No excavation for building or any other purposes in the Village
of Rothschild, whether or not completed, shall be left open for more
than six months without proceeding with the erection of a building
thereon. In the event that any such excavation remains open for more
than six months, the Building Inspector of the Village of Rothschild
shall order that the erection of a building on the excavation begin
forthwith or, in the alternative, that the excavation be filled to
grade. Such order shall be served upon the owner of record or his
agent, where an agent is in charge of the premises, and upon the holder
of any encumbrance of record in the manner provided for service of
a summons in the Circuit Court. If the owner or a holder of an encumbrance
of record cannot be found, the order may be served by posting it on
the premises and by publishing in the official newspaper for two consecutive
publications at least 10 days before the time limit in the order commences
to run.
All excavations, or parts of excavations, which are in existence at the time of the effective date of this chapter shall be subject to the provisions hereof, and if the same have been in existence for six months or more upon the effective date of this chapter, the Building Inspector may make and serve the order provided for in §
289-1 hereof forthwith; if such excavations have not been in existence for six months or more prior to the effective date of this chapter, nevertheless the time during which such excavations were in existence prior to the effective date of this chapter shall be included in the six-month period provided for in §
289-1 hereof.
If the owner of the land fails to comply with the order within
15 days after service thereof upon him, the Building Inspector shall
cause the excavation to be filled to grade, and the cost shall be
charged against the real estate and entered in the next succeeding
tax roll as a special tax and shall bear interest at the rate of 6%
per annum from the date of the report by the Building Inspector of
the cost thereof.
The term "excavation" shall include depressions caused by filling
two or more sides of a plot of land and shall include excavations
for any purpose, basements, part basements or other excavations left
as a residue of a burned or razed building, and such basements or
excavations shall, after six months, be subject to the same provisions
as excavations made for the purpose of erecting new structures. This
chapter shall not apply to excavations in streets regulated by other
ordinances of the Village, and the provisions of said ordinances shall
not be affected hereby.
It is declared that this chapter is an exercise of the police
power of the governing body of the Village of Rothschild and is enacted
in order to protect the inhabitants of said Village from unnecessary
and unwarranted hazard.