The following acts, conduct, circumstances and conditions are hereby declared and defined to be nuisances and, when committed, performed or permitted to exist by any person, firm, corporation, or other entity (herein collectively referred to as “person”) within the corporate limits of the city, whether on public or private property, are hereby declared to be unlawful and prohibited.
(A) Common law nuisances. To commit, perform or permit any act or offense that is a nuisance according to the common law of the state.
(B) Defined nuisance. To commit, perform or permit any act or offense declared to be defined as a nuisance by this chapter, by this code, or by any of the ordinances of the city or any laws of the state.
(C) Undefined nuisances. To commit, perform or permit any act, conduct, circumstances or condition that constitutes an unreasonable, unwarrantable or unlawful use by a person of property, real or personal, or from the person’s own improper, indecent or unlawful personal conduct that works an obstruction or injury to a right of another or of the public, and produces the material annoyance, inconvenience, discomfort, hurt or injury that the law will presume an actionable nuisance.
(D) Litter.
(1) To dump, deposit, drop, throw, discard, leave, cause or permit the dumping, depositing, dropping, throwing, discarding or leaving of litter upon any public or private property in the city or upon or into any river, lake, pond, creek, ditch or other stream or body of water in the city (even if owned by the person), unless:
(a) The property has been designated by the state, or any of its agencies, political subdivisions, units of local government or school districts, for the disposal of litter, and the litter is disposed of on that property in accordance with all applicable laws, rules and regulations;
(b) The litter is placed into a receptacle or other container designed for and intended by the owner or tenant in lawful possession of that property for the lawful deposit of litter;
(c) The person is the owner or tenant in lawful possession of the property or has first obtained the consent of the owner or tenant in lawful possession, or the act is done under the personal direction of the owner or tenant, and the same does not create a public health or safety hazard, a public nuisance or a fire hazard;
(d) The person is acting under the direction of a proper public official during special cleanup days; and
(e) The person is lawfully acting in response or reacting to an emergency situation where health and safely is threatened, and removes and properly disposes of litter when the emergency no longer exists.
(2) For the purpose of this division, the following definition shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
LITTER. Any discarded, used or unconsumed substance or waste. LITTER may include, but is not limited to, any garbage, trash, refuse, debris, rubbish, grass clippings or other lawn or garden waste, newspaper, magazines, glass, metal, plastic or paper containers, or other packaging or construction material, cigarette butts or portions of cigarettes, or filtered cigars or portions of filtered cigars, an abandoned vehicle or a derelict vehicle as otherwise defined by this code, motor vehicle parts, furniture, tires, appliances, brush, oil, wire, wood, lumber, cardboard, glass, brick, stone, rock, a carcass of a dead animal, any nauseous or offensive matter of any kind, any object likely to injure any person or create a traffic hazard, any offal or noisome substance or anything else of any unsightly nature.
(E) Litter accumulation. To allow litter to accumulate upon real property, of which the person charged is the owner, agent, occupant or person in possession, charge or control, in a manner as to constitute a public nuisance or in a manner that the litter may be blown or otherwise carried by the natural elements onto the real property of another person. For purposes of this division, litter shall have the meaning as defined immediately above. While any of those named may be charged under this division, if the property is a single-family dwelling or otherwise occupied by or in the possession, charge or control of one person or group, the person or each of the members of the group shall be considered responsible for the accumulation unless the facts indicate the contrary.
(F) Trees and plants. To allow any tree, shrub, vine, cutting, scion, grass, plant, plant part, plant product, or any part thereof, within the city to remain if the same is dead, dangerous or liable to fall upon neighboring buildings or other improvements other than those belonging to the owner of the tree or other plant. The same is infested with injurious insect pests or infected with plant diseases that are liable to spread to other plants, plant products or places to the injury thereof, or to the injury or damage of a person or animal; or the same is one of any species or variety of tree, shrub, vine or other plant not essential to the welfare of the people of the city that may serve as a favorable host plant and/or promote the prevalence and abundance of insect pests or plant diseases, or any stage thereof, injurious to other plants essential to the welfare of the people of the city or to the injury or damage of a person or animal, including, but not necessarily limited to, the female individuals of the box elder variety of tree, further known as Acer negundo.
(G) Water pollution.
(1) To corrupt or render unwholesome or impure the water of any spring, river, stream, ditch, creek, pond or lake to the injury or prejudice of others; and
(H) Obstructions. To obstruct or encroach upon public highways, private ways, streets, alleys, commons, landing places and ways to burying places.
(I) Noxious exhalations. To erect continue or use any building or other place for the exercise of any trade, employment or manufacture that, by occasioning noxious exhalations, offensive smells or otherwise, is offensive or dangerous to the health of individuals or of the public.
(J) Advertisement. To advertise or expose wares or occupations, or notices or materials by painting notice of the same or affixing them to fences, walls, windows, building exteriors, utility poles, or on hydrants, other public or private property, or on rock or other natural objects, without the consent of the owner, or if in a public right-of-way or other public place, without a sign permit or other permission of the proper authorities.
(K) Unfit, unsafe or dangerous structures.
(1) To own, maintain, keep, let, use or occupy any building, manufactured or mobile home, modular home, structure, shed, tent, lot, premises, improvement, fence or any other manmade structure (in this chapter collectively referred to as “structure”) that is unfit, unsafe or dangerous.
(2) For purposes of this division, a structure shall be considered unfit, unsafe or dangerous if any one or more of the following conditions exist with respect to the structure or any portion thereof:
(a) The structure or any portion thereof is designed or intended for human habitation and is unfit for that purpose;
(b) The structure or any portion thereof is in violation of the building code standards imposed by Chapter 151 of this code or otherwise fails to comply with requirements imposed by local, state or federal law;
(c) The structure or any portion thereof is unfit, unsafe or dangerous because of the lack of repair or maintenance, or it is otherwise in a condition so that it is detrimental to life, health or safety.
(d) The structure or any portion thereof is dangerous to life, health or safely because of the existence of contagious diseases or unsanitary conditions likely to cause sickness, disease, illness or harm to its occupants, if any, or to other persons or neighboring structures;
(e) The structure or any portion thereof is kept in a condition that it or its contents occasion noxious exhalations or offensive smells;
(f) The structure or any portion thereof, because of faulty construction, age, deterioration, lack of proper repair, previous fire or any other cause or condition, is especially liable to fire and constitutes or creates a fire hazard;
(g) The structure or any portion thereof, because of faulty construction, age, deterioration, lack of proper repair, a previous fire or other cause, is liable to collapse;
(h) The structure or any portion thereof, because of the lack of windows or doors, or because of the presence of openings, is available to or opened to malefactors, disorderly person, minors or any other persons who are not the lawful or proper occupants of the structure;
(i) The structure of any portion thereof is under construction or demolition, has been under construction or demolition and remains uncompleted for an unreasonable period of time, or the construction or demolition thereof is not diligently and promptly pursued to completion;
(j) The structure of any portion thereof contains violations of any city ordinance, law, rule, regulation or code or provision that establishes construction, plumbing, heating, electrical, fire prevention, demolition, sanitation or other health and safety standards with respect thereto;
(k) The structure or any portion thereof has been damaged or destroyed by fire or water and is not promptly demolished, removed, reconstructed, rebuilt or repaired, or any hole resulting after demolition or removal of a structure has not been promptly filled with earth, stone, concrete or solid fill to ground level; and
(l) The structure or any portion thereof is otherwise a dangerous and unsafe structure, or an uncompleted and abandoned structure.
(3) It shall not be a defense to any of the foregoing that the structure is boarded up or otherwise enclosed, nor may any court order a structure to be boarded up or otherwise enclosed. It shall also not be a defense to any action that a structure is not occupied or utility services have been terminated or suspended.
(L) Rodents. To cause or permit any condition or situation to exist that shall attract, harbor or encourage an infestation of rats and mice.
(M) Weeds. To allow any weeds, such as jimsonweed, burdock, ragweed, thistle, cocklebur, jimson, blue vervain, common milkweed, wild carrot, poison ivy, wild mustard, pig weed, lambs quarter, wild lettuce, curled dock, snout weed, poison oak, poison hemlock, wild hemp, Johnson grass or other weeds of a like kind found growing in any lot or tract of land in the city, or weeds that expel unpleasant or noxious odors, that may conceal filthy deposits, that are a breeding place for mosquitoes, flies or insects or that, because of uncleanliness and sanitation, are a menace to public health.
(N) Weed height. To permit any weeds, grass or plants other than lawful trees, shrubs, vines, flowers or other similar plants commonly and generally considered ornamental plants, to grow to a height exceeding six inches anywhere in the city.
(O) Noncompliance with the demolition of buildings or structures ordinance and its requirement of a fire protection guard. To undertake, permit or allow the demolition of buildings or structures, or to not place a fire protection guard as is required for the demolition of buildings and structures by Chapter 151 of the city code.
(P) Stagnant water. To cause or suffer any body or pool of water to become stagnant on any property under one’s control. This shall include a failure to properly maintain any swimming pool, hot tub, wading pool or fountain so that the same may or has become a breeding facility for mosquitoes, flies or other insect or animal pests that are offensive, injurious or dangerous to the health of the public.
(Q) Storing debris. To store, dump or permit the accumulation of debris, refuse, garbage, tires, trash, buckets, cans, wheelbarrows, garbage cans, animal troughs or other containers in a manner that may harbor mosquitoes, flies, insects, rodents, nuisance birds, possums, skunks, groundhogs or other animal pests that are offensive, injurious and dangerous to the health of individuals or the public.
(R) Motor transport engines. To operate motor transport engines between the hours of 8:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. in any place in which a majority of the buildings within a 400-foot radius of the vehicle are used exclusively for residential purposes, excluding state and federal highways.
(S) Open burning.
(1) (a) To cause, permit or allow the open burning of landscape waste or municipal solid waste.
(b) To cause, permit or allow the open burning of agricultural or domicile waste.
(2) It shall not be a nuisance to commit any act herein above prohibited by division (S)(l)(a) and (b), if the person or entity committing the act shall have first been issued a permit or other written authorization to do so from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA), so long as the permit or other written authorization is valid and in full force and effect, and so long as the person or entity is in full compliance with all conditions of the permit or other written authorization.
(T) Public right-of-way. Any area between the street or alley and private property, including ditches.
(1) Duties of private owners as to public rights-of-way located between a street or alley and private property. It shall be the duty of any person who owns or occupies private property located adjacent to a public street or alley in the city to maintain and mow the public right-of-way, with the weeds and grass on the public right-of-way not to exceed six inches in height.
(2) Notice. The city shall, by and through its employees or agents, cause to be served upon an owner or occupant adjacent private property a notice ordering that person to maintain and mow the grass and weeds on the right-of-way within five days from the date of the notice.
(1975 Code, §§ 25.01, 25.02) (Ord. 22-03, passed 2-2-2022) Penalty, see § 94.99
Statutory reference:
Similar provisions, see 740 ILCS 55/221—222