[1960 Code § 8.54.010; amended 1975 Code; Ord. 244, 12-7-1987; Ord. 333, 10-21-1991; Ord. 350, 1-20-1993; Ord. 2012-742, 3-19-2012; Ord. 2013-783, 8-5-2013; Ord. 2013-788, 9-16-2013; Ord. 2015-831, 5-4-2015; Ord. 2017-869, 11-20-2017, eff. 1-1-2018]
It is hereby declared to be a public nuisance:
(A) 
To cause or suffer the carcass of any animal or any offal, filth or noisome substance to be collected or remain upon any premises or place to the prejudice of others.
(B) 
To suffer any premises where any animal is kept to become nauseous, foul or offensive to any neighborhood, family or person.
(C) 
To throw or deposit any offal or other offensive matter or the carcasses of any animal in any watercourse, lake, pond, spring, well, street, alley, public highway, private premises or park of the City.
(D) 
To suffer any cellar, vault, drain, privy, yard or premises to become, from any cause, foul and offensive or injurious to public health.
(E) 
To deposit or permit to remain upon any premises or upon any public street or alley any slops, animal or vegetable matter of any kind which is likely to become putrid or offensive.
(F) 
To permit foul or stagnant water to stand upon any premises to the prejudice of others.
(G) 
To permit the growth upon any premises within the limits of the City any noxious weeds or other vegetation as set forth in Chapter 6 of this title.
(H) 
To corrupt or render unwholesome or impure the water of any spring, river, stream, pond or lake, to the injury or prejudice of others.
(I) 
To obstruct or impede, without legal authority, the passage of any navigable river or waters.
(J) 
To erect, continue or use any building or other place for the exercise of any trade, employment or manufacture, which, by occasioning noxious exhalations, offensive smells or otherwise, is offensive or dangerous to the health of individuals or of the public.
(K) 
To harass, intimidate or threaten any person who is about to sell or lease or has sold or leased a residence or other real property or is about to buy or lease or has bought or leased a residence or other real property, when the harassment, intimidation or threat relates to a person's attempt to sell, buy or lease a residence, or other real property, or refers to a person's sale, purchase or lease of a residence or other real property.
(L) 
To deposit, permit to remain upon, or accumulate on any premises or upon any public street or alley any waste, refuse, trash, garbage, and other deleterious substances. The following words shall have the definitions as herein set forth:
FIREWOOD
Firewood shall constitute a nuisance if it is not located at least eight inches aboveground and stacked on impervious material that will not deteriorate due to the elements of nature; and provided, further, that any piles of firewood must be ventilated to stop the habitation and infestation of rodents, termites and other animals or pests.
INDOOR FURNITURE
Furniture located outside that is not designated or modified to withstand the elements and outdoor use.
REFUSE
Water, rubbish, garbage, trash, furniture, mattresses, box spring, inoperable household appliances, automobile parts, mechanical parts, cans, container, building materials (including, but not limited to, lumber, windows, doors, cement blocks, bricks, broken concrete, piping, and wiring), building equipment (including, but not limited to, scaffolding, wood, and ladders), or any other material of any kind that has been discarded, rejected, cast aside, or thrown away as worthless.
(M) 
Fences which are erected and fabricated of barbed wire within the City limits, except for security fences which exceed the height of six feet from ground level to the top of the nonbarbed wire fence, with the barbed wire only permitted above the six-foot fence.
(N) 
Fences aboveground which are erected and fabricated of wire, so as to conduct electricity.
(O) 
All exposed surfaces marked with graffiti. "Graffiti" shall mean any drawing, inscription, writing, figure or mark upon a wall or other exposed surface, including, but not limited to, any house, garage, rock, bridge, fence, gate, tree, monument, motor vehicle, sidewalk, street, lamppost, street sign, underpass or retaining wall, whether publicly or privately owned, with paint, chalk, dye, ink, pencil, wax or other similar substance or by etching, scratching, cutting, burning or carving without the express consent of the owner of said wall or other exposed surface.
The owner of any real or personal property marked with graffiti must completely remove and/or permanently cover any and all graffiti placed on such real or personal property within seven days of the date the graffiti was placed upon the property.
(P) 
Any building or structure which is unsafe, dilapidated, vacant, abandoned, boarded up or damaged by fire to the extent as not to provide shelter. It is the policy of the City of Lincoln, that the boarding of a building or structure is a temporary solution to prevent unauthorized entry into a vacant building. A vacant building may not remain boarded longer than six months unless an extension of that time is part of a plan approved by the Building and Safety Official. The term "abandoned building" as used in this chapter includes any building or structure, whether completed or not, which has not been occupied for a continuous period of a year and fails to comply with all applicable Building, Housing, Electrical, Fire, and Plumbing Codes.
(Q) 
Buildings Unfit For Human Habitation.
1. 
Any building or part thereof which, by reason of its unsanitary condition, is unfit for human habitation or which otherwise endangers the public health is hereby declared to constitute a public nuisance.
2. 
Any dwelling, dwelling unit or rooming unit, which shall be found to have any of the following defects, shall be deemed to be unfit for human habitation:
(a) 
One which is so damaged, decayed, dilapidated, unsanitary, unsafe or infested with cockroaches, rats or other vermin that it creates a serious health hazard to the health or safety of the occupants or of the public.
(b) 
One from which the required plumbing, heating and lighting facilities have been removed, or from which utilities, i.e., water, gas, electric have been disconnected, destroyed, removed or rendered ineffective.
(c) 
One which, because of its general condition, is unsanitary or otherwise dangerous to the health or safety of the occupants or of the public.
(R) 
Any condition or use of premises or building exteriors which is detrimental to the property of others or which causes or tends to cause substantial diminution in the value of other property in the neighborhood in which such premises are located. The City further finds that vacant and abandoned buildings are unsightly, unsafe and create a hazard for the neighborhood and citizens and have a negative effect on the community.
(S) 
To allow a dead or diseased tree to remain erect, whether on public or private property, in a manner which may be dangerous or detrimental to life and safety of persons residing on the premises or residing in the proximity thereof, all such trees shall be cut down and removed.
(T) 
The feeding of any mammal, including, but not limited to, feral cats, by any means, including hand feeding or placing or setting out of food to be left attended or unattended, which creates or has the potential to create a hazard to public health or safety is hereby declared to be a public nuisance and to be unlawful. If any person places or sets out food that is, in fact, consumed by a wild mammal, that person shall be presumed to have fed a wild mammal.
[1960 Code § 8.54.060]
All scaffolds or other erections used in the erection or repair of any building shall be made secure and sufficiently wide to ensure the safety of persons working thereon or passing thereunder against the falling of the same or of materials placed thereon. Any scaffold or other like erection which may be otherwise erected or constructed shall be deemed a nuisance; and whoever shall erect or use any such insecure or dangerous scaffold or other erection shall, on conviction thereof, be fined not less than $25 nor more than $100, and shall be liable to a like fine for every day thereafter that he shall fail to remedy or abate the same.
[1960 Code § 8.54.070; amended Ord. 713, 7-6-2010]
Whoever shall create, commit, permit or continue a nuisance of any kind or description in, upon or about any private property, or in any public place within the City, which may affect the health, comfort or convenience of persons residing or doing business in the vicinity thereof, shall, upon conviction, be fined in any sum not less than $75 nor more than $500 and for any subsequent violation within one year, the mandatory minimum fine shall be $150. All nuisances not defined by or provided for in this chapter but which are known and provided for by the statutes and laws of this state, or under the common law, are hereby declared to be nuisances, and may be proceeded against under the provisions of this section.
[1960 Code §§ 8.54.080, 8.54.090, 8.54.100; Ord. 2012-742, 3-19-2012]
(A) 
Duty To Abate: It is hereby made the duty, jointly and severally, of every person creating or causing a nuisance, and of every property owner, and of every person in possession or control of any premises upon which any nuisance may be found or maintained, to immediately abate the same.
(B) 
Notice To Abate Nuisance: Whenever any nuisance is found to exist, it shall be lawful for the Mayor, the health officer or the Chief of Police to serve or cause to be served, by any policeman or assistant, a notice, written or printed, or partly written and partly printed, upon the person or persons whose duty it is above declared to be, to abate such nuisance, directing such person or persons to abate the same within a reasonable time to be stated in said notice; provided, that nothing herein shall operate to abridge the right of the City to sue for the penalties incurred without first giving such notice.
(C) 
Abatement By City: If such person, after being served with notice as provided in the foregoing subsection, shall not within the time specified in the notice abate such nuisance, the same shall be abated by the officers of the City, and an accurate account of the expense shall be made, and suit shall forthwith be brought against the person or persons aforesaid, in any court of competent jurisdiction, to recover such expense.
(D) 
Abatement Of Nuisance Through Circuit Court Proceedings: If such person, after being served with notice as provided in the foregoing subsection, shall not, within the time specified in the notice, abate such nuisance, the City shall employ one or more of the following circuit court remedies:
1. 
Prosecute any person violating this chapter to obtain a conviction and assessment of a penalty.
2. 
Obtain a court order directing the defendant or defendants to abate the nuisance under such conditions and circumstances as the court may direct.
3. 
Commence proceedings in court seeking a personal judgment from the owner of such property where the nuisance was abated or removed at the expense of the City.
[1960 Code §§ 8.54.130, 8.54.140]
All Carolina or silver leaf poplar and willow trees, and all other trees of like species, are hereby declared to be a nuisance. Whoever has any of the aforesaid trees upon premises owned, occupied or controlled by him shall cause the same to be removed or deadened. Whoever shall fail or refuse to remove or deaden any such tree, as aforesaid, on conviction, shall be fined not less than $3 nor more than $50, and be subject to a further fine of $3 for each day he shall permit said tree or trees to remain after such conviction. Provided, however, that any person having such trees upon any premises owned, occupied or controlled by him may, in lieu of such destruction of said trees, cause any and all sewers which may be nearer than 100 feet from such trees to be thoroughly cemented so as to prevent the roots of such trees from entering into the same. Said cementing of said sewer shall be done under the direction of the street superintendent of the City and be subject to his approval.
Any person who shall hereafter plant, or cause to be planted, any tree or trees of the species mentioned in this section, upon any premises owned, occupied or controlled by him, or upon any lawn or boulevard adjoining such premises, shall be fined not less than $3 nor more than $50 for each offense.
[1960 Code § 8.54.160]
(A) 
It shall be unlawful for any person owning or in charge of any furnace, smokestack or chimney of any building or premises situated in the City to allow the emission of dense smoke therefrom, except for a period or periods aggregating six minutes in any one hour at the time when the firebox is being cleaned out or a new fire is being built therein. Such emission of smoke is hereby declared to be a public nuisance and may be abated as provided in Subsections 7-2-4(B) and (C) of this chapter. Such abatement may be in addition to the fine provided for violation of this section by Section 7-2-8 of this chapter.
(B) 
No person shall cause or allow the escape into the open air within the boundaries of the City from any smokestack or chimney of such quantities of ash dust, fly ash, soot, cinders, acid or other fumes, dirt or other material, or noxious gases in such place or manner so as to cause injury, detriment, nuisance or extraordinary annoyance to any person or to the public, or to endanger the comfort, repose, health or safety of any such person or the public, or in such a manner as to cause or have a natural tendency to cause injury or damage to business or property. Such escape of such materials, gases or fumes is hereby declared to be a public nuisance and may be abated in the manner provided by Subsections 7-2-4(B) and (C) of this chapter. Such abatement may be in addition to the fine provided by Section 7-2-8 of this chapter.
[Ord. 308, 6-19-1990; amended Ord. 465, 3-16-1998; Ord. 713, 7-6-2010]
No person in charge or in the control of the premises, whether as an owner, lessee, tenant, occupant or otherwise, shall allow an inoperable motor vehicle whether on public or private property in view of the general public to remain on their property. Any person in charge of or in control of the premises whether as an owner, lessee, tenant, occupant or otherwise, shall be subject to a fine of not less than $75 nor more than $500 and for any subsequent violation within one year, the mandatory minimum fine shall be $150 for failure to obey a notice received from the City, or its agent, stating that such person is to dispose of any inoperable motor vehicle under his control. The City hereby authorizes a law enforcement agency, to remove after seven days from the issuance of said notice any inoperable motor vehicle or parts thereof. However, nothing in this section shall apply to any motor vehicle that is kept within a building when not in use, to operable historical vehicles over 25 years of age, or to a motor vehicle on the premises of a place engaging in the wrecking or junking of vehicles.
As used in this section, "inoperable motor vehicle" means any motor vehicle from which, for a period of at least seven days, the engine, wheels, or other parts have been removed, or on which the engine, wheels, or other parts have been altered, damaged, or otherwise so treated that the vehicle is incapable of being driven under its own power. "Inoperable motor vehicle" also is any motor vehicle that is unlicensed or unregistered or bears expired, suspended, or revoked registration such to render the operation the same illegal under the laws of the state or the ordinances of the City.
"Inoperable motor vehicle" shall not include a motor vehicle which has been rendered temporarily incapable of being driven under its own power in order to perform ordinary service or repair operations.
[1960 Code § 8.54.110; amended Ord. 713, 7-6-2010]
Whoever shall cause or maintain a public nuisance as aforesaid, and whoever being the owner of, or in possession or control of, any premises upon which any such nuisance is found, maintained or suffered to exist, shall be subject to a fine of not less than $75 nor more than $500 and for any subsequent violation within one year, the mandatory minimum fine shall be $150 for each offense. And, likewise, any of the persons aforesaid who, after being served with notice as specified in Subsection 7-2-4(B) of this chapter, shall fail to abate any such nuisance within the time stated in such notice shall be subject to a like penalty as above prescribed, and a further penalty in like amount for each day the same is suffered to remain after the expiration of the time specified in the notice.