(A) Purpose. This section establishes the responsibilities of various departments, officials, and public employees of the County to enforce the requirements of this zoning code and establishes uniform procedures the County will use to identify, abate, remove, and enjoin uses, buildings, or structures that are deemed to be in violation of this title.
(B) Enforcement responsibilities. All departments, officials and public employees of the County vested with the duty or authority to issue permits, certificates or licenses shall comply with the provisions of this title and shall issue no permit, certificate or license for uses, buildings or purposes which may be in conflict with the provisions of this title and any such permit, certificate or license issued in conflict with the provisions of this title, intentionally or otherwise, shall be null and void.
(1) Director. The Director shall enforce the provisions of this title pertaining to the use of any land or structure, bulk, height and land coverage of structures, open spaces about structures and the dimensions and area of sites upon which structures are located.
(2) Other officials. Requirements pertaining to health and sanitation, fire protection and building code regulations shall be enforced by the respective agencies which have jurisdiction in such matters. Whenever there is a conflict between the provisions of this title and other county, state and federal regulations, the more restrictive regulations apply.
(C) Revocation.
(1) Any permit granted under this title may be revoked if any of the conditions or terms of such permit are violated or if any law or ordinance is violated in connection therewith. Notwithstanding this provision, no lawful residential use can lapse regardless of the length of time of the vacancy.
(2) See also Title 1 of the County Code, “General Provisions; Code Enforcement,” for additional regulations related to nuisances, penalties, and administrative civil remedies.
(D) Nuisance defined. Any building, structure, or planting set up, erected, constructed, altered, enlarged, converted, moved, or maintained contrary to the provisions of this title, any use of any land, building, or premises established, conducted, operated, or maintained contrary to the provisions of this title, and failure to comply with any of the conditions of a permit granted under this title is declared to be unlawful and a public nuisance.
(E) Penalties. Any person, firm, or corporation, whether as principal, agent, employee or otherwise, violating or failing to comply with a mandatory requirement of this title shall be guilty of a misdemeanor but may be cited or charged, at the election of the enforcing officer or County Attorney, as an infraction. A person, firm, or corporation shall be deemed guilty of a separate offense for each day during any portion of which any violation of this title is committed, continued, or permitted by such person, firm or corporation, and shall be punished accordingly.
(F) Remedies. The remedies provided for herein shall be cumulative and not exclusive. Upon a finding of nuisance and after giving the property owner an opportunity to cure the nuisance and determining that the nuisance still exists, the Planning Commission or Board of Supervisors may impose any remedy available at law or in equity, which shall include, but is not limited to, any of the following or combination thereof:
(1) Ordering the cessation of the use in whole or in part;
(2) Imposing reasonable conditions upon any continued operation of the use, including those uses that constitute existing non-conforming uses;
(3) Requiring continued compliance with any conditions so imposed;
(4) Requiring the user to guarantee that such conditions shall in all respects be complied with; or
(5) Imposing additional conditions or ordering the cessation of the use in whole or in part upon.
(Ord. 1043, § 3 (part), 2022)