For the purpose of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context indicates or requires a different meaning.
AIRCRAFT. Any contrivance now known or hereafter invented, used, or designated for navigation or for flight in the air. The word AIRCRAFT shall include helicopters and lighter-than-air dirigibles and balloons.
AUTHORIZED PRIVATE RECEPTACLE. A litter storage and collection receptacle as required and authorized in the Town garbage and refuse collection regulations.
COMMERCIAL HANDBILL. Any printed or written matter, sample or device, dodger, circular, leaflet, pamphlet, paper, booklet, or any other printed or otherwise reproduced original or copies of any matter of literature which:
(1) Advertises for sale any merchandise, product, commodity, or thing;
(2) Directs attention to any business, mercantile, commercial establishment, or other activity, for the purpose of either directly or indirectly promoting the interests thereof by sale;
(3) Directs attention to or advertises any meeting, theatrical performance, exhibition, or event of any kind for which an admission fee is charged for the purpose of private gain or profit, but shall not apply where an admission fee is charged or a collection is taken up for the purpose of defraying the expenses incident to the meeting, theatrical performance, exhibition, or event of any kind, when either the same is held, given, or taken place in connection with the dissemination of information which is not restricted under the ordinary rules of decency, good morals, public peace, safety, and good order. However, nothing contained in this division (3) shall be deemed to authorize the holding, giving, or taking place of any meeting, theatrical performance, exhibition, or event of any kind without a license, where the license is or may be required by any law of the state or under any ordinance of the Town of Southern Pines; or
(4) While containing reading matter other than advertising matter, is predominantly and essentially an advertisement and is distributed or circulated for advertising purposes or for private benefit and gain of any person so engaged as advertiser or distributor.
GARBAGE. Putrescible animal and vegetable waste resulting from the handling, preparation, cooking, and consumption of food.
LITTER. Shall include GARBAGE, REFUSE, and RUBBISH as defined herein and all other waste material which, if thrown or deposited as herein prohibited, tends to create a danger to public health, safety, and welfare.
NEWSPAPER. Any newspaper of general circulation as defined by general law, any newspaper duly entered with the Post Office Department of the United States in accordance with a federal statute or regulation, and any newspaper filed and recorded with any recording officer as provided by general law. In addition, NEWSPAPER shall mean and include any periodical or current magazine regularly published not less than 4 issues per year, and sold to the public.
NONCOMMERCIAL HANDBILL. Any printed or written matter, sample or device, dodger, circular, leaflet, pamphlet, newspaper, magazine, paper, booklet, or any other printed or otherwise reproduced original or copies of any matter of literature not included in the above definitions of COMMERCIAL HANDBILL or NEWSPAPER.
NUISANCE.
(1) For the purposes of this chapter, anything which is injurious to health, is indecent or offensive to the senses, or is an obstruction to the free use of property so as to interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life and property, or which unlawfully obstructs the free passage or use, in the customary manner, of any public park, square, street, or highway within the Town. (In determining what constitutes a
NUISANCE, for the purposes of this chapter, the question is whether the nuisance will or does produce a condition of things as in the judgment of reasonable persons is naturally productive of actual physical discomfort to persons of ordinary sensibility and ordinary tastes and habits. However, distinction should be made between public, private, and mixed nuisances. For that purpose, a PUBLIC NUISANCE is one which affects an indefinite number of persons, all the residents of a particular locality, or all people coming within the extent of its range or operation, although the extent of the annoyance or damage inflicted upon individuals may be unequal. A PRIVATE NUISANCE includes any wrongful act which destroys or deteriorates the property of an individual or of a few persons or interferes with their lawful use or enjoyment thereof, or any act which unlawfully hinders them in the enjoyment of a common or public right and causes them a special injury different from that sustained by the general public. A MIXED NUISANCE has been defined as one which is both public and private in its effects; public because it injures many persons or all the community, and private in that it also produces special injuries to private rights).
(2) ABATEMENT OF A NUISANCE. The removal, prostration, or destruction of that which causes a nuisance, whether by breaking or pulling it down, or otherwise removing, disintegrating, or effacing it.
PARK. A park, reservation, playground, recreation center, or any other public area in the Town owned or used by the Town and devoted to active or passive recreation.
PRIVATE PREMISES. Any dwelling, house, building, or other structure designed or used either wholly or in part for private residential purposes, whether inhabited or temporarily or continuously uninhabited or vacant, and shall include any yard, grounds, walk, driveway, porch, steps, vestibule, or mailbox belonging or appurtenant to the dwelling, house, building, or other structure.
PUBLIC PLACE. Any and all streets, sidewalks, boulevards, alleys, or other public ways and any and all public parks, squares, spaces, grounds, and buildings.
REFUSE. Any putrescible and nonputrescible solid wastes (except body wastes) including garbage, rubbish, ashes, street cleanings, dead animals, abandoned automobiles, and solid market and industrial wastes.
RUBBISH. Nonputrescible solid waste consisting of both combustible and noncombustible wastes, such as paper, wrappings, cigarettes, cardboard, tin cans, yard clippings, leaves, wood, glass, bedding, crockery, and similar materials.
VEHICLE. Every device in, upon, or by which any person or property is, or may be transported or drawn upon a highway, alley, or street, including devices used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks. (MOTOR VEHICLE and ABANDONED MOTOR VEHICLE are as they are defined in G.S. § 160A-303, which will be later referred to in this chapter).
(1989 Code, § 90.01) (Ord. passed 12-14-1982)