[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Supervisors of the Township of
Lancaster 8-26-1985 by Ord. No. 1985-2.
Amendments noted where applicable.]
This chapter shall be known as the "Vector Control Ordinance."
For the purpose of this chapter the following definitions shall apply:
A detached structure which is not used or not intended to be used
for living or sleeping by human occupants and which is located on or partially
on any premises.
Any condition which provides the necessary environment for the birth
or hatching of vectors.
As considered in this chapter shall be held to be those contained
in ditches, pools, ponds, streams, excavations, holes, depressions, open cesspools,
privy vaults, fountains, cisterns, tanks, shallow wells, barrels, troughs,
urns, cans, boxes, bottles, tubs, buckets, roof gutters, tanks of flush closets,
reservoirs, vessels, or other receptacles, containers, or devices of any kind,
which may hold water.
Fallen into partial ruin or decay.
Includes the storage, collection, disposal, or handling of refuse.
The control and elimination of vectors by eliminating their harborage
places; by removing or making inaccessible materials that may serve as their
food; by poisoning, spraying, fumigating, fogging, larviciding, trapping,
or by any other recognized and legal vector control elimination methods approved
by the local or state authority having such administrative authority.
All animal and vegetable wastes resulting from the handling, preparation,
cooking, or consumption of foods.
Any place where vectors can live, nest, or seek shelter.
Any person, over one year of age, living, sleeping, cooking, or eating
in, or actually having possession of, a dwelling unit or a rooming unit; except
that in dwelling units a guest will not be considered an occupant.
Any person who, alone or jointly or severally with others:
Shall have legal title to any premises, dwelling or dwelling unit, with
or without accompanying actual possession thereof; or
Shall have charge, care, or control of any premises, dwelling or dwelling
unit, as owner or agent of the owner, or an executor, administrator, trustee,
or guardian of the estate of the owner. Any such person thus representing
the actual owner shall be bound to comply with the provisions of this chapter
and of the rules and regulations adopted pursuant thereto, to the same extent
as if he were the owner.
All solid wastes, except body wastes, and shall include garbage,
ashes, and rubbish.
Includes glass, metal, paper, plant growth, wood, or nonputrescible
solid wastes excluding, however, cut and stacked firewood and leaves.
A rodent, arthropod, or insect capable of transmitting a disease
or infection. Vectors shall include but not be limited to rats, mosquitoes,
cockroaches, flies, ticks, etc.
A form of construction to prevent the ingress or egress of vectors
to or from a given space or building or gaining access to food, water, or
harborage. This term shall include, but not be limited to rat-proofing, fly-proofing,
mosquito-proofing, etc.
A.Â
It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation
to deposit any refuse, offal, pomace, dead animals, decaying matter, or organic
substance of any kind in or upon any private lot, building, structure, accessory
structure, premises, or in or upon any street, avenue, alley, parkway, ravine,
ditch, gutter, or into any of the waters of the commonwealth so that same
shall or may afford food, harborage, or breeding areas for rats, flies or
other vectors.
B.Â
It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, or corporation
to deposit or permit to accumulate in or upon any premises, improved or vacant,
or on any open lot, or alley, any lumber, boxes, barrels, bottles, cans, glass,
scrap iron, wire, metal articles, pipe, broken stone or cement, broken crockery,
broken plaster, or rubbish of any kind, unless the same may be kept in approved
covered receptacles or placed on open racks that are elevated not less than
18 inches above the ground, and evenly piled or stacked, or disposed of as
may be approved by the Department of Environmental Protection.
C.Â
It shall be unlawful to maintain a junkyard or a place
for the dumping or wrecking or disassembling of automobiles, trucks, tractors,
or machinery of any kind or for the storing or leaving of dilapidated, 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 said
places may afford harborage or breeding areas for rats or other vectors.
D.Â
It shall be unlawful to store refuse in containers other
than those which shall be made of durable, watertight, rust-resistant material
having a tight-fitting lid which must be kept on the container when in use.
These containers must be kept clean by thorough rinsing and draining as often
as necessary so as not to provide food or breeding areas for flies.
E.Â
It shall be unlawful to dump, burn, bury, destroy, or
otherwise dispose of refuse except at an approved refuse disposal site.
F.Â
It shall be unlawful to construct, maintain, or use a
sewage system, privy, urinal, cesspool, or other receptacle for human excrement
so that vectors may have access to the excrementitious matter contained therein.
G.Â
It shall be unlawful to permit weeds, or similar vegetation
more than six inches in height to remain standing in any vacant lot, yard,
or other place except as may be approved by the municipality.
H.Â
It shall be unlawful to have, keep, maintain, cause or
permit any collection of standing or flowing water in which mosquitoes breed
or are likely to breed, unless such collection of water is treated or maintained
so as effectually to prevent such breeding.
A.Â
Every owner of a dwelling containing two or more dwelling
units shall maintain in a clean and sanitary condition the shared or public
areas of the dwelling and premises thereof.
B.Â
Every occupant of a dwelling or dwelling unit shall maintain
in a clean and sanitary condition that part or those parts of the dwelling,
dwelling unit and premises thereof that he occupies and controls.
C.Â
Every occupant of a dwelling containing a single dwelling
unit shall be responsible for the extermination of insects, and/or rodents,
on the premises; and every occupant of a dwelling unit in a dwelling containing
more than one dwelling unit shall be responsible for such extermination whenever
his dwelling unit is the only one infested. Notwithstanding, the foregoing
provisions of this subsection, whenever infestation is caused by failure of
the owner to maintain a dwelling in a rodent-proof or reasonable insect-proof
condition, exterminations shall be the responsibility of the owner. Whenever
infestation exists in two or more of the dwelling units in any dwelling, or
in the shared or public parts of any dwelling containing two or more dwelling
units, extermination shall be the responsibility of the owner.
A.Â
Any dwelling, building, structure, accessory structure,
premises or any other place may be required to be vector-proofed when found
to be providing harborage or breeding areas for rats, flies, mosquitoes, or
any other vectors.
B.Â
It shall be unlawful for the owner, occupant, contractor,
public utility company, plumber, or any other person to remove and fail to
restore in like condition the vector-proofing from any building, structure
or accessory structure for any purpose.
A program plan and specifications for private vector control programs
may be required to be submitted to the municipality as deemed necessary by
the Board of Supervisors or such township official who may from time to time
be designated by the Board to administer this chapter. Said program plan shall
be submitted by the owner or agent of the property on or in which said vector
control program is or will be conducted. The program plan shall state the
type of vectors to be controlled, the name of the company contracted to carry
out the program, and any and all work to be conducted in an effort to control
said vectors. If, after review of the program plan, it is found to be inadequate
or incomplete, additional information may be required as well as additional
control methods.
A.Â
From and after passage of this chapter, the interior
and exterior of all dwellings, buildings, structures, and accessory structures,
premises, collections of water, or any other places shall be subject to inspection
by agents of the township to determine full compliance with this chapter and
to determine evidence of vector infestation and the need for vector-proofing
or additions or repairs to existing vector-proofing.
B.Â
Whenever it shall be determined that any dwelling, building,
structure, accessory structure, premises, collection of water, or any other
place is in violation of this chapter, a notice shall be issued setting forth
the alleged violations, and advising the owner, occupant, operator, or agent
that such violations must be corrected. The time for the correction of said
violations must be given as well as the necessary methods to be employed in
the correction.
C.Â
Whenever said violations shall fail to be corrected within
the time set forth, and an extension of this time is not deemed to be necessary,
the municipality may proceed to abate the said violations in the manner provided
by the law.
Any person, firm or corporation who shall violate any provision(s) of
this chapter shall upon conviction before any District Justice be sentenced
to pay a fine not exceeding $300 plus the cost of prosecution. Each day's
violation shall constitute a separate offense. In default of the payment of
such fine and costs, said person shall undergo imprisonment for a period not
to exceed 30 days.
This chapter shall not repeal, except as specifically inconsistent therewith,
Ordinance No. 1970-1 of the Township of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, referred
to as the "Grass and Weed Ordinance" adopted May 11, 1970.[1] This chapter shall repeal all ordinances or parts of ordinances
which conflict with the provisions of this chapter insofar and only insofar
as they are inconsistent with this chapter.
This chapter may be enforced by the Board of Supervisors of the Township
of Lancaster, or such township official who may from time to time be designated
to enforce this chapter, and who shall be endowed with police powers with
regard to the enforcement of this chapter.
