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(A) Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
CITY OFFICIAL. Any designee of the City Council and city officer, agent, or employee, acting in the course of official duties for purposes of the enforcement of this chapter.
PERSON. Any natural person, firm, partnership, association, legal entity, or corporation.
PERSON IN CHARGE OF PROPERTY or PERSON IN CHARGE OF THE SUBJECT PROPERTY. Any one or more than one occupant, lessee, contract purchaser, owner, or person having possession of, control of, occupancy at, or title to, the subject property.
WASTE. Matter or material that is:
(a) Hazardous to health and safety of the public;
(b) Organic materials that can decompose, giving rise to foul smelling products, or creating a health hazard, or which are capable of attracting or providing food for potential disease carriers such as birds, rodents, flies and other vectors; and
(c) Materials and matter accumulated on property so as to constitute a public nuisance recognized by common law.
(B) Exceptions.
(1) This chapter does not apply to materials or items that might otherwise constitute waste if such is kept and maintained in a business licensed as a junk yard or automobile wrecking yard which is operating in accordance with all applicable rules and regulations, including zoning laws, or to items or materials accumulated for recycle in a recycling business operating as such and in accordance with all applicable rules and regulations, including zoning laws. To be exempted by this paragraph, such items and materials must be enclosed by a secure fence that is no less than six feet tall and is so sight obscuring as to prevent a person from seeing into the enclosed area from other property or from a right of way or sidewalk, and such items and materials must be stored in a fashion that does not otherwise constitute a nuisance at common law.
(2) This chapter does not apply to the accumulation of firewood, nor does it apply to the accumulation of construction materials at the location of properly permitted construction work when the stored materials are exclusively for use at the site.
(Ord. 555, passed 11-9-2014)
(A) No person shall deposit, accumulate, store, maintain, allow to exist, or display waste on any property within the city, except as specifically permitted by this chapter or as otherwise authorized by law.
(B) No person or occupant of any land in the city shall authorize, permit or suffer violation of any provision of this chapter.
(C) Exceptions. The prohibitions of this chapter do not apply to the following:
(1) The temporary accumulation of limited quantities of waste in standard garbage or recycling collection receptacles provided for that purpose pending disposal or recycling in a legal manner, providing that the waste does not create offensive odors, unsightly conditions, or hazards to health; and
(2) The accumulation and distribution of compost, silage, or livestock manure in conjunction with normal crop or animal husbandry activities, so long as such activity is in compliance with all applicable zoning regulations, does not physically encroach upon the land of another, violates no statutes, rules, regulations, ordinances of the Department of Environmental Quality or the city, and is conducted in a reasonable manner so as to minimize any offensive odor, unsightly condition, or hazard to health.
(D) The accumulation and storage of waste is hereby found to create a condition tending to reduce the value of private property, to promote blight, deterioration and unsightliness, to invite plundering, to create fire hazards, to create a harborage for rodents and insects, and to be injurious to the health, safety and general welfare of the inhabitants of the city. Therefore, the presence of waste on private property in violation of this chapter is hereby declared to constitute a public nuisance which may be abated in accordance with provisions of this chapter.
(E) Nothing stated within this chapter shall be construed to allow the accumulation or stockpiling of any waste prohibited by any other ordinance or regulation of the city or by any land use regulations or any other applicable laws, or to declare any noncommercial accumulation or stockpiling of waste as commercial, or to override provisions of any ordinance of the city regarding home occupations, or commercial endeavors relating to the storage and accumulation of commercial products. Nothing stated in this chapter shall be construed as authorizing any activity which at common law would constitute a public or private nuisance nor as legislatively amending or changing common law nuisance principles.
(Ord. 555, passed 11-9-2014)
When a city official has determined that a violation of this chapter exists on property which should be abated, the official shall:
(A) Attempt to discover the name and address of the owner and occupant of the property, the person responsible for the accumulation or deposit of the waste, and all persons who may be in charge of the real property on which the violation exists as such persons are defined in § 99.01(A);
(B) Give written notice to the persons described in division (A) of this section by regular first class mail and registered or certified mail requiring a return receipt that there is a violation of this chapter. If the owner or occupant of the property is not found, the city official shall place a notice posted on the property where it can easily be seen;
(C) Contents of notice. The notice referred to in the preceding division shall contain:
(1) A description of the real property by street address or otherwise, on which the violation exists;
(2) A direction to abate the violation within no less than 15 days from the date of the notice;
(3) A description of the violation;
(4) A statement that unless the violation is abated, the city may enter, abate the violation, and charge the costs of abatement to the person responsible and/or impose a lien against the real property on which the violation was abated;
(5) A statement that failure to abate the violation within the time provided may warrant imposition of a fine;
(6) A statement that the alternative to compliance with the notice is to make a written request within 15 calendar days of the date of the notice for a hearing before the City Council to show why abatement should not be required or why more time for abatement may be needed. This statement shall list the required contents of the request for hearing that are set forth in § 99.05.
(7) A statement that if there is no request for a hearing before the City Council within 15 calendar days of the date of the notice, the determination as set forth in the notice shall be final with no right to further protest or otherwise appeal.
(D) Upon completion of posting and mailing, the persons posting and mailing shall execute and file certificates with the City Council stating the date and place of the mailing and posting.
(Ord. 555, passed 11-9-2014)
Upon compliance with all applicable procedures, city officials are authorized to enter onto private property at all reasonable times to examine items and materials reasonably suspected to constitute wastes in violation of this chapter and following the procedures set forth to take steps necessary to abate violations hereof.
(Ord. 555, passed 11-9-2014)
(A) Any person entitled to service of a notice under this chapter may within 15 calendar days of the date of the notice file a request for hearing before the City Council. The request need not be in any particular form but shall include the following:
(1) The name of the person requesting a hearing and all other persons joining in the request;
(2) A brief statement setting forth the legal interest of each of the persons requesting the hearing;
(3) A brief statement in ordinary and concise language of the specific order or action protested;
(4) A brief statement in ordinary and concise language of the relief sought and the reasons why it is claimed that the protested order or action should be reversed, modified, or otherwise set aside;
(5) The signatures of all the parties requesting a hearing and their official mailing addresses; and
(6) A statement by declaration under penalty of perjury that all of the matters stated within the request for hearing are true.
(B) Normally a late request for a hearing before the City Council will not be considered. However, in unusual circumstances the City Council may excuse an untimely request if the requesting party provides information excusing a lack of timely response by certifying the date of actual notice to the requesting party and accounting for all delay between the day of actual notice and the day of delivering the request for hearing to the City Council. General press of personal business shall not excuse an untimely request.
(Ord. 555, passed 11-9-2014)
(A) Following a request for a hearing, the City Council shall itself or through a hearing examiner provide a hearing for the requesting party to show cause why a violation does not exist, or why the violation should not be abated within the time provided, and to receive evidence and the testimony of the city official and other interested persons, or other witnesses, concerning the existence, location, and condition of the alleged violation.
(1) After the hearing, the City Council may order the property a nuisance in violation of this chapter and direct that the violation be abated by the person responsible, and/or by other person or persons in charge of the property, and/or by the city in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.
(2) If the hearing was referred to a hearing examiner by the City Council, the hearings examiner and the City Council shall proceed in the fashion provided for in § 97.09(H), relating to dangerous building.
(B) Persons entitled to the notice specified in § 99.03(A) shall be sent copies of the order in the manner provided for in that section.
(C) The City Council may impose conditions and take other actions considered appropriate under the circumstances to carry out the purposes of this chapter. The City Council may delay the time for abatement of the nuisance when, in the council's opinion, circumstances justify such action. The City Council shall refuse to order abatement of the violation when the property, in the opinion of the City Council, is not subject to the provisions of this chapter. The City Council shall not be bound by technical rules of evidence in conducting the hearing.
(D) Nothing stated in this chapter shall prevent the City Council from entering into a consent agreement with the person or persons responsible, or person or persons in charge of property, that provides for the manner and means of abatement other than as provided for herein, provided that the consent agreement is in the form of a final contract enforceable in a court of law or equity and the contract specifically waives any right of the person contracting with the City Council to contest whether a violation of this chapter exists or existed or whether the condition of the subject property constitutes a nuisance.
(Ord. 555, passed 11-9-2014)
(A) The city may abate the violation, or cause the violation to be abated, when:
(1) The terms of any consent agreement between the city and the person responsible or person in charge of property so provide, or when the terms of a consent agreement have been violated by the person or persons signing the consent agreement;
(2) The person responsible has been mailed the notice required by § 99.03, and the violation stated within the notice has not been abated within the time provided in the notice and no hearing has been requested;
(3) Following hearing the corrective action required by the City Council has not been completed by the date specified; or
(4) There have been court proceedings which have become final, resulting in an order by the court directing abatement, and abatement has not been completed within the time required by the court's order.
(B) The decision to proceed to abatement by the city shall be made by the City Council.
(C) Summary abatement. Whenever a violation causes a condition the continued existence of which constitutes an immediate or emergent threat to the public health, safety, or welfare, or to the environment, the city may summarily and without prior notice, abate the condition. Notice of such abatement, including the reason for it, shall be given to the person or persons responsible for the violation as soon as reasonably possible. The costs of summary abatement shall be charged to the person responsible and become a lien upon the property in accordance with the provisions of this chapter applicable to costs of non-summary abatements.
(D) When the city proceeds to abate as provided for herein it may do so using any lawful means, the city or its agents may enter upon the subject property and may remove or correct a violation which has become the proper subject of abatement. The city may also seek such judicial process as it deems necessary to effect the abatement.
(E) Interference prohibited. No person shall obstruct, impede, or interfere with the city or its agents, or with any person retained or hired by the city to effect the abatement, or with any person who is a person in charge of the property, in performing any acts necessary to correct a violation.
(F) The city shall maintain a record of all expenses incurred in abating a waste violation. The record shall include, but is not necessarily limited to, the costs of mailing notices, the expense of title reports, title searches, and lien searches, charges for labor and personal services, equipment rentals, the costs of contractors, materials expense, fuel costs, survey expenses, reasonable charge for use of city-owned equipment, land fill fees, the costs of transportation, etc., and an additional charge of 15% for administrative overhead.
(G) A notice of assessment for the costs of abatement shall be sent by certified mail with return receipt to the responsible party or parties and those entitled to receive the notice provided for in § 99.03 hereof. The notice shall contain:
(1) The total costs of abatement, including the administrative overhead;
(2) A statement that the costs of abatement are the personal obligation of the person in charge of the subject property and will become a lien against the property unless paid within 60 days;
(3) A statement that if person in charge of the property objects to the cost of the abatement, he or she may file a notice of objection with the city within 15 days of the date of the notice; and
(4) A statement that a fee for recording the costs of abatement as a lien against the property may be added to the cost of abatement.
(H) Objections to the proposed assessment shall be heard and determined by the City Council before the proposed assessment becomes a lien against the property.
(I) If the costs of the abatement are not paid within 60 days from the date of the notice of costs, or if an objection was timely filed, from the date of the city's determination of costs, the costs of abatement shall be filed and recorded as a lien upon the property and shall be entered into the docket of city liens. When the entry is made, it shall constitute a lien on the property from which the violation was abated.
(Ord. 555, passed 11-9-2014)
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