(A) General definition. A nuisance consists in doing any unlawful act, or omitting to perform a duty, or suffering or permitting any condition or thing to be or exist, which act, omission, condition or thing either:
(1) Injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health, or safety of others;
(2) Offends decency;
(3) Is offensive to the senses;
(4) Unlawfully interferes with, obstructs, tends to obstruct, or renders dangerous for passage any stream, public park, parkway, square, street, or highway in the city;
(5) In any way renders other persons insecure in life or the use of property; or
(6) Essentially interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life and property, or tends to depreciate the value of the property of others.
('72 Code, § 4-301)
(B) Specific definition. The maintaining, using, placing, depositing, leaving, or permitting of any of the following specific acts, omissions, places, conditions, and things are hereby declared to be nuisances:
(1) Any odorous, putrid, unsound, or unwholesome grain, meat, hides, skins, feathers, vegetable matter, or the whole or any part of any dead animal, fish, or fowl;
(2) Offal and dead animals;
(3) Privies, vaults, cesspools, dumps, pits, or like places which are not securely protected from flies or rats, or which are foul or malodorous;
(4) Filthy, littered, or trash-covered cellars, house yards, barnyards, stable-yards, factory-yards, mill yards, vacant areas in rear of stores, granaries, vacant lots, houses, buildings, or premises;
(5) Animal manure in any quantity which is not securely protected from flies and the elements, or which is kept or handled in violation of any ordinance of the city;
(6) Liquid household waste, human excreta, garbage, butcher's trimmings and offal, parts of fish, or any waste vegetable or animal matter in any quantity, provided that nothing herein contained shall prevent the temporary retention of waste in receptacles in a manner provided by the health officer of the city, nor the dumping of non-putrefying waste in a place and manner approved by the health officer;
(7) Tin cans, bottles, glass, cans, ashes, small pieces of scrap iron, wire metal articles, bric-a-brac, broken stone or cement, broken crockery, broken glass, broken plaster, and all trash or abandoned material, unless the same be kept in covered gins or galvanized iron receptacles;
(8) Litter, accumulations of barrels, boxes, crates, packing crates, mattresses, bedding, excelsior, packing hay, straw or other packing material, lumber not neatly piled, scrap iron, tin or other metal not neatly piled, old automobiles or parts thereof, or any other waste materials; litter shall include, but not be limited to, the following:
(a) Trash, rubbish, refuse, garbage, paper, rags, and ashes;
(b) Wood, plaster, cement, brick, or stone building rubble;
(c) Grass, leaves, and worthless vegetation;
(d) Any machine or machines, vehicle or vehicles, or vehicles, or parts of a machine or vehicle which have lost their identity, character, utility, or serviceability as such through deterioration, dismantling, or the ravages of time, are inoperative or unable to perform their intended functions, or are cast off, discarded, or thrown away or left as waste, wreckage, or junk;
(9) Any unsightly building, billboard, or other structure, or any old, abandoned or partially destroyed building or structure or any building or structure commenced and left unfinished;
(10) All places used or maintained as junk yards, or dumping grounds, or for the wrecking and dissembling of automobiles, trucks, tractors, or machinery of any kind, or for the storing or leaving of worn-out, wrecked or abandoned automobiles, trucks, tractors, or machinery of any kind, or of any of the parts thereof, or for the storing or leaving of any machinery or equipment used by contractors or builders or by other persons;
(11) Stagnant water permitted or maintained on any lot or piece of ground;
(12) Stockyards, granaries, mills, pig pens, cattle pens, chicken pens or any other place, building, or enclosure, in which animals or fowls of any kind are confined or on which are stored tankage or any other animal or vegetable matter, or on which any animal or vegetable matter including grain is being processed, when the places in which the animals are confined, or the premises on which the vegetable or animal matter is located are maintained and kept in such a manner that foul and noxious odors are permitted to emanate therefrom;
(13) Storage, accumulation, keeping, placing, or allowing to remain of trash, garage, scrap and wrecked, worn-out, broken or inoperative, or partially destroyed or disassembled personal or real property of any kind, including any motor vehicles, tractors, trailers, machinery, and equipment;
(14) The practice of engine braking within the corporate limits of the city or within one mile thereof, which is hereby prohibited unless the motor vehicle upon which the engine braking is being performed has an adequate muffler system to muffle the noise emitted from the motor vehicle when engine breaking;
(15) The growth of 12 inches or more in height of weeds, grasses, or worthless vegetation on any lot or parcel of ground within the city, and/or the adjoining street and alleys to said lot or parcel; the term weeds, shall include, but not be limited to, the following:
(a) Bindweed (convolvulus arvensis);
(b) Puncture vine (tribulus terrestris);
(c) Leafy spurge (euphorbia esula);
(d) Canada thistle (cirsium arvense);
(e) Perennial peppergrass (lepidium draba);
(f) Russian knapweed (centaurea picris);
(g) Johnson grass (sorghum halepense);
(h) Horse Nettle (solanum carolinense);
(i) Bull thistle (cirsium lanceolatum);
(j) Buckthom (rhamus sp.) (toum);
(k) Hemp plant (cannabis sativa);
(l) Ragweed (ambrosiaceae);
(m) Nodding or musk thistle;
(n) Quack grass (agropyron repens); and
(o) Perennial sow thistle (sonchus arbensis);
(16) The permitting of a refrigerator, icebox, freezer, or other dangerous appliance to be in the open and accessible to children whether on private or public property unless all doors are first removed and the appliance is made reasonably safe;
(17) The storage or keeping of one or more motor vehicles, each not having a properly issued current motor vehicle registration and current motor vehicle license plate properly displayed; provided, however, that this section shall not apply to the storage of unlicensed and/or unregistered motor vehicles in a fully enclosed garage or where otherwise authorized by city zoning regulations;
(18) The storage, keeping or abandonment of parts, including scrap metals, from motor vehicles or machinery, or parts thereof, except in enclosed buildings or garages or where otherwise authorized by the city zoning regulations;
(19) The permitting, allowing, or maintaining of any dead or diseased trees within the right-of-way of streets within the corporate limits of the city adjacent to any lot or parcel of ground within the city (provided, however, the procedure as set forth in Neb. RS 17-555 or its successor shall control;
(20) The permitting, allowing, or maintaining of any dead or diseased trees on private property within the corporate limits of the city;
(21) The keeping of bees within the corporate limits of the city 200 feet or less from any dwelling other than that of the owner of the bees;
(22) The permitting of emission of smoke from any source that is polluted. The standards for air pollution established or adopted by the State of Nebraska shall be presumptive evidence as to when the air is deemed to be polluted under this section;
(23) The obstruction or impeding without legal authority any river or collection of water or to corrupt and render unwholesome or impure any watercourse, stream, or other water within the corporate limits of city. The standards for water quality established or adopted by the State of Nebraska shall be presumptive evidence as to when the water is deemed to be polluted under this section;
(24) The abandoning, on public property, of personal property. For purposes of this division, PUBLIC PROPERTY shall mean any public right-of-way, street, highway, alley, park, or other state, county, or city owned property. For purposes of this division, ABANDON shall mean any personal property left on public property for more than 24 hours, except when the leaving of said personal property on said portion of public property, at that location, is legally permitted. For purposes of this division, PERSONAL PROPERTY shall not include any motor vehicle for which a registration, from the State of Nebraska, is required to operate said motor vehicle on those portions of public property which constitute a street, highway, or alley.
(25) The permitting or allowing of the infestation of insects, rodents, or any other pest in and about any private property;
(26) The permitting, allowing, or maintaining of any buildings or structures, or portions thereof, which are structurally unsafe or not provided with adequate egress, or which constitute a fire hazard, or which are otherwise dangerous to human life, or which in relation to existing use, constitute a hazard to safety, health, or public welfare by reason of inadequate maintenance;
(27) All other things specifically designated as nuisances elsewhere in this code.
(’72 Code, § 4-302)
(Am. Ord. 1056, passed 12-11-75; Am. Ord. 1465, passed 8-11-94; Am. Ord. 1466, passed 8-11-94; Am. Ord. 1715, passed 2-10-00; Am. Ord. 1943, passed 11-9-06; Am. Ord. 1999, passed 7-24-08; Am. Ord. 2192, passed 8-27-15) Penalty, see § 10.99
Statutory reference:
Authority to regulate and abate nuisances, see Neb. RS 18-1720