This Chapter shall be known as “Administrative Code Enforcement.” This Chapter shall also be known as Title 1, Chapter 10 of the South Weber City Code. It may be cited and pleaded under either designation.
A. Declaration Of Purpose. The City Council of South Weber City finds that the enforcement of the South Weber City Code throughout South Weber City is an important public service. Code enforcement is vital to the protection of the public’s health, safety, welfare, and quality of life. A comprehensive code enforcement system that uses a combination of judicial and administrative remedies is critical to gaining compliance with City ordinances.
B. Scope. The provisions of this Chapter may be applied to all violations of the City Code. It has been designed as an additional remedy for the City to use in achieving compliance with its ordinances and regulations.
The provisions of this Chapter do not invalidate any other title, chapter, or ordinance, but shall be read in conjunction with those titles, chapters, and ordinances as an additional remedy available for enforcement of those ordinances.
C. Criminal Prosecution Right. The City has sole discretion in deciding whether to file a civil or criminal case for the violation of any of its ordinances. The enactment of this administrative remedy shall in no way interfere with the City’s right to prosecute City ordinance violations as criminal offenses. The City may use any of the remedies available under the law in both civil and criminal prosecution. Although most minor City Code violations should be enforced through this Chapter, the City may choose to file a criminal prosecution under any of the following circumstances:
1. The violator has one prior violation of the City Code within the last year;
2. The violation caused bodily injury, substantial bodily injury, or serious bodily injury to an individual, all of which shall have the same definition in Utah Code Annotated § 76-1-601;
3. The violator, in a single criminal episode, violated one or more provisions of the Utah Criminal Code as well as one or more provisions of the City Code, and all violations are being charged as a single criminal episode as defined in Utah Code Annotated § 76-1-401;
4. The violation caused a significant health or safety risk to the public.
D. No Mandatory Duty - Civil Liability. It is the intent of the City Council that in establishing performance standards or establishing the authority to act by a City officer or employee, these standards shall not be construed as creating a mandatory duty if the officer or employee fails to perform his or her directed duty or duties.
E. Definitions. The following words and phrases, whenever used in this Chapter, shall be constructed as defined in this Section, unless a different meaning is specifically defined elsewhere in this Chapter and specifically stated to apply:
ABATEMENT: | Any action the City may take on public or private property and any adjacent property as may be necessary to remove or alleviate a violation, including demolition, removal, repair, boarding, and securing or replacement of property. |
ADMINISTRATIVE CITATION: | A citation issued to a responsible person, which gives notice of a violation and the civil fee for such violation. Administrative Citations are typically used for minor violations. |
CITY: | The area within the territorial city limits of South Weber City. |
CITY CODE: | Any ordinance passed by the City Council and any other title, chapter, ordinance, regulation, or amendment lawfully codified pursuant to Utah law including Utah Code Annotated § 10-3-707. |
CITY COUNCIL: | The City Council of South Weber City. |
CODE ENFORCEMENT COORDINATOR: | The person who has been designated by the City Manager of South Weber City to coordinate and schedule hearings, mail out notices of hearings, send out notices of costs and itemized bills, and perform other duties as specified in this Chapter. |
CODE ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: | Any person designated by the City Manager with the responsibility to enforce the City Code and ordinances passed by the City Council and who performs the duties specified herein. The Code Enforcement Officer may or may not be a member of the Davis County Sheriff Department. Code Enforcement Officers include the City Manager, City Building Official/Public Works Director, Community and Planning Director, City Engineer, City Fire Chief, and their designees. |
CODE ENFORCEMENT PERFORMANCE BOND: | A bond posted by a responsible person to ensure compliance with the City Code, applicable state law, a judicial action, or a Hearing Officer Order. |
CODE ENFORCEMENT TAX LIEN: | A lien recorded to collect outstanding civil penalties, administrative fees, and costs. |
FINANCIAL INSTITUTION: | Any person that holds a recorded mortgage or deed of trust on a property. |
GOOD CAUSE: | Incapacitating illness, death, lack of proper notice, unavailability due to unavoidable, unpreventable, or extenuating emergency or circumstance, imminent and irreparable injury, and acts of nature adverse to performing required acts. |
HEARING OFFICER: | The Hearing Officer presiding over the Administrative Code Enforcement Program established pursuant to Title 1, Chapter 10 of the City Code. |
HEARING OFFICER ORDER: | An order issued by a Hearing Officer. The order may include an order to abate the violation, pay civil penalties and administrative costs, or take any other action as authorized or required by this Chapter and City ordinances. |
IMMINENT LIFE OR SAFETY HAZARD: | Any condition that creates a present, extreme, and immediate danger to life, property, health, or public safety. |
LEGAL INTEREST: | Any interest that is represented by a document, such as a deed of trust, quitclaim deed, mortgage, judgment lien, tax or assessment lien, mechanic’s lien, or other similar instrument that is recorded with the County Recorder. |
MINOR VIOLATION: | An isolated violation not causing injury, creating a nuisance, or rising to the level of criminal behavior for which no abatement or remedial action is required. |
NOTICE OF COMPLIANCE: | A document issued by the City representing that a property complies with the requirements outlined in a notice of violation, administrative citation, or Hearing Officer Order. |
NOTICE OF SATISFACTION: | A document or form that indicates that all outstanding civil penalties and costs have been either paid in full, or that the City has negotiated an agreed amount, or that a subsequent administrative or judicial decision has resolved the outstanding debt. In addition to the satisfaction of the financial debt, the property must also be in compliance with the requirements outlined in the notice of violation. |
NOTICE OF VIOLATION: | A written notice prepared by a Code Enforcement Officer that informs a responsible person of code violations and orders them to take certain steps to correct the violations. |
OATH: | Includes affirmations and oaths. |
PERSON: | Any person, firm, joint venture, joint stock company, partnership, association, club, company, corporation, business, trust, organization, or the manager, lessee, agent, sergeant, officer, or employee of any of them, or any other entity that is recognized by law as the subject of rights or duties. |
PROPERTY OWNER: | The record owner of real property based on the county recorder’s records. |
PUBLIC NUISANCE: | a. Any condition caused, maintained, or permitted to exist that constitutes a threat to the public’s health, safety, and welfare, or that significantly obstructs, injures, or interferes with the reasonable or free use of property in a neighborhood or community or by any considerable number of persons; and |
b. Also has the same meaning as set forth in South Weber City Code, the Utah Code, or Utah common law. | |
RESPONSIBLE PERSON: | A person including the property owner and any person or entity, whether as owner, agent, or occupant, who commits, aids in committing, contributes to, causes, supports, retains, or permits a City Code violation in the City, regardless of whether that violation occurs on real property. Every successive owner or tenant of a property or premises who fails to correct a City Code violation upon or in the use of property or premises caused by a former owner or tenant is also a responsible person. In cases where there is more than one responsible person, the City may proceed against one, some, or all of them. |
SUBSTANTIAL EVIDENCE: | Relevant, reliable, factual, and credible evidence that is sufficient to convince a reasonable mind that a violation of the City Code has been committed. Substantial evidence does not mean that all or the majority of the evidence is in support of the decision made. |
WRITTEN: | Includes handwritten, typewritten, photocopied, computer printed, or facsimile. |
F. Acts Include Causing, Aiding, Or Abetting. Whenever any act or omission is made unlawful in this Chapter, it shall include causing, permitting, aiding, or abetting such act or omission.
G. Service Of Process.
1. Whenever service is required to be given under this Chapter for enforcement purposes, a Code Enforcement Officer or the Code Enforcement Coordinator (or designees) shall serve the document by any of the following methods, unless otherwise provided:
a. Regular mail, postage prepaid, to the last known address of the owner(s) or other responsible person(s);
b. Posting the notice conspicuously on or in front of the property. If not inhabited, the notice must also be mailed as described in (a) above;
c. Personal service pursuant to Utah Rules of Civil Procedure 4; or
d. Published in a newspaper of general circulation where the identity or whereabouts of the person to be served are unknown and cannot be ascertained through reasonable diligence, where service is impracticable under the circumstances, or where there exists good cause to believe that the person to be served is avoiding service of process.
2. For violations of Title 10, or any land use ordinance as defined in Utah Code Annotated Section 10-9a-102, whenever service is required to be given under this Title for enforcement purposes, the document shall be served in accordance with Utah Code Annotated § 10-9a-803, as amended, which requires written notice, by mail or hand delivery, of each ordinance violation to the address of the owner of record on file in the office of the county recorder or person designated in writing by the owner of record as the owner’s agent for the purpose of receiving notice of an ordinance violation.
a. Service by regular mail in the manner described above shall be deemed served three business days, not including the day it was mailed, after the date of mailing.
b. If service complies with the requirements of this Section, it shall be deemed a valid service even if a party claims not to have received the service and it shall not affect the validity of any proceedings taken under this Chapter.
c. The failure to serve all responsible person(s) shall not affect the validity of any proceedings.
H. Constructive Notice Of Recorded Documents. Whenever a document is recorded with the County Recorder as authorized or required by this Chapter or applicable state codes, recordation shall provide constructive notice of the information contained in the recorded documents. (Ord. 2022-01, 3-22-2022)