[HISTORY: Adopted by the Village Board of the Village of Pleasantville 5-8-2000
by L.L. No. 3-2000. Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Signs and outdoor display structures — See Ch. 148.
The Board of Trustees of the Village of Pleasantville hereby finds and
declares that graffiti creates a nuisance for our residents and merchants.
The unabated proliferation of graffiti is a physical blight upon the landscape
of our village and costs taxpayers, merchants and homeowners substantial monies
to remove and repair. The Board also finds that, when unchecked, graffiti
only encourages more graffiti.
For purposes of this chapter, the following words shall have the meaning
ascribed to them herein:
To mar the surface or face of property or disfigure, injure or spoil
the appearance of property.
Unauthorized defacement of public or private property resulting in
a drawing, figure, inscription, mark, message, slogan or symbol written, painted,
drawn, etched or otherwise made on a property.
Includes but is not limited to buildings, fences, motor vehicles,
recreational vehicles, rocks, statues, monuments, walls, tunnels, signs, structures,
trees, utility boxes, utility poles, waste receptacles and all other articles
of personal or real property upon which one can write, draw, paint, etch or
otherwise mark.
It is unlawful for any person to apply graffiti to any property without
the permission of the owner or occupant of such property.
A.
Any person who has been found guilty of actually causing
and/or assisting the graffiti to be made, or who has been found guilty of
any other provision of this chapter, shall be punished by a fine of up to
$1,000, for each violation thereof and/or shall be imprisoned for 15 days
in jail, or both. In addition, that person shall be liable for the cost of
removing said graffiti from the property and restoring the property so defaced
as part of his/her punishment pursuant to the violation of this chapter, or
to perform suitable community services.
B.
Any occupant, owner, lessee, sublessee, agent and/or landlord of any commercial or residential property located within the Village of Pleasantville which has been found guilty of having any form of graffiti on its property after the one-week notice as designated in § 110-5A shall be punished by a fine of $350 for each week of violation. Each day the graffiti is permitted to remain on the premises after the curative period designated in § 110-5A shall constitute a separate and distinct offense and shall be punishable by separate and distinct cumulative amounts of fines.
A.
Requirement to remove graffiti. The occupant,
owner, lessee, sublessee, agent and/or landlord of any commercial, personal
or residential property located within the Village of Pleasantville which
has any form of graffiti on any of its property shall be required to remove
said property from public view or either restore the defaced surface by removing
the graffiti or repaint the defaced surface, using the same color paint as
existed previously on the defaced surface, within one week after receipt of
written notice to the occupant, owner, lessee, sublessee, agent and/or landlord
by the Village of Pleasantville to remove same. The village shall serve said
written notice on the occupant, owner, lessee, sublessee, agent and/or landlord
in one of the following manners: by personal service, in which case the one-week
curative period shall begin to run from the date of said service; or service
by certified mail, return receipt required, to the address upon which the
graffitied property is located, in which case the one-week curative period
shall run from the date that said receipt is dated received or, if rejected,
the last date of attempted delivery.
B.
Remedy of village. If said graffiti condition is not cured or corrected within one week after receipt of written notice by the village as delineated in § 110-5A, then the village shall have the right to issue a criminal summons and to enter the premises or hire a private contractor to enter the premises to remove the graffiti and/or repaint the property as set forth above, and the cost of the removal of the graffiti and/or repainting shall be at the cost and expense of the occupant, owner, lessee, sublessee, agent and/or landlord of property, reduced only by the amount recovered, if any, by the village from the person(s) found guilty of actually causing the graffiti to be made as delineated in § 110-5A. The actual cost of the removal of the graffiti and/or repainting, plus the cost of the inspection of said property and other costs incidental to such removal, shall thereupon become a lien upon the real property upon which the graffiti was found to be and shall be added to and become a part of the taxes next to be assessed and levied on such real property, and the same shall be collected and enforced in the same manner as general village taxes.
