[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Trustees of the Village of Poquott 8-9-2007
by L.L. No. 1-2007. Amendments noted where applicable.]
This chapter shall be entitled "Removal of Abandoned and Inoperative
Vehicles From Public Property Within the Incorporated Village of Poquott."
Pursuant to Section 10 of the Home Rule Law, the Vehicle and Traffic
Law, and the Village Law of the State of New York, the Incorporated Village
of Poquott, County of Suffolk, State of New York, hereby enacts this Local
Law 1 of 2007 of the Incorporated Village of Poquott.
The Incorporated Village of Poquott must have a mechanism that permits
the Village to remove vehicles from public property.
For the purpose of promoting the health, safety, morals or general welfare
of the community, regulating the use of streets and public places by motor
and other vehicles, and with reasonable consideration of the most desirable
use for which land in any building district may be adapted, to conserve property
values, to abate nuisances and undesirable uses, to regulate the parking,
storage or otherwise locating of house coaches, trailers, dismantled, unlicensed
or abandoned motor vehicles and to regulate the use of public parking fields
and areas, this article is enacted pursuant to the general and specific governmental
powers conferred upon the Board of Trustees by law.
The words and phrases used in this chapter shall, for the purposes of
this chapter, have the meanings respectively ascribed to them by Article I
of the Vehicle and Traffic Law of the State of New York. As used in this chapter,
the following terms shall have the meanings indicated.
Shall be defined in the manner prescribed by § 1224 of
the Vehicle and Traffic Law of the State of New York as if set forth completely
herein.
Any vehicle which is in such a condition or state of repair that
it cannot be operated immediately, or which is wholly or partially in such
a dismantled state that it cannot be used legally or licensed for use on a
public highway or street, or it is not intended to be so licensed or used,
or which does not bear a valid license plate or is not registered with an
appropriate government agency. The term excludes any vehicle which is actually
undergoing emergency repair which will not extend over a reasonable period
of time.
Shall be defined in the manner prescribed by § 1224 of
the Vehicle and Traffic Law of the State of New York as if set forth completely
herein.
A.
Abandoned vehicles.
A.
Removal and storage of vehicles. Whenever any vehicle
or any inoperative or dismantled vehicle is parked or abandoned on any highway,
street, private road, parking field or other place in violation of this chapter,
§ 1224 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law of the State of New York shall
be applied as if set forth completely herein.
B.
The Village Building Inspector is authorized to remove
or tow, or cause to be removed or towed, any vehicle parked, abandoned or
unattended in violation of the provisions of this chapter.
C.
Authority to impound vehicles. When any vehicle parked,
abandoned or unattended on any public highway within the incorporated limits
of the Village or in any municipally controlled parking field or area or in
any designated fire lane constitutes an obstruction of traffic, interferes
with and prevents the full use of the highway, said vehicle shall be removed
and towed away by direction of and under the supervision of the Village Building
Inspector or a Code Enforcement Officer of the Village.
D.
When any vehicle parked, abandoned or unattended in any
municipally controlled parking field or area, either beyond the legal time
as posted or is parked unlawfully or is parked in such a manner as to obstruct
traffic or is parked in such manner as to interfere with the proper and normal
use of such field or area, said vehicle shall be removed and towed away by
direction of and under supervision of the Village Building Inspector or a
Code Enforcement Officer of the Village.
E.
When any vehicle is parked or abandoned on any highway
or public parking lot within this Village during a snowstorm, flood, fire
or other public emergency which affects that portion of the public highway
or parking lot upon which said vehicle is parked or abandoned, said vehicle
may be removed by or under the direction of the Village Building Inspector
or a Code Enforcement Officer of the Village.
F.
When any vehicle is found unattended on any highway or
public parking lot within the Village where said vehicle constitutes an obstruction
to traffic, said vehicle may be removed by or under the direction of the Village
Building Inspector or a Code Enforcement Officer of the Village.
G.
Storage and removal. Should the removal, towing away
or storage of any vehicle be required as provided in this chapter, the guidelines
set forth in § 1224 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law of the State
of New York shall be applied as if set forth fully herein.
A.
The last owner of an abandoned or inoperable vehicle
shall be liable to the Village or its agents or assigns for the cost of removal
and storage of such vehicle.
B.
Abandoned vehicle. There shall be a rebuttable presumption
that the owner of an abandoned vehicle caused such vehicle to be abandoned.
A violation of this subdivision shall be punishable by a fine of not less
than $250 nor more than $1,000, per day, per violation.
C.
Inoperable vehicle. There shall be a rebuttable presumption
that the owner of an inoperable vehicle caused such vehicle to be placed upon
or caused or permitted to be placed on any highway, street or other public
property in the Village. A violation of this subdivision shall be punishable
by a fine of not less than $250 nor more than $1,000, per day, per violation.
