(A) Upon determining that a nuisance exists, the Codes Enforcement Officer shall serve a notice of the nuisance or cause a notice to be served on the owner of the property where the public nuisance exists and upon the person, if other than the owner, causing, permitting, or maintaining the nuisance. A copy of the notice shall be posted on the premises where the nuisance exists unless there is no structure upon which to post such notice. The owner shall be the person or entity identified as such in the records of the Madison County Property Valuation Administrator.
(B) The notice shall:
(1) Specifically describe the nuisance and the property upon which it is located;
(2) State the amount of the fine assessed for the existence of the nuisance;
(3) State that if the nuisance is abated within such reasonable time as is set forth in the notice, the assessed fine shall be waived; provided, however, that it shall be the obligation of the owner, if the owner desires that the fine be waived, to present to the Codes Enforcement office in Richmond City Hall, and within five days after the expiration of the abatement time set forth in the notice, satisfactory proof that the nuisance was abated within the specified time;
(4) State that if the nuisance is not abated by the owner, the city will effect abatement, the costs of which will be charged to the owner and, if the city's abatement costs and/or the assessed fine are not timely paid by the owner, both the unpaid assessed fine and/or the unpaid city's abatement costs will be placed on the tax bill pertaining to the property.
(C) The owner of the property in question shall have the right to challenge the existence of a nuisance on the property in question by taking an appeal from the notice described above in division (B) to the City's Codes Enforcement Board. Any appeal shall be filed with the City Clerk on or before the last date for abatement as set forth in the said notice. Upon the filing of a timely appeal, the City Clerk shall schedule a hearing on the appeal and notify the owner, at the address specified in the notice of appeal, of the date, time, and place of the hearing. The Board at the conclusion of the hearing shall make a finding based upon the evidence adduced at the hearing as to the existence of the nuisance. If the Board shall find that the nuisance as set forth in the notice existed, it shall further determine the appropriate fine to be assessed, and the city may proceed with abatement. If the Board shall find that the nuisance did not exist, the notice shall be deemed to be dismissed.
(D) If the nuisance shall not have been abated within the time provided in the notice and no appeal shall have been taken from the notice described above in division (B), the Codes Enforcement Officer may cause the abatement or removal of the nuisance by the city. When abatement has been completed, the City Clerk, at the request of the Codes Enforcement Officer, shall schedule the matter for hearing in front of the Codes Enforcement Board. The Board shall make a finding as to the city’s costs of abatement and the appropriate fine to be assessed. Notice of the date, place, and time of the hearing and of the issues to be addressed shall be given by the Codes Enforcement Officer to the property owner. The decision of the Codes Enforcement Board shall be the final administrative order of the city as to the issues joined, and any appeal from that final order shall be to the Madison District Court and governed by the provisions of applicable Kentucky law relating to such an appeal.
(E) Any notice shall be served upon the owner either by personal service or via first class mail at the address of the owner as set forth in the records in the office of the Madison County Property Valuation Administrator. It shall be conclusively presumed that notice given by first class mail which is not returned to the codes office within five days of mailing was in fact received by the addressee.
(Ord. 16-05, passed 2-9-16; Am. Ord. 19-17, passed 9-10-19)