Chapter 8.04 NUISANCES

Chapter 8.04
NUISANCES

Sections:

8.04.040 Liability for costs of abatement.

8.04.010 Definition.

A nuisance consists of doing an 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:

A. Injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health or safety of others;

B. Unlawfully interferes with, obstructs or tends to obstruct or renders dangerous for passage any stream, public park, parkway, square, sidewalk, street or highway in the city;

C. In any way renders other persons insecure in life or the use of property; or

D. Obstructs the free use of property so as to essentially interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life and property. (Ord. 1790 § 1, 2012; Ord. 253 § 1, 1971).

8.04.020 Specific nuisances designated.

The following specific acts, omissions, places, conditions and things are hereby declared to be nuisances: the erecting, maintaining, using, placing, depositing, causing, allowing, leaving or permitting to be or remain in or upon any private lot, building, structure or premises, or in or upon any street, avenue, alley, park, parkway or other public or private place in the city, of any one or more of the following places, conditions, things, or acts to the prejudice, danger, or annoyance of others:

A. Privies, vaults, cesspools, sumps, pits, or like places which are not securely protected from flies or rats, or which are foul or malodorous;

B. Filthy, littered or trash-covered premises, including all buildings and structures thereon and areas adjacent thereto;

C. 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 other trash or abandoned material, unless the same is kept in covered bins or metal receptacles approved by the building inspector;

D. Trash, litter, rags, accumulations of empty barrels, boxes, crates, packing cases, mattresses, bedding, excelsior, packing hay, straw, or other packing material, lumber not neatly piled, scrap iron, tin, and other metal not neatly piled, or anything whatsoever in which flies may breed or multiply or which provides harborage for rats or which may be a fire danger;

E. All places not properly fenced which are used or maintained as junkyards or dumping grounds, or for the wrecking, disassembling, repair or rebuilding 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, which places are kept or maintained so as to essentially interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property by others;

F. Any putrid, unsound or unwholesome bones, meat, hides, skins, or the whole or any part of any dead animal, fish or fowl, butcher’s trimmings and offal, or any waste vegetable or animal matter in any quantity, garbage, human excreta or other offensive substance; provided, nothing contained in this subsection shall prevent the temporary retention of waste in receptacles in the manner approved by the building inspector of the city;

G. The erection, continuance or use of any building, room or other place in the city for the exercise of any trade, employment or manufacture which, by occasioning noxious exhalations, offensive odors or other annoyances, is discomforting or offensive or detrimental to the health of individuals or of the public;

H. The playing or causing to be played in front of any building where any show, moving picture exhibition or theatrical performance is given, or in the open vestibule or area of any building, of any automatic or mechanical musical instrument for the attraction of customers;

I. Burning or disposal of refuse, sawdust or other material in such a manner to cause or permit ashes, sawdust, soot or cinders to be cast upon the streets or alleys of the city, or to cause or permit the smoke, ashes, soot or gases arising from such burning to become annoying to any considerable number of persons or to injure or endanger the health, comfort, or repose of such persons; provided, this section shall not apply where the party responsible for the action has properly obtained a fire permit from the fire department;

J. Any unguarded or abandoned excavation, pit, well, or hole dangerous to life;

K. Poison oak, poison ivy, deadly nightshade, or any noxious or toxic weed, or uncultivated plant including blackberries; or weeds, grass, uncultivated shrubs, grass clippings, cut brush or cut weeds, which constitute:

1. A fire hazard; or

2. A threat or hazard to the general public health and safety.

Any removal of the above shall be in accordance with FMC Title 17, Environmental Protection. (Ord. 1790 § 2, 2012; Ord. 1777 § 1 (Exh. A), 2012; Ord. 1480-03 § 1, 2003; Ord. 253 § 2, 1971).

8.04.030 Abatement.

When judgment is rendered against any person, firm or corporation finding them guilty of creating, keeping or maintaining a nuisance, as provided in this chapter, it shall be the duty of the court before whom the conviction is had, in addition to imposing a penalty or penalties, to order the defendant or defendants in such action to forthwith abate and remove such nuisance, and if the same is not done by such offender within a reasonable time as determined by the court, the same shall be abated and removed under the direction of the chief of police of the city, or any other officer authorized by the order of the court, and made a part of the judgment in such action. (Ord. 1777 § 1 (Exh. A), 2012; Ord. 253 § 4, 1971).

8.04.040 Liability for costs of abatement.

Any person, firm or corporation found guilty of keeping or maintaining a nuisance as provided in this chapter shall be liable for all costs and expenses of abating the same when the nuisance has been abated by any officer of the city which costs and expenses shall be taxed as part of the costs of prosecution against the party liable, to be recovered as other costs are recovered; provided, that in such causes the city shall be liable in the first instance to pay the same, and in all cases where the chief of police or other officer abates any such nuisance, he shall keep an account of all expenses attending such abatement and in addition to the powers herein given to collect such costs and expenses, the city may bring suit for the same in any court of competent jurisdiction against the person, firm or corporation, creating, keeping or maintaining the nuisance so abated. (Ord. 253 § 5, 1971).

8.04.050 Buildings to be secured.

Every agent or owner of any unoccupied building in the city shall keep the same securely closed at all times against persons who may enter and commit a nuisance therein. (Ord. 253 § 6, 1971).