Chapter 8.12
PUBLIC NUISANCES*
Sections:
8.12.020 Nuisance, specifically defined.
8.12.024 Permitted outdoor storage.
8.12.030 Penalty – Abatement – Costs.
*For statutory provisions authorizing third class cities to define nuisances and pass ordinances for the abatement and prevention thereof, see RCW 35.24.330; for statutory provisions regarding nuisance, see Ch. 9.66 RCW generally.
8.12.010 Unlawful.
It is unlawful for any person or persons to erect, contrive, cause, continue, maintain or permit to exist a nuisance as hereinafter defined, and the following nuisances, as designated in PMC 8.12.020, or any of them, are prohibited. [Ord. 296 §1, 1947].
8.12.020 Nuisance, specifically defined.
The following specific acts, omissions, places and conditions are hereby declared to be nuisances:
A. The placing, depositing, keeping, having or leaving 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 Palouse of any one or more of the following unsanitary, fly-producing, rat-harboring, disease-causing conditions, places or things, that is to say:
1. Any putrid, unsound or unwholesome bones, meat, hides, skins, or the whole or any part of any dead animal, fish or fowl.
2. Privies, vaults, cesspools, dumps, pits or like places which are not securely protected from flies or rats, or which are foul or malodorous.
3. Filthy, littered or trash-covered cellars, house-yards, barnyards, stable-yards, factory-yards, vacant areas in rear of stores, vacant lots, houses, buildings or premises.
4. Animal manure in any quantity which is odoriferous and is not securely protected from flies and the elements, or which is kept or handled in violation of any ordinance of the city of Palouse.
5. Liquid household waste, human excreta, garbage, butcher’s trimmings and offal, parts of fish or any waste vegetable or animal matter in any quantity that is capable of decomposition; provided, nothing herein contained shall prevent the temporary retention of same in pest proof, fly-tight container nor the dumping of nonputrefying waste substances in a place and manner approved by said city council.
B. The placing, depositing, keeping or leaving in or upon any private lot or premises, or upon any street, avenue, alley, park, parkway, drive or any private driveway used by the public or any other public or private place in the city of Palouse of any one or more of the following unsanitary, fly-producing, rat-harboring, disease-causing conditions, places or things, that is to say:
1. Tin cans, bottles, glass cans, small pieces of scrap iron, wire metal articles, bric-a-brac, broken stone or cement, broken crockery, broken glass, broken plaster, and all such trash or abandoned material, unless the same be kept in covered, pest-proof, fly-tight bins.
2. Trash, litter, rags, accumulations or 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, dilapidated automobiles or automobile parts, or any other whatsoever in which flies or rats may breed or multiply or which may be a fire danger.
3. The dropping or placing on any street, alley, park or thoroughfare of any tree trimmings, leaves, grass, garden debris, dirt, rock, crushed rock, sand, gravel, bricks, ashes or any foreign substance of any kind whatsoever.
4. All places used or maintained as a dumping grounds for the disassembling of automobiles, trucks, tractors or machinery of any kind, or for the storing or leaving of worn out, wrecked or abandoned unlicensed automobiles, trucks, tractors or machinery of any kind, or any parts thereof.
5. Facilities or sites for the storage, processing and/or sale of scrap or waste materials, such as scrap metals, hides, appliance parts, and wrecked vehicles shall comply with PMC 8.12.024 and 8.12.026. [Ord. 688 §1, 1997; Ord. 296 §2, 1947].
8.12.024 Permitted outdoor storage.
Permitted outdoor storage allows for outdoor storage of parts, materials, packaging, and inventory used in the day-to-day operation of a business currently registered as a business in Washington state and issued a Unified Business ID number.
Permitted outdoor storage areas exposed to street-level view from any adjacent property on which the storage area is located shall be screened by a sight-obscuring screening.
Materials covered by buildings with roofs only but without any sides shall be considered outdoor storage and shall be subject to the screening provisions of this section. This provision shall not apply to the display of new or used agricultural implements, motor vehicles or watercraft where such activities are an integral part of an automobile, agricultural implement or watercraft dealership or storage facility. [Ord. 688 §2, 1997].
8.12.026 Types of screening.
A visual screen, consisting of fencing, landscaping, or other materials, shall be provided. Such a screen shall be to a height of six feet. If fencing is used, it shall be of masonry, wood or slatted chain link construction and shall be maintained in a good condition. If landscaping is used, it shall include evergreen shrubs planted to form a hedge of six feet mature height within three years of the planting date, with a minimum planting height of three feet; except that approved vehicle driveway openings shall not be obstructed. [Ord. 688 §3, 1997].
8.12.030 Penalty – Abatement – Costs.
Any person, corporation, or other entity convicted upon a violation of this chapter shall be fined $100.00, and shall be required to take such steps as are necessary to abate any further public nuisance. No part of the fine shall be suspended or in any manner reduced. Upon one or more subsequent convictions involving the same public nuisance, the fine imposed for each such subsequent conviction shall be double the previous fine (e.g., second conviction $200.00, third conviction $400.00, etc.), up to a maximum of $1,000. If the nuisance is not abated as required, the city shall have the authority to take such actions as may be necessary to abate the public nuisance. In addition to any fine imposed as above provided, the costs incident to such an abatement shall be assessed against the defendant and shall become part of the judgment against the defendant. [Ord. 688 §4, 1997; Ord. 647 §1, 1993; Ord. 296 §4, 1947].
8.12.040 Awnings.
It is unlawful to erect or maintain or to cause to be erected or maintained within the fire limits of the city any awning or covering over any sidewalk or portion thereof except folding awnings, constructed of cloth or canvas placed upon iron frames and securely fastened to the abutting building, the lower portion of any such awning to be not less than seven feet above the sidewalk when in use. [1919 Comp. §166].
8.12.050 Signs.
It is unlawful to erect, construct, place or maintain over or across any sidewalk or portion thereof within the limits of the city any signboard, trade sign, banner, flag or any other device calculated or intended to advertise or call attention to any trade, business, occupation, profession or calling that extends out over the sidewalk from the structure to which it is attached a greater distance than three feet, nor be less than 10 feet in the clear above the surface of the sidewalk thereunder.
All signs and devices permitted herein shall be securely fastened to the building to which they are attached and in no instance shall the same be fastened to any post or other object on or at the outer edge of the sidewalk. [Ord. 827 §1, 2006; Ord. 765 §1, 2001; 1919 Comp. §167].