This chapter uses the following definitions:
Ceasing the care or maintenance thereof, or to intentionally leave behind.
To eliminate or cure by removal, repair, rehabilitation, or demolition.
An aerosolized paint product, including a clear or pigmented lacquer or finish.
Any narrow street used primarily for vehicular service to the back or side of properties otherwise abutting on a street and having no legal or official name other than alley. An alley includes property within the limits of a designated alley as reflected in the county real estate records for the city including, but not limited to, utility and other easements within the boundaries of an alley.
A container that is composed of durable material and designed to prevent the discharge of its contents and to make its contents inaccessible to animals, vermin, or other pests.
A depression along the side of a road that is intended to convey storm water from the roadway.
Damaged or neglected conditions, housing/surroundings of a deteriorated nature which constitute a nuisance under the provisions of this chapter.
Any low woody vegetation, dense undergrowth, decaying scrub vegetation or the dead remains of such.
A structure built for the support, shelter, or enclosure of a person, chattel, machine, equipment, or other movable property.
Dead and putrefying flesh of any animal, fowl, or fish.
The City of Petersburg, Texas, a type A general-law municipality.
Vegetation that is deliberately grown and currently and continuously maintained by the owner, occupant, or agent of the property.
Any fence in a dilapidated or improper state of repair that causes a safety or health concern. It includes any fencing that by its age or deteriorating condition lists, leans, buckles, or is broken or has exposed pieces projecting, protruding, or laying in a manner which could fall or be hazardous to persons walking or driving along public property including along streets or rights-of-way or public easements; fencing that by improper position in or near the ground is situated in such a manner as to offer harborage to vermin; fencing that is damaged by animals or by other means such that the fence condition is unsafe and deleterious to the livability of the neighborhood; any eight foot (8') section of a fence that is more than fifteen degrees (15°) out of vertical alignment or that has ten percent (10%) of its pickets or structural components either damaged, missing or rotted.
For the purpose of this chapter, easement shall mean a grant by a property owner to the public or other entity for the use of a defined strip of land, for such purpose as the installation, maintenance, and/or repair of utility lines, or other public services whose ownership and care of the land encompassed by such easement is maintained by the property owner.
Any soil, gravel, rock, brick, concrete, mortar, or other similar material brought to property to solidify the ground’s foundation or increase elevation.
Any matter in a putrescent (rotting or decaying) state.
All decayable wastes, including, but not limited to, vegetable, animal and fish offal (waste parts especially of a butchered animal) and carcasses of such animals and fish, and shall include all such substances from all public and private establishments and from all residences.
Any unauthorized inscription, drawing, word, signature, symbol or other marking of any sort which is etched, scratched, written, painted, drawn or applied in any other way to any structure, fence, wall, building or property of any sort or to any portion or element thereof, whether the property is public or private that is visible from public rights-of-way, walking paths, sidewalks, bike paths or on premises open to the public.
Impure or unwholesome matter shall mean any putrescible or nonputrescible condition, object, or matter which tends, may or could produce injury, death, or disease to human beings.
All worn out, useless, worthless, discarded, or reusable or scrap material including, but not limited to, odds and ends, old metal, lumber, barrels, bottles, discarded toys, inoperable bicycles, building debris or old building materials, used tires, used rims, tin, vehicle parts, batteries, vehicle chassis, inoperable farm equipment and machinery, water tanks, oil tanks, fuel tanks, pickup beds, slide in campers and boxes for pickups, vehicle oilfield equipment, oilfield pipe, oilfield parts, construction equipment, plastic tanks, lighting fixtures, pipe trailers containing pipe or scrap iron, barrels, trash cans, forklifts, waste oil containers, lumber, plywood, pallets, wire spools, grills, smokers, barbeques, air conditioners, washers, dryers, water heaters, microwaves, stoves, refrigerators, freezers, golf carts, pieces or parts of recreational vehicles or campers/camper shells, slide in campers, bed covers for pickups, golf carts or portions of golf carts, roof sections, fence sections, cinder blocks, concrete blocks, bricks, stones, pressure tanks, liquid propane tanks, swing sets, play sets, and other items no longer used in the manner in which they were intended, including but not limited to, furniture, working and nonworking appliances, machinery, machinery parts, iron, roofing materials, glass, paper, cordage, vehicles (not limited to unregistered, inoperative, or dismantled vehicles), trailer frames, vehicle frames, machinery frames, pieces of machinery or vehicles (which are in a nonfunctioning state or condition), poles, posts, fencing materials, used windows, used doors, wire, sinks, toilets, basins, concrete, metal roof sheeting, and bags of trash or waste. The term junk includes scrap as defined herein.
Any vegetation, landscape, trees, bushes, shrubs, vines, brush or ground cover, or plants, that due to lack of trimming, pruning, or shaping or other neglect is in an unsafe state of disrepair. Landscape in an unsafe state of disrepair may include trees, shrubs, vines, brush, or ground cover that presents a safety hazard due to death or disease or damage to the landscaping material.
All garbage, refuse, and rubbish, as defined herein, and all other material which, if thrown or deposited as herein prohibited, tends to create a danger to public health, safety and welfare. The term also includes any garbage, rubbish, or refuse which creates a nuisance or potential danger to public health, safety and welfare if not deposited in an approved receptacle.
The discarding of garbage, paper, and other forms of refuse in any place other than in officially designated refuse containers, trashcans, or disposal units.
Watered, pruned, trimmed, treated, and controlled in such a manner as to enhance the use or enjoyment of one’s property, without interfering with the enjoyment of use of neighboring property or public access.
Whatever is dangerous to human life, safety, welfare, or health renders the ground, the water, the air, or any food or drink unwholesome, creates blighted conditions, or is a hazard to human life and health is a nuisance. The term also includes any condition or occurrence potentially dangerous or detrimental to any member or members of the public including conditions which are unsafe, potentially unsafe, obstruct the free use or enjoyment of property, dangerous to human life or health, and contribute to urban blight. It also includes any condition determined by any code enforcement official, city manager, or chief of police of the city, or their designees, to be a nuisance.
Material used for screening from view a vehicle, boat, trailer, or other item that is torn, defective, or worn or is not fitted and manufactured for a specific vehicle.
Any matter, condition, or object which is unsanitary or objectionable to a person of ordinary sensitivities.
Any person living or sleeping in a building or having possession of a space within a building.
The open storage or placement of an item on any premises or property which is not entirely enclosed by a building and is visible from any public street or right-of-way.
Any person, agent, firm, partnership, corporation, trust, association, family, group, cooperative, or owner’s agent. It also includes the singular and plural. It includes any of the foregoing named entities or individuals that have some interest in title to real property or any occupant or interest holder having an interest in any lot, tract, parcel of land, or any building or portion thereof.
Any individual, firm, partnership, corporation, association, family, group, occupant, owner’s agent, officer, lessee, renter, or tenant. The term also includes any executors, administrators, parents, and guardians.
Every species of property, except real property as defined below.
A lot, plot, tract or parcel of land including the buildings or structures thereon. The term includes a yard, ground, walk, driveway, fence, porch, steps, or other structures appurtenant to the property. The term includes the front or side parkway between the property lines or sidewalks and the curb or travel way and the rear or side parkway between the property line and the centerline of an adjacent alley, plus any and all utility and/or drainage easements.
Any premises, personal or real property.
The allowance of, or the maintaining of, an unlawful condition, act, or use of any property or premises affecting the public’s life, health, safety, or general welfare within the city limits.
Any place to which the public or substantial group of the public has access and includes, but is not limited to, streets, alleys, parkways, sidewalks, highways, and common areas of schools, hospitals, apartment houses, office buildings, transport facilities, and shops.
The term includes land and whatever is erected or growing upon or affixed to the land.
That area of a lot circumscribed by the back lot line, the side lot lines extending to imaginary lines perpendicular from the back corners of the residential structure, and the back side of the residential structure.
All solid waste (except body waste), including garbage, rubbish, ashes, street cleanings, dead animals, and solid materials and industrial wastes. The term includes all other decayable and nondecayable waste, including vegetable, animal and fish carcasses. The term also shall mean a heterogeneous accumulation of worn out, used, broken, rejected, or worthless materials and includes garbage, litter, paper, and rubbish.
All nondecayable wastes from all public and private establishments and residences.
A small piece of something, especially, one that is left after the greater part has been used. Retired, old, or inoperable. Discarded waste material, especially metal suitable for reprocessing. Discarded or leftover material that can be used in some way. Material to be discarded as worthless or to be sold to be reused as parts.
A barrier at least six (6) feet in height of stone, brick, pierced brick or block, uniformly colored wood or other permanent material which forms a visual barrier of equal character, density and design; provided, however, any such structure in excess of eight (8) feet in height shall be deemed a wall subject to the provisions of the International Residential Code and International Building Code which have been adopted by the city.
The area behind an imaginary line extending perpendicularly from the front corner of the residential structure to the side lot line, extending to an imaginary line perpendicular to the side lot line which touches the back corner of the residential structure closest to the side lot line at which point the “rear yard” begins.
The top layer of soil that is removed when a lot is graded or prepared for construction.
All nondecayable waste.
Without the permission of the owner or person in control of property, whether public or private.
Tracts of land, parcels of land, or lots upon which no structure exists.
Grass, weeds, shrubs, trees, brush, bushes, vines, or other plant materials.
Vegetation that because of its height is objectionable, unsightly or unsanitary but excluding cultivated crops, shrubs, bushes, trees, flowers, and vines. The term means any herbage or vegetation.
(Ordinance 318DG adopted 2/10/14)