(A) (1) The City Council recognizes and declares that:
(a) Abandoned motor vehicles, junked motor vehicles, old vehicle tires, and certain abandoned or inoperative household appliances are and constitute a public nuisance and hazard to both adults and children, and, therefore, are dangerous and constitute a clear and present danger;
(b) Such abandoned motor vehicles, junked motor vehicles, old vehicle tires and certain abandoned or inoperative household appliances serve as harborage and breeding places for rodents, mosquitoes, fleas, ticks, mice, rats, and other insects, pests, and flies injurious to the public health, safety, and general welfare;
(c) Abandoned motor vehicles and junked motor vehicles serve frequently as temporary or permanent places of human residence unconducive to public health, safety, and welfare;
(d) The accumulation and storage of any such items or parts on private or public property, including, but not limited to, highways, is found to create a condition tending to reduce the value of private property and to promote blight and deterioration which, if permitted to remain, will continue to destroy the natural beauty of the city and have adverse economic and social effects;
(e) Such abandoned motor vehicles, junked motor vehicles, old vehicle tires, and certain abandoned or inoperative household appliances constitute an unattractive nuisance creating a hazard to the health and safety of minors;
(f) Such items are nearly always located on public highways or rights-of-way or within sight of such highway rights-of-way and on private property within a reasonable proximity, and when so located the cost of controlling or abating such visual pollution is a deterrent to economic development; and
(g) It is in the public interest and welfare to provide for a program to eliminate the unsightly practice of abandoning motor vehicles, old vehicle tires, and certain abandoned or inoperative household appliances.
(2) In view of these findings, the City Council declares it to be the public policy of the city to eliminate the present danger resulting from abandoned motor vehicles, junked motor vehicles, old vehicle tires, and certain abandoned or inoperative household appliances and to eliminate the visual pollution resulting from these items, and that in order to provide for the public health, safety, welfare, and quality of life, to enact legislation to that end by providing expeditious means and methods for effecting the disposal of abandoned motor vehicles, junked motor vehicles, old vehicle tires, and certain abandoned household appliances. The City Council further finds and declares that the presence of an abandoned motor vehicle, junked motor vehicle, old vehicle tire, or an abandoned or inoperative household appliance, or any part, on private or public property, including, but not limited to, highways, except as expressly permitted in this subchapter, is a public nuisance injurious to the public health, safety, and general welfare of the citizens of this city, which shall be abated as such by the methods provided in this subchapter.
(C) The provisions of this subchapter shall be liberally construed to accomplish its objectives and purposes.
(Ord. passed 10-20-2020)