[R.O. 1952 §§16.1, 16.2; CC 1988 §16-1]
The following words or phrases, when used in this Chapter, shall
have the meanings respectively ascribed to them in this Section:
BOARDING HOUSE
Every building and every story and portion thereof which
is at any time or usually used, leased or occupied, or intended so
to be, by any number of persons exceeding six (6) as boarders thereat.
CELLAR
Every basement or lower story of any building or house of
which one-half (½) or more of the height from the floor to
the ceiling is below the level of the street adjoining.
LODGING HOUSE
Any house or building, or portion thereof, in which persons
are harbored, received or lodged for hire for a single night or for
less than one (1) week at a time, or any part of which is let to any
person to sleep in for any term less than one (1) week.
NUISANCE
Whatever is dangerous to human life or health; whatever building,
or part or cellar thereof, is overcrowded or not provided with adequate
means of ingress or is not sufficiently ventilated, sewered, drained,
lighted or cleaned; and whatever renders soil, air, water or food
impure or unwholesome.
TENEMENT HOUSE
Every house, building or portion thereof which is rented,
leased, let or hired out to be occupied, or is occupied as the house,
home or residence of more than three (3) families living independently
of one another and doing their cooking upon the premises, or by more
than two (2) families upon a floor, so living and cooking, but having
a common right in the halls, stairways, yards, water closets or privies,
or some of them.
[R.O. 1952 §16.3; CC 1988 §16-2; Ord. No. 3314 §1, 8-18-1997; Ord. No. 3529 §1, 7-21-2003; Ord. No. 3898 §1, 8-15-2011]
A. The
following are hereby deemed, declared and defined to be nuisances:
1. Foul odors. All substances which emit or cause any
foul, noxious, unhealthy or disagreeable odor or effluvium in the
neighborhood where they exist.
2. Carcasses. All carcasses of animals remaining exposed
after death, except such animals as are killed for use as food.
3. Hides. All green or salted hides left or exposed
in any open place for a longer period than six (6) hours.
4. Foul liquids. All slop, foul or dirty water, all
filth, refuse or offal discharged through drains or spouts or otherwise
thrown, swept or deposited in or upon any street, avenue, sidewalk,
alley, lot, park, public or private enclosure, or any stagnant pond
or pool of water.
5. Things causing annoyance. All articles or things
whatsoever caused, kept, maintained or permitted by any person to
the injury, inconvenience or annoyance of the public or of any neighborhood.
6. Acts dangerous to life or detrimental to health. The doing of any act which is dangerous to human life or detrimental
to the health of any person, and all pursuits followed or engaged
in or acts done by any person to the injury, annoyance or inconvenience
of the public or of any neighborhood.
7. Hanging devices. All hanging signs, ropes, network
or other devices stretched over or across any street, avenue, alley
or sidewalk, unless the same is permitted by law or ordinance.
8. Waste materials. All ashes, cinders, slops, filth,
excrement, sawdust, stones, rocks, dirt, straw, soot, sticks, shavings,
oyster shells, cans, dust, paper, trash, rubbish, manure, refuse and
offal, waste water, chamber lye, fish, putrid meat, entrails, decayed
fruit and vegetables, broken ware, rags, old iron or other metal,
old wearing apparel, all animal or vegetable matter, all dead animals,
or any other offensive or disagreeable substance or thing thrown,
left or deposited or caused to be thrown, left or deposited by anyone
in or upon any street, avenue, alley, sidewalk, park, public or private
enclosure, vacant or occupied lot, pond, or pool of water.
9. Burning certain materials. The burning within the
City limits of any animal, vegetable or other substance, the burning
of which creates or generates any disagreeable, noxious or unwholesome
smell or odor.
10. Stables, hog pens, etc. No person shall, in this
City, own, keep or use any livestock pen, place on premises, in or
upon which any number of horses, cattle, swine, sheep, goats, ratite
birds, including, but not limited to, ostrich and emu, shall be so
kept as to be offensive to those residing in the vicinity thereof
or an annoyance to the public. Any violation of the provisions of
this Section shall be deemed a nuisance.
11. Defecating or urinating in public view. Defecating
or urinating upon the streets, alleys, public grounds, parks or upon
any premises, or in any place that may be seen from a private residence
or other building, or by any person passing along a public thoroughfare,
or where any such act may be in view of the public.
12. Unnecessary noises. The making of any unusual and
unnecessary noise and the maintenance thereof, or the carrying on
of any business or amusement in such manner as to annoy, inconvenience
or disturb any person or neighborhood or impair the health or comfortable
enjoyment of home or property of any person.
13. Polluting water supply. The doing of any act which
shall tend to pollute or contaminate the water supply of the City.
14. Permitting accumulations on lots. The accumulation
on any lot or piece of ground in the City of any refuse matter in
such a manner as to be offensive or be injurious to the health of
any person or of the neighborhood.
15. Offensive water. Any lot or piece of ground within
the City on which there is a pond or pool of unwholesome, stagnant,
impure or offensive water.
16. Cisterns and wells. Any well or cistern on any property
within the corporate limits, whenever a chemical analysis shows that
the water of such well or cistern is of an impure or unwholesome nature.
17. Dust, feathers, etc. Sieving, agitating, handling
or exposing lime, ashes, coal, dry sand, hair, feathers, dust or other
substances liable to be thrown by the wind to the injury, annoyance
or inconvenience of the public or of any neighborhood.
18. Unsanitary buildings. Any building or part thereof
which, by reason of its unsanitary condition or of being infected
with disease, is unfit for human habitation, or which from any other
cause is a source of sickness among the inhabitants of this City,
or which otherwise endangers the public health.
19. Sexually oriented business. Any premises, building,
dwelling or other structure in which a sexually oriented business
is repeatedly operated or maintained in violation of Title VI of this
Code.
20. Debris. Debris of any kind, weed cuttings, cut,
fallen, or hazardous trees and shrubs, overgrown vegetation and noxious
weeds which are seven (7) inches or more in height, rubbish and trash,
lumber not piled or stacked twelve inches off the ground, rocks or
bricks, tin, steel, parts of derelict cars or trucks, broken furniture,
any flammable material which may endanger public safety or any material
or condition which is unhealthy or unsafe.
[Ord. No. 4071 §1, 8-15-2016]
[R.O. 1952 §16.4; CC 1988 §16-3]
Every act or thing done or made, permitted, allowed or continued
on any property, public or private, by any person to the damage or
injury of any of the inhabitants of this City, and not specified in
the preceding Section or any other Section of this Chapter, shall
be deemed a nuisance.
[R.O. 1952 §16.9; CC 1988 §16-8]
No butcher or other person shall kill or slaughter any beeves,
hogs, sheep or other animals within this City unless the house, yard,
pen or place where such killing shall take place is provided with
a floor sufficiently tight and solid to prevent its becoming a receptacle
of filth or offensive matter. The floor, in every case, shall be constructed
with a descent toward the gutter which shall pass through the same
and lead to a public, district or private sewer. No slaughtering shall
be done in any slaughterhouse not provided with a sewer connection
or with sufficient tubs which shall be emptied daily. No animals shall
be slaughtered in any other place than a slaughterhouse or place so
constructed for that purpose. Any violation of the provisions of this
Section shall be deemed a nuisance.
[R.O. 1952 §16.11; CC 1988 §16-10; Ord. No. 3889 §1, 6-20-2011]
The owner, agent or occupant of any house, building, lot or
parcel of land in the City, in or upon which trees, hedges or shrubs
are standing, shall trim or cause to be trimmed the branches from
same so that there shall be a clear height of nine (9) feet above
the surface of any sidewalk and a clear height of thirteen (13) feet
above the surface of the roadway, street or alley, unobstructed by
branches. Such owner shall remove from such trees all dead, decayed
or broken limbs or branches that overhang any public highway, street,
alley or other public place so that they shall not project over the
sidewalk, street, alley or other public highway. All branches of trees
or limbs or branches thereof upon any such premises or in or over
the parkway in front of such premises are hereby declared to be nuisances.
[R.O. 1952 §16.25; CC 1988 §16-24]
In all matters affecting the health of the inhabitants of the
City, the provisions of this Chapter shall extend to and become operative
and effective outside of and within one-half (½) mile of the
City limits and shall also extend to and become operative and effective
in all parks owned by the City, whether within or outside the City
limits.
[CC 1988 §16-25; Ord. No. 3277 §1, 8-30-1996; Ord. No. 4104, 9-18-2017]
A. The
owner of any lot or land, place or area, or in the case of joint tenancy,
tenancy by entireties or tenancy in common, each owner thereof, or
the lessee or agent of such owner, shall not permit on any lot or
land, place or area, or upon any sidewalk abutting the same any nuisance
as set forth in this Article.
B. Whenever
private property abuts a public right-of-way or easement and their
exists in such right-of-way or easement a tree, lawn or landscaped
area between the private property line and the edge of the street
pavement, then such tree, lawn or landscaped area shall be considered,
for purposes in this Section, to be part of the private lot which
abuts the right-of-way or easement, and it shall be the duty of those
responsible under this Section for the maintenance of the private
lot to equally maintain the tree, lawn or landscaped area within the
abutting right-of-way or easement. Whenever the public right-of-way
or easement includes an island with a tree, lawn or landscaped area,
then such tree, lawn or landscaped area shall likewise by considered
for purposes of this Section to be part of the common ground to be
maintained by the homeowner association or subdivision trustees of
the surrounding area or, if none, then part of the private lots with
the frontage on the circular roadway area surrounding the island to
be maintained jointly by the owners of such lots. Such requirement
shall not apply to landscaped areas for which the City or another
governmental entity regularly conducts maintenance.
[CC 1988 §§16-26 — 16-27; Ord. No. 3277 §1, 8-30-1996; Ord. No. 3314 §1, 8-18-1997; Ord. No. 4071 §2, 8-15-2016]
A. Before
the City takes action to abate the nuisance, the City Manager, or
the designee of the City Manager, shall give notice of the violation
to the owner of the property and, if the property is not owner/occupied,
to any occupant of the property by written notice which will include
the following:
1. A specific description of the lot or land declared to be a public
nuisance.
2. A specific description of what action will remedy the public nuisance.
3. Stating a reasonable time, not less than ten (10) days, in which
to abate or commence removal of each condition identified in the notice.
B. The
written notice set forth in this Section shall be given by personal
service or by first class mail to both the occupant of the property
at the property address and the owner of the property at the last
known address of the owner, if not the same.
C. Upon
the failure of the owner or occupant to pursue the removal or abatement
of such nuisance without unnecessary delay, the City Manager, or the
designee of the City Manager, may cause the condition which constitutes
the nuisance to be removed or abated.
[CC 1988 §16-28; Ord. No. 3277 §1, 8-30-1996; Ord. No. 3314 §1, 8-18-1997; Ord. No. 3932 §1, 3-19-2012; Ord. No. 4071 §3, 8-15-2016]
The City Manager, or the designee of the City Manager, shall
cause the cost of such removal or abatement and the proof of the notice
to the owner of the property to be certified to the City Clerk who
shall cause the certified costs to be included in a special tax bill
or added to the annual real estate tax bill, at the collecting official's
option, for the property and the certified costs shall be collected
by the City Collector or other official collecting taxes in the same
manner and procedure for collecting real estate taxes. If the certified
costs are not paid, the tax bill shall be considered delinquent, and
the collection of the delinquent bill shall be governed by the laws
governing delinquent and back taxes; and the tax bill from the date
of its issuance shall be deemed a personal debt against the owner
and shall also be a lien on the property until paid.
[R.O. 1952 §16.31; CC 1988 §16-30]
Nothing in this Chapter shall be so construed as to interfere
with the duties and powers of the County Board of Health or the Health
Inspector in the condemnation and abatement of all matters defined
by law as nuisances.
[R.O. 1952 §16.32; CC 1988 §16-31]
For the purpose of carrying the provisions of this Chapter into
effect, it shall be the duty of the City Manager or his/her authorized
representative to make or cause to be made, from time to time, and
whenever required by the County Board of Health, a thorough and systematic
examination of the City in order that he/she may ascertain the location
or whereabouts of any existing nuisance and the name of any person
causing, suffering or permitting the same to exist.
[R.O. 1952 §16.34; CC 1988 §16-33; Ord. No. 3277 §2, 8-30-1996]
The remedies set forth in Sections
220.080 through
220.090 shall be in addition to an action against the owner or owners, or the lessees or agents of such owner, in Municipal Court for violation of this Chapter. Any property owner or owners, or the lessees or agents of such owner, allowing or maintaining any nuisance on property in violation of this Chapter shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and may be punished as provided in Section
100.090 of this Code. Each day of violation shall be deemed a separate offense.