For the purpose of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
ABANDONED VEHICLE. A vehicle that:
(1) Is left upon a public street or highway in violation of a law or ordinance prohibiting parking;
(2) Is left on a public street or highway for longer than seven days;
(3) Is left on property owned or operated by the town for longer than 24 hours; or
(4) Is left on private property without the consent of owner, occupant or lessee thereof for longer than two hours.
AUTHORIZING OFFICIAL. The supervisory employee of the Police Department or the Code Enforcement Officer, respectively, designated to authorize the removal of vehicles under this chapter.
JUNKED MOTOR VEHICLE. As authorized and defined in G.S. § 160A-303.2, a vehicle that does not display a current license plate and that:
(1) Does not display a current inspection sticker;
(2) Is partially dismantled or wrecked; and/or
(3) Cannot be self-propelled or moved in the manner in which it originally was intended to move.
MOTOR VEHICLE or VEHICLE. All machines designed or intended to travel over land or water by self-propulsion or while attached to any self-propelled vehicle.
NUISANCE VEHICLE. A vehicle on public or private property that is determined and declared to be a health or safety hazard, a public nuisance and unlawful, including a vehicle found to be any one or more of the following:
(1) Can constitute both a public and a private nuisance;
(2) Is a source of potential hurt to children and others who find them an attractive nuisance;
(3) Is replete with broken glass, sharp, torn metal edges and points, gasoline remaining in tanks of a highly explosive and combustible nature and hurtful acids in batteries, to mention but a few of the more obvious sources of potential physical hurt found in junked vehicles;
(4) Destroys the aesthetic qualities of the town and is generally unsightly;
(5) Tends to depreciate not only the property on which it is located, but also the property of other persons in the neighborhood and damages the welfare of the town as a whole;
(6) Tends to result in uncontrolled growth of vegetation and other collection of debris which becomes a haven and breeding ground for insects, rodents and similar harmful creatures;
(7) A point of collection of pools or ponds of water;
(8) One which has areas of confinement which cannot be operated from the inside, such as trunks, hoods and the like;
(9) So situated or located that there is a danger of it falling or turning over;
(10) One which is a point of collection of garbage, food waste, animal waste or other rotten matter of any kind; or
(11) Any other vehicle specifically declared a health and safety hazard and public nuisance by the Town Council.
(Ord. 729, passed 8-2-1994; Ord. passed 4-15-1997)