(a) Procedure. A certificate of occupancy shall not be issued until such time as all the landscaping requirements are actually installed unless a performance guarantee of 110% of the cost has been deposited with the city. The amount of the guarantee shall be based upon an estimate of cost of completion of the required landscaping submitted by the applicant and as approved by the Director of Streets and Parks or his or her designee. Such guarantee shall be in a form acceptable to the City Solicitor. The depositor shall agree in making the deposit, that if performance is not completed within six months from the date of the certificate of occupancy issuance, the city may complete the requirements and charge the cost against the deposit; otherwise, the deposit shall be returned in full after the satisfactory completion of the work. Extensions requested in writing may be considered by the Bureau of Codes and City Engineer. If a certificate of occupancy is not required, then the performance guarantee noted above applies with work to be completed within the next growing season.
(b) Enforcement remedies and penalties.
(1) Any person, partnership or corporation who or which has violated the provisions of this article upon being found liable therefor in a civil enforcement proceeding commenced by the Bureau of Codes and City Engineer pays a judgement of not more than $500, plus all court costs, including reasonable attorney fees incurred by the city as a result thereof. No judgement shall commence or be imposed, levied or payable until the date of the determination of a violation by the district justice. If the defendant neither pays nor timely appeals the judgement, the city may enforce the judgement pursuant to the applicable rules of civil procedure. Each day that a violation continues that shall constitute a separate violation, unless the district justice determining that there has been a violation further determines that there was a good faith basis for the person, partnership or corporation violating the article to have believed that there was no such violation, in which event there shall be deemed to have been only one such violation until the fifth day following the date of the determination of a violation by the district justice and thereafter each day that a violation continues shall constitute a separate violation.
(2) The Court of Common Pleas, upon petition, may grant an order of stay, upon cause shown, tolling the per diem judgement pending a final adjudication of the violation and judgement.
(Ord. 5868, approved 5-16-2002)