to burn leaves and tree trimmings in accordance with the city’s open burning policy.
(b) Outdoor cooking or burning of wood is permitted if performed in a container constructed of steel, brick, or masonry and the fire is no larger than two feet in diameter. Additional open burning may be permitted upon written request only with the special permission of the City Council, provided the burning is in compliance with open burning policy guidelines established by the city in consultation with the Fire Department.
(29) Any accumulations of ice, water, and snow on public sidewalks, or the failure to remove said accumulations within 48 hours after the creation of such accumulations exist, shall constitute a nuisance and shall be abated pursuant to the provisions specified in the city municipal code of ordinances.
(30) Any nuisance described as such or declared by Chapter 657 of the Iowa Code.
(31) The sounding of any horn or other signaling device on any vehicle on any street, public, or private place within the city, except as a danger warning, which makes a loud or harsh sound to the disturbance or annoyance of any person, and can be plainly audible at a distance of 50 feet.
(32) The use of amplified sound creating a disturbance or annoyance to others and can be plainly heard 100 feet from the source of the amplified sound.
(33) Yelling, shouting, hooting, whistling, or singing at any time or place so as to annoy or disturb the quiet, comfort, or repose of persons in the vicinity.
(34) The erection, excavation, demolition, alteration, repair, or construction of any building or other property between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. Monday through Friday and between the hours of 8:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, except in the case of an emergency of a public health and safety nature, with the approval of the city.
(35) No person shall obstruct, deface, destroy, or injure any public right-of-way in any manner by breaking up, plowing, or digging within the right-of-way without city permission.
(36) No person shall throw or deposit on any public or private property any glass bottle, glass, nails, tacks, wire, cans, trash, garbage, rubbish, litter, or any other debris or like substance which may injure or damage any person, animal, or vehicle or which may annoy, injure, or become dangerous to the health, comfort, or property of individuals or the public.
(37) Causing or suffering any refuse, garbage, obnoxious substances, hazardous wastes, junk, or salvage materials, to be collected or to remain in any place that prejudices others.
(38) Causing or suffering any refuse, garbage, obnoxious substances, hazardous wastes, junk, or salvage materials, or other offensive or disagreeable substances, to be thrown, left, or deposited in or upon any street, alley, avenue, sidewalk, park, public square, public enclosure, lot, vacant or occupied.
(39) The storage of any appliances, scrap metal, indoor furniture, broken furniture, used building material, unstacked wood, broken toys, broken bicycles and tricycles, bathroom fixtures, and similar objects visible from the public right-of-way or adjoining property.
(40) Pipes, lumber, drywall, flooring, roofing shingles, and other building material left on the property visible from the public right-of-way or adjoining property for a period of time exceeding 72 hours.
(41) Rusty, deteriorated, dilapidated, or unusable play equipment visible from any adjoining property.
(42) Dilapidated dwelling units exhibiting peeling paint, untreated wood, broken gutters, broken windows, dry rot, missing banisters, railings and spindles, broken doors, and the like creating an eyesore and offending members of the public.
PROPERTY OWNER. The contract purchaser if there is one of record, otherwise the record holder of legal title (per Iowa Code § 364.1).
(Prior Code, § 3-2-1) (Ord. 03-04, passed 9-9-2003; Ord. 2022-07, passed 7-12-2022; Ord. 2022-13, passed 8-23-2022)