For the purposes of this article, the word “nuisance” is hereby defined as any person doing an unlawful act, or omitting to perform a duty, or suffering or permitting any condition or thing to be or exist, which act, omission, condition or thing either:
(1) 
Injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health or safety of others;
(2) 
Offends decency;
(3) 
Is offensive to the senses;
(4) 
Unlawfully interferes with, obstructs or tends to obstruct or renders dangerous for passage any public or private street, highway, sidewalk, stream, ditch or drainage;
(5) 
In any way renders other persons insecure in life or the use of property; or
(6) 
Essentially interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life and property, or tends to depreciate the value of the property of others.
(2000 Code, sec. 16-1)
The maintaining, using, placing, depositing, leaving or permitting to be or remain on any public property, specifically, an adjoining alley, easement, or other public way, any of the following items, conditions or actions are hereby declared to be and constitute a nuisance; provided, however, this enumeration shall not be deemed or construed to be conclusive, limiting or restrictive:
(1) 
Objectionable, unsightly grass, weeds or plants not cultivated to grow in rank profusion;
(2) 
Accumulation of rubbish, trash, refuse, junk and other abandoned materials, metals, lumber or other things;
(3) 
Any condition which provides harborage for rats, mice, snakes and other vermin;
(4) 
Any building or other structure which is in such a dilapidated condition that it is unfit for human habitation, or kept in such an unsanitary condition that it is a menace to the health of people residing in the vicinity thereof, or that presents a more than ordinarily dangerous fire hazard in the vicinity where it is located;
(5) 
All unnecessary or unauthorized noises and annoying vibrations, including animal noises;
(6) 
All disagreeable or obnoxious odors and stenches, as well as the conditions, substances or other causes which give rise to the emission or generation of such odors and stenches;
(7) 
The carcasses of animals or fowl not disposed of within a reasonable time after death;
(8) 
The pollution of any public well or cistern, stream, lake, canal or body of water by sewage, dead animals, creamery or industrial waste, or other substances;
(9) 
Any building, structure or other place or location where any activity which is in violation of local, state or federal law is conducted, performed or maintained;
(10) 
Any accumulation of stagnant water permitted or maintained on any lot or piece of ground;
(11) 
Dense smoke, noxious fumes, gas, soot or cinders, in unreasonable quantities.
(12) 
The illegal dumping, discarding or unloading of items such as furniture, appliances, mattresses, carpet or carpet padding, rubbish/brush, tree stumps, trees and limbs, glass, gravel, paper, plastic, rubber, shingles, wheels or tires, vehicle frames, parts, or accessories, residue from the burning of wood, coal, coke and other combustible materials, boxes, brick or broken concrete, debris, junk, any other unsightly or unsanitary matter of whatever nature or any other material constituting a nuisance at any place within the city corporate limits, except at a state-permitted or -approved landfill or at such other place as may be designated by the city or the state.
(2000 Code, sec. 16-2; Ordinance 05-3447, sec. I (16-2), adopted 7/26/05; Ordinance 15-3622 adopted 8/11/15)
It shall be unlawful for any person to cause, permit, maintain or allow the creation or maintenance of a nuisance.
(2000 Code, sec. 16-3)
(a) 
Upon notice to the code enforcement department of any property not meeting the standards set forth in this article, a code enforcement officer shall notify the property owner of the violation.
(b) 
Unless specified otherwise, the city’s notice of violation under this article shall contain the following:
(1) 
An identification, which is not required to be a legal description, of the property in violation of this article;
(2) 
A description of the code violations that occurred on the property;
(3) 
The time period of seven (7) days after the notice date to comply with the provisions of this notice and abate the nuisance;
(4) 
A statement that upon the owner’s failure to abate the nuisance within the time period specified the city may cause the correction and abatement work be done on its own, charging the owner for the expense involved as set out in this article; and
(5) 
A notice that upon the owner’s failure to pay the city such expense, a lien may fix on the property for the expense involved.
(c) 
The city in the notice of a violation shall inform the owner that if the owner commits another violation of the same kind or nature that poses a danger to the public health and safety on or before the first anniversary of the notice date, the city without further notice may correct the violation at the owner’s expense and assess the expenses against the property. If a violation covered by a notice under this subsection occurs within the one-year period, and the city has not been informed in writing by the owner of an ownership change, then the city without notice may take any action permitted by this article to abate the violation and may assess expenses against the property owner.
(d) 
Unless specified otherwise, the notification under this article shall be given by using one of the following methods:
(1) 
Personally delivering written notice to the owner;
(2) 
Certified mail, return receipt requested, addressed to the owner at the owner’s address as recorded in the appraisal district’s records;
(3) 
If personal service cannot be obtained or the owner’s post office address is unknown:
(A) 
Publication in a newspaper of general circulation at least once;
(B) 
Posting the notice on or near the front door of each building on the property to which the violation relates; or
(C) 
Posting the notice on a placard attached to a stake driven into the ground on the property to which the violation relates, if the property contains no buildings.
(e) 
Notices mailed to the property owner shall be addressed to the owner’s address as recorded in the appraisal district records of the appraisal district in which the property is located. If the city mails a notice in accordance with this subsection and subsection (d), and the United States Postal Service returns the notice as “refused” or “unclaimed,” the notice’s validity is not affected, and the notice is considered as delivered. When the known owner is a corporation, notice shall be served or addressed for delivery to the president, vice-president, or registered agent of the corporation. When the corporation shall fail to appoint or maintain a registered agent, or when its officers or registered agent cannot with reasonable diligence be found at the registered office, duplicate copies of the notice may be served on the secretary of state by sending said duplicate copies by certified mail, return receipt requested.
(Ordinance 05-3447, sec. I (16-4), adopted 7/26/05; Ordinance adopting Code)
When a notice to abate or remove any nuisance that may exist upon any property is received, the owner shall have the right, within the time period designated in the abatement order, to appear and meet with a code enforcement officer or his/her designee to show cause why such order should not or cannot be complied with, and the code enforcement officer may, at his/her discretion, give such time extension for the abatement or removal of such nuisance as may be necessary as long as no immediate public health danger exists.
(Ordinance 05-3447, sec. I (16-5), adopted 7/26/05; Ordinance adopting Code)
(a) 
If the owner fails to request a hearing, and if abatement to city code standards does not occur within the time period provided in this article, the city may enter upon such premises and may do such work as necessary or cause the work necessary to abate the violation to be done at the owner’s expense. The costs, charges, and expenses incurred in doing or having such work done or improvements made to the real property shall be a charge to and personal liability of such person. This remedy shall be in addition to the remedy provided for in section 8.02.008.
(b) 
A statement of the costs incurred by the city to bring the property into compliance shall be mailed to the owner or any person(s) having supervision or control of such premises, if the owner or such person in control of the premises has a known mailing address, and, if not known, may be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the city. The statement shall demand payment within thirty (30) days from the date of receipt or publication.
(c) 
If such statement has not been paid within such period, the mayor, the city health authority, or other official designated by the mayor may file a statement of expenses incurred with the county clerk stating the owner’s name, if known, and the legal description of the lot or parcel. The statement of expenses or a certified copy of the statement shall be prima facie proof of the expenses incurred Such statement shall be and the city shall have a privileged lien for expenditures incurred, and this lien shall be second only to tax liens and liens for street improvements, together with ten (10) percent on the delinquent amount from the date such payment is due. The city may foreclose such liens in a proceeding brought in accordance with applicable law. The remedy allowed in this subsection shall not be the city’s sole remedy.
(d) 
The city may assess to the owner of such property a charge for all work done or improvements made as is needed to bring any property into compliance with this code, including an administrative expense as set forth in the master fee schedule. The administrative fee will be charged per lot, tract, parcel of land, or across the adjacent sidewalk, parkway or alley, which is the city's cost in administering the terms of this provision. The fee can be adjusted upon annual review to correspond to the actual cost of providing the applicable services.
(Ordinance 05-3447, sec. I (16-6), adopted 7/26/05; Ordinance 23-3746 adopted 5/23/2023)
(a) 
It shall be unlawful for the owner or tenant of any land within the city to knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal negligence fail to have any grass, weeds, or brush mowed, cut, removed, or otherwise bring property into compliance with the standards set forth in section 8.02.002 above.
(b) 
Upon conviction for violation hereof, the owner shall be fined an amount no less than one hundred dollars ($100.00) and not more than two thousand dollars ($2,000.00) provided, however, in the event a defendant has once previously been convicted under this article, the defendant shall be fined no less than three hundred dollars ($300.00) for a third conviction and for each conviction thereafter. Each day a violation is permitted to exist shall constitute a separate offense.
(Ordinance 05-3447, sec. I (16-8), adopted 7/26/05)