Cross References: As to dangerous buildings as a nuisance, Ch. 505; as to prostitution houses deemed a nuisance, § 210.1390.
A. 
The following are declared to be nuisances affecting health:
1. 
All decayed or unwholesome food offered for sale to the public or offered to the public at no charge.
2. 
All diseased animals running at large.
3. 
All ponds or pools of stagnant water.
4. 
Carcasses of dead animals not buried or destroyed within twenty-four (24) hours after death.
5. 
Accumulations, wheresoever they may occur, of manure, rubbish, garbage, refuse and human and industrial, noxious or offensive waste, except the normal storage on a farm of manure for agricultural purposes.
6. 
Garbage cans which are not flytight, that is, garbage cans which do not prevent the entry of flies, insects and rodents.
7. 
The pollution of any well, cistern, spring, underground water, stream, lake, canal or body of water by sewage or industrial wastes, or other substances harmful to human beings.
8. 
Dense smoke, noxious fumes, gas and soot, or cinders in unreasonable quantities, or the presence of any gas, vapor, fume, smoke, dust or any other toxic substance on, in or emitted from the equipment of any premises in quantities sufficient to be toxic, harmful or injurious to the health of any employee or to any premises, occupant or to any other person.
9. 
Common drinking cups, roller towels, combs, brushes or eating utensils in public or semipublic places where not properly sanitized after use.
10. 
Any vehicle used for septic tank cleaning which does not meet the requirements of this Chapter of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Glasgow.
11. 
Any vehicle used for garbage or rubbish disposal which is not equipped with a watertight metal body and provided with a tight metal cover or covers and so constructed as to prevent any of the contents from leaking, spilling, falling or blowing out of such vehicle at any time, except while being loaded, or not completely secured and covered so as to prevent offensive odors from escaping therefrom or exposing any part of the contents at any time.
12. 
Any and all infestations of flies, fleas, roaches, lice, ticks, rats, mice, fly maggots, mosquito larvae and hookworm larvae.
13. 
The keeping of animals and fowls in any area within the City not zoned for agricultural uses except pet cats and dogs, animals in public or licensed zoos, and farm animals in laboratories.
14. 
Unlicensed dumps and licensed dumps not operated or maintained in compliance with the ordinances of the City of Glasgow and the Statutes of the State of Missouri.
15. 
No person shall discharge or cause to be discharged into a stormwater system any waste materials, liquids, vapor, fat, gasoline, benzene, naphtha, oil or petroleum product, mud, straw, lawn clippings, tree limbs or branches, metal or plastic objects, rags, garbage or any other substance which is capable of causing an obstruction to the flow of the storm system or interfering with the proper operation of the system or which will pollute the natural creeks or waterways.
16. 
All other acts, practices, conduct, business, occupation callings, trades, uses of property and all other things detrimental or certain to be detrimental to the health of the inhabitants of the City of Glasgow.
B. 
Unlawful To Cause, Maintain Within City Or One-Half Mile Thereof. It is unlawful for any owner, lessee or occupant or any agent, servant, representative or employee of any such owner, lessee or occupant having control of any occupied lot or land or any part thereof in the City of Glasgow or within one-half (1/2) mile of the corporate limits of the City of Glasgow, Missouri, to cause, permit or maintain a nuisance on any such lot or land. Additionally, it is unlawful for any person or his/her agent, servant, representative or employee to cause or maintain a nuisance on the land or property of another with or without permission. Each day that a nuisance shall be maintained as a separate offense.
C. 
Authority To Abate Emergency Cases. In cases where it reasonably appears that there is an immediate danger to the health, safety or welfare of the public due to the existence of a nuisance, the City shall have authority to immediately abate the nuisance in an appropriate manner.
D. 
Abatement — Procedure Generally. Whenever the Board of Aldermen receives notification that a nuisance may exist, it shall proceed as follows, except as may be otherwise provided herein:
1. 
It Shall Investigate The Same. The Board of Aldermen may order any person who has caused or is maintaining the nuisance to appear before the Board of Aldermen at such time and place as the Board of Aldermen may direct to show cause, if any, why that person should not abate the nuisance. Every person required to appear before the Board of Aldermen shall have at least ten (10) days' notice thereof.
2. 
Such notice shall be signed by the Health Officer or Chief of Police and shall be served upon that person by delivering a copy thereof to the person, or by leaving a copy at his/her residence with some member of the family or household over fifteen (15) years of age, or upon any corporation by delivering the copy thereof to the President or to any other officer at any business office of the corporation within the City. If the notice cannot be given for the reason that the person named in the notice or his/her agent cannot be found in the City, of which fact the return upon such notice of the officer serving the same shall be conclusive evidence, such notice shall be published in a daily newspaper for three (3) consecutive days, if a daily, or once, if a weekly paper, giving at least ten (10) days' notice from the final publication date of the time fixed for the parties to appear before the Board of Aldermen.
3. 
If after hearing all the evidence the Board of Aldermen may determine that a nuisance exists, it may direct the Health Officer or Chief of Police or other City Official to order the person to abate the nuisance within twenty (20) days or within such other time as the Board of Aldermen may deem reasonable. Such order shall be served in the manner provided in this Section for service of the order to show cause. The order may further provide that the appropriate City Official be directed to abate the nuisance if the order is not obeyed within the time period set by the Board of Aldermen, and that a special tax bill be issued for the costs of abating the nuisance.
4. 
If the order has not been obeyed within the time period set by the Board of Aldermen, the appropriate City Official shall proceed to abate the nuisance in the manner provided by the order of the Board of Aldermen, and the cost of same, if ordered by the Board of Aldermen, may be assessed as a special tax against the property so improved or upon which such work was done; and, if so ordered, the City Clerk shall cause a special tax bill therefor against the owner thereof when known, and if not known then against the unknown persons, and the certified bills of such assessment shall describe therein the property upon which the work was done.
5. 
The bills for the above work shall be recorded and shall be collected and paid as provided for the collection of other special tax bills for the repairing of sidewalks or grading or paving of streets and shall be a lien on the property.
6. 
The cost of abating nuisances on private property shall be levied and assessed on each lot in proportion to the amount of work done and material used in abating the nuisance located on each such lot.
[Ord. No. 3230, 6-25-2012]
The following terms, as used in this Article, unless the context specifically indicates otherwise, are defined as follows:
ABATEMENT
The removal, stoppage, prostration, or destruction of that which causes or constitutes a violation or nuisance, whether by breaking or pulling it down, or otherwise destroying, effacing it, or having it hauled away. If abatement is most effective by changing the type of plants in a given location, such as on steep slopes or on highly erodible soil, abatement can be achieved in steps, approved by the enforcement officer as to method and time, to achieve acceptable ground cover that would comply with this Article.
DEBRIS
Includes weed or grass cuttings, cut, fallen, or hazardous trees, limbs, and shrubs, rubbish and trash, lumber not piled or stacked twelve (12) inches off the ground, rocks or bricks, tin, steel, parts of derelict cars or trucks or other vehicles or machinery, or broken furniture, or any other material which is found on any lot or land that is unhealthy or unsafe, which may endanger public health or safety.
NOXIOUS PLANTS
Illegal vegetation as defined by Missouri Law or any agency of the State of Missouri: poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac at any height or state of maturity.
OWNER
As used in this Article shall include the real and actual owner of the fee title, the life tenant, occupant, tenant, lessee, tenant at will, tenant at sufferance, person in lawful possession, adverse possessor, and any other person, firm, partnership, corporation, or association asserting control over or having any right, title, or interest in any lot, tract, or parcel of land in the City. The land records filed in the office of the Recorder of Deeds of the County within which any such lot, tract, or parcel of land shall be located, and any other official record of such County or of the City, may be used to determine the identity of such owners, as hereinabove defined, as of any given date.
THICKETS OR BRUSH
Dense growth of wild shrubbery having stems or trunks greater than one-half (1/2) inch in diameter; and briar patches regardless of diameter.
WEEDS
All vegetation eight (8) inches or more in height, including grasses; all vegetation eight (8) inches or more in height, which may emit unpleasant or noxious odors or transmit pollen into the air at any state of maturity; all vegetation, regardless of height, including thickets, which may conceal or invite filthy deposits, harbor rodents, refuse, or vermin, create a fire hazard, or present a blighting effect on the neighborhood.
[Ord. No. 3230, 6-25-2012]
A. 
The presence on land within the City of debris of any kind, or weeds, or noxious plants, or thickets, or brush as defined in this Article, unless specifically excepted, is hereby declared to be a public nuisance and is prohibited, unlawful, a violation of this Article, and subject to abatement.
B. 
Prohibited vegetation is meant to exclude shade trees, growths of timber, ornamental shrubs, fruit trees, domesticated berry bushes and vines, cultivated flowers and gardens, cover crops and domestic grains on lots and land within the City except where the plant's location or condition constitutes a menace to the safety, health, or welfare of the public or adjoining land owners by reasons that such conditions may:
1. 
Cause a fire hazard or other safety hazard.
2. 
Furnish cover for prowlers and illegal activities.
3. 
Create shelters and breeding places for rodents, disease-carrying insects, poisonous snakes, and other vermin.
4. 
Result in the aggravation of allergies of persons living within fifty (50) feet.
5. 
Obstruct visibility at street intersections.
C. 
Notwithstanding the definitions set forth and the exceptions to enforcement given, the enforcement officer shall have additional discretion to find vegetation to be either in violation or in conformity with this Article using the following guidelines:
1. 
The proximity of the vegetation to public sidewalks, streets, traveled alleys, and dwellings on adjoining property.
2. 
The slope of the land upon which the plant exists and the possibility of encouraging soil erosion if the vegetation is removed.
3. 
The accessibility to the plant by machines necessary to effectively control the plant.
4. 
The type of plant (the reason being that some plants may be less offensive than others, and that if accessibility to a piece of land for effective control is an issue, then different ground cover should be planted or nurtured or kept on that ground).
5. 
The location of the land on which the plants are growing, taking into consideration the general use of the land, thereby giving liberal deference to owners of agricultural land within the City, City parks, and industrial land.
6. 
The frequency and amount of rainfall which could reasonably delay timely control of the plant.
[Ord. No. 3230, 6-25-2012]
It shall be the owner's obligation to keep owner's land within the City free of any nuisance prohibited by this Article without notice from the City. If any such nuisance as defined by this Article is permitted or maintained on the owner's property and owner fails to abate such nuisance, failure to abate the nuisance shall be unlawful. If more than one (1) person owns the property on which the nuisance is alleged to exist, each owner may be declared to be in violation of this Article and each shall be liable for failure to abate the nuisance.
[Ord. No. 3230, 6-25-2012]
A. 
Enforcement of this Article shall be the responsibility of the City Building Inspector or such other employee or agent of the City designated by the Mayor to do the task. Enforcement shall commence by providing notice to the owner of the property, or the owner's agent, of the nuisance condition existing on his/her/its property. The notice may be delivered by personal service within the City, or by posting such notice on the premises, or by United States mail.
1. 
The notice shall generally describe the nature of the violation, the location of the property (using the mailing or popular address rather than a legal description, when reasonably possible to do so); and
2. 
The notice shall set a hearing on the alleged violation on a date and at a time more than ten (10) days after date of notice. The place of hearing shall be set forth in the notice.
[Ord. No. 3230, 6-25-2012]
A. 
The hearing on the nuisance alleged in the notice shall be conducted as follows:
1. 
The City Administrator, or Mayor, or the Mayor's delegate shall conduct the hearing, take evidence, and examine witnesses as the hearing officer, and shall declare whether a nuisance exists.
2. 
If, after the hearing, the hearing officer confirms that a nuisance exists, the hearing officer shall have authority to order that the owner abate the nuisance within five (5) days.
3. 
If the condition declared a nuisance is not abated within the five (5) days, the Mayor or other City employee or agent so delegated by the Mayor shall abate the nuisance and certify the costs of same to the City Clerk, who shall cause a special tax bill thereof against the property to be prepared and to be collected by the Collector with other taxes assessed against the property. The tax bill shall, from the date of its issuance, be a first lien on the property until paid and shall be prima facie evidence of the recitals therein and of its validity and no mere clerical error or informality in the same, or in the proceedings leading up to the issuance, shall be a defense thereto. Each special tax bill shall be issued by the City Clerk and delivered to the collector on or before the first day of June of each year. Such tax bills if not paid when due shall bear interest at the rate of eight percent (8%) per annum.
[Ord. No. 3230, 6-25-2012]
For each abatement process, there shall be a charge of one hundred fifty dollars ($150.00) as an administrative fee for preparation and delivery of required notices and hearing time. The fees for the actual abatement of the violation by the City shall be seventy-five dollars ($75.00) per employee hour for either City employees or for independent contractors hired by the City to abate the violation. That is, if a two-person crew works a total of three (3) hours, the fee shall be for six (6) person-hours at seventy-five dollars ($75.00) per hour, or a total of four hundred fifty dollars ($450.00). If the City does the abatement, in addition to the employee fee there shall be imposed charges for all reasonable expenses incurred by said crew in abating the violation.
[Ord. No. 3230, 6-25-2012]
Each violation of this Article brought to hearing shall be a separate offense and separate abatements costs shall be assessed for each violation even on the same property with the same owners. In addition to administrative fee and actual abatement costs set forth in Section 215.070, any owner found in violation of this Article shall be further punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars ($100.00) and not more than five hundred dollars ($500.00) for each violation.
[Ord. No. 3230, 6-25-2012]
City inspectors, City workers, City officials and their delegates and contractors shall have the right to enter upon private property for the purpose of determining whether a violation of this Article is occurring and to abate any nuisance found on the property.