The title of this chapter is "Public Nuisance Ordinance."
The purpose of this chapter is to regulate, for public health
and safety reasons, the storage, treatment, disposal, discharge, uses
and activities in the Village which constitute a public nuisances.
This chapter is adopted under the authority of §§ 29.038,
66.0407, 66.0413, 125.14, 169.01 and 175.25 and Ch. 823, Wis. Stats.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated:
APPLIANCE
Any household or office device, instrument, utensil, apparatus
or machine that utilizes power, including, but not limited to, any
stove, clothes washer or dryer, refrigerator, dish washer, freezer,
water heater, water pump, furnace, television set, home entertainment
device, computer or peripheral device, or other home or office electronic
device.
BUILDING
Includes any building or structure or any portion of a building
or structure.
DEBRIS
Any litter, junk, wood, bricks, paper, cement, concrete blocks,
or any other unsightly accumulation of items or materials that may
tend to depreciate property values in the adjacent or near area, create
a blighted condition, present a substantial threat to public health
or safety, or create a public nuisance or a public safety or health
hazard, except when such items are determined by the Village Board
to be stored or housed out of public view and are treated and maintained
so as not to be a public nuisance.
EQUIPMENT
Goods used or bought for use primarily in a business, including
farming.
HAZARDOUS WASTE
Any solid waste identified by the State of Wisconsin Department
of Natural Resources as hazardous under § 291.05(2), Wis.
Stats.
JUNK
Scrap metal, metal alloy, wood, concrete, or synthetic or
organic material, or any junked, inoperative, unlicensed or unregistered
vehicle, structure, equipment, furniture, appliances or machinery,
or any part thereof. "Junk" includes used tires, parts of dismantled
buildings, agricultural equipment not in usable condition, parts of
agricultural equipment, and contaminated recyclable material.
JUNKED
Dismantled for parts or otherwise scrapped.
JUNKYARD
Any place that is owned, maintained, operated or used for
storing, keeping, processing, buying, or selling junk. "Junkyard"
includes automobile graveyards, scrap metal processors, auto-wrecking
yards, salvage yards, auto-recycling yards, used auto parts yards,
and places for temporary storage of automobile bodies or parts awaiting
disposal as a normal part of a business operation when the business
will continually have like materials located on the premises.
LOCAL ZONING AND LAND USE REGULATION
Any applicable county, Village or extraterritorial zoning,
subdivision, land division, platting, official map, building code,
building permit, or other ordinance adopted pursuant to general police
powers that is applicable in any manner to the use of land.
MACHINERY
A structure or assemblage of parts that transmits forces,
motion or energy from one part to another in a predetermined way by
electrical, mechanical or chemical means. "Machinery" does not include
a building.
NOT REGISTERED
In reference to "all-terrain vehicles" as defined in § 340.01(2g),
Wis. Stats.; "snowmobiles" as defined in § 340.01(58a),
Wis. Stats.; or "boats" as defined in § 29.001(16), Wis.
Stats., means those that are required to but do not have nor bear
the required current and valid State of Wisconsin licenses or registrations.
NOXIOUS ODOR
An odor that is repulsive to the senses of ordinary persons
in the Village or that seriously annoys or causes serious discomfort
or serious injury to the health or causes serious inconvenience to
the health or safety of a significant number of persons within the
Village, as determined by the Village Board.
PUBLIC NUISANCE
A thing, act, occupation, condition or use of property that
continues in the Village for such time as to do any of the following:
A.
Substantially annoy, injure or endanger the comfort, health,
repose or safety of the public.
B.
Render the public insecure in life or in the use of property
in any way.
C.
Substantially depreciates property values in the neighborhood.
D.
Greatly offends the public morals or decency.
E.
Unlawfully and substantially interferes with, obstructs or attempts
to obstruct or render dangerous for passage any street, alley, highway,
navigable body of water, or other public way, or the use of public
property.
SCRAP METAL PROCESSOR
A fixed location at which machinery and equipment are utilized
for the processing and manufacturing of iron, steel or nonferrous
metallic scrap into prepared grades and whose principal product is
scrap iron, scrap steel, or nonferrous metal scrap for sale for remelting
purposes.
SOLID WASTE
Any garbage, refuse, sludge, ash, paper, wood, metal, glass,
cloth, plastic, lumber, concrete, food waste and other organics; boxes,
barrels and other containers; tires and other like materials; sludge
from a waste treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air
pollution control facility; and any other discarded or salvageable
materials, including solid, liquid, semisolid or contained gaseous
materials resulting from industrial, commercial, residential, mining,
agricultural and community activities, but does not include solid
or dissolved materials in irrigation return flows or industrial discharges
that are point sources subject to permits under Ch. 283, Wis. Stats.;
source material as defined in § 254.31(10), Wis. Stats.;
special nuclear material as defined in § 254.31(11), Wis.
Stats.; or by-product material as defined in § 254.31(1),
Wis. Stats.
SOLID WASTE FACILITY
A facility for solid waste treatment, solid waste storage,
or solid waste disposal, and includes operations, such as, without
limitation because of enumeration, sanitary landfills, dumps, land
disposal sites, incinerators, transfer stations, storage facilities,
collection and transportation services, and processing, treatment
and recovery facilities. "Solid waste facility" includes the entire
premises where the facility is located.
UNLICENSED or UNREGISTERED
In reference to vehicles, mobile homes or manufactured homes,
means those that are required to be licensed or registered for operation
in the state, but do not have nor bear the required current and valid
State of Wisconsin licenses or registration.
VEHICLE
Every device in, upon, or by which any person or property
is or may be transported.
VILLAGE
The Village of Birnamwood, Marathon County, Wisconsin.
No person may create, contrive, erect, maintain, cause, continue,
install, construct or permit to exist in the Village a public nuisance.
The following acts, uses, activities, things, occupations, places
or physical conditions are specifically declared to be a public nuisance,
but such enumeration shall not be construed to exclude other health,
peace and safety nuisances as defined hereinabove:
A. Noxious weeds. Noxious weeds not timely cut or removed within seven
days, pursuant to § 66.0407, Wis. Stats., after receipt
of written notice to remove from the Village Board.
B. Unburied animal carcass areas. Carcasses of animals, birds or fowl
not intended for human consumption or food, which are not buried or
otherwise disposed of in a sanitary manner within 24 hours after death.
C. Stagnant water. All stagnant water in which mosquitoes, flies or
other insects can multiply.
D. Noxious emission odor areas. Any use of property, substances or things
in the Village causing any foul, offensive, noisome, nauseous, noxious
or disagreeable odors, gases, effluvia or stenches repulsive to the
physical senses of ordinary persons which annoy, discomfort, injure
or inconvenience the health of any appreciable number of persons within
the Village.
E. Noxious or polluted or waste areas. Any place in the Village where
noxious, nauseous, unwholesome, or polluted water and waste are located
on private or public land, including Village roads, highways, bridges,
sidewalks, alleys or other public lands owned or controlled by the
Village, and those conditions are not timely removed.
F. Rat or vermin areas. Any place in the Village where rats, vermin,
feral pets or other vectors are located or frequent.
G. Unauthorized human burial areas. Any place in the Village where the
body of a deceased person and/or parts of a deceased person is located
and buried. This paragraph does not apply to any established cemetery
or burial site grounds approved, owned and operated in accordance
with Ch. 157, Wis. Stats.
H. Hazardous, toxic or solid waste facility or site. Any premises, place
or solid waste facility in the Village where the discharge, disposal,
storage or treatment of hazardous, toxic or solid waste occurs without
approval and licensing or permitting of the discharge, disposal, storage
or treatment by all proper federal, state, county, and Village governing
authorities and full compliance with all applicable laws, rules, regulations
or ordinances of the federal, state, county or Village.
I. Dangerous wild animal areas. Any place in the Village where live
dangerous wild animals are kept, sold or in any manner controlled
or possessed on private or public land without written approval of
the Village Board, and the animals are not removed or destroyed after
receipt of written notice to remove from the Village Board. To constitute
a "dangerous wild animal" the species of animal must pose a threat
to the safety of persons within the Village, including a keeper of
the animal. It is not necessary that the Village Board find that a
specific animal is dangerous in order to find a nuisance.
J. Dangerous or dilapidated buildings. Any building or structure in
the Village where the building or structure, or any associated electrical,
heat, water or sewer system, is so old, dilapidated or out of repair
as to be dangerous, unsafe, unsanitary or otherwise unfit for human
habitation.
K. Dangerous tree areas. Any place in the Village where any trees or
tree limbs located on private or public lands constitute a dangerous
or unsafe condition, and these dangerous or unsafe conditions have
not been timely removed after receipt of written notice to remove
from the Village Board.
L. Fire hazard areas. Any place in the Village where combustible materials
are located and stored on private or public lands, and the materials
are not timely removed or safely stored after receipt of written notice
from the Village Board.
M. Improper encroachment. Any unauthorized or improper encroachment,
including trees, limbs, weeds, crops, or any other vegetation, on
any Village roadway or on other Village public lands without written
permission from the Village Board.
N. Improper discharge areas. Any unauthorized or improper discharges,
including solid waste, vehicles, structures, equipment, signs, manure,
and other materials, on any Village roadway or on other Village public
lands without written permission from the Village Board.
O. Junked vehicle and junked part areas. Any unsheltered storage or
keeping of one or more abandoned, wrecked, dilapidated, junked, unsightly,
burned out, partially demolished, partially salvaged, discarded, damaged
or unregistered motor vehicle(s), all-terrain vehicle(s), motorcycle(s),
motor bike(s), snowmobile(s), bus(es), mobile home(s), motor home(s),
recreational vehicle(s), camper(s), van(s), trailer(s), or other such
similar vehicle or device.
P. Junked appliance and machinery. Any unsheltered storage or keeping
of junked or abandoned appliances, equipment or machinery.
Q. Accumulations of trash. Any accumulation of decayed animal or vegetable
matter, trash, rubbish, rotting lumber, bedding, packing material,
scrap metal, or any junk material.
S. Pits and wells. An open and unguarded pit, well, excavation or unused
basement that is accessible from any public roadway, alley or sidewalk.
T. Unlicensed or unregistered vehicle area. Any place in the Village
where for a period exceeding 30 days upon private property a not registered,
unlicensed or unregistered vehicle is parked, stored or otherwise
kept outside a building without the written permission of the Village
Board and is not timely removed or discontinued after receipt of written
notice to remove from the Village Board and/or unless exempt as hereinafter
set forth.
No person may create, contrive, erect, maintain, cause, continue,
install, construct or permit to exist in the Village a public nuisance
associated with, causing or likely to cause potential danger, disturbance
or injury to the public peace and order. The following acts, uses,
activities, things, occupations, places or physical conditions, not
properly and timely removed after written notice to remove from the
Village Board to the owner or occupant of the land where the public
nuisance occurred or is maintained in the Village or to any persons
responsible for the creation, maintenance or permitting of such nuisance
in the Village, are specifically declared to be a public nuisance:
A. Loud noise areas. Any place in the Village where after 11:00 p.m.,
unless approved by the Village Board, any unreasonably loud, discordant
and unnecessary sound conditions, including sounds from vehicles,
equipment, machinery, guns, fireworks, or enclosed domestic or other
animals, or from any human-created or -aided sounds, including alleged
music, is located on private or public land, and is not timely removed
or discontinued after written receipt of notice to remove from the
Village Board.
B. Disorderly conduct area. Any place in the Village where unpermitted,
abusive, indecent, profane or boisterous sounds, unpermitted fighting,
brawling or rioting, or other unpermitted disorderly conduct conditions
are located or occur on private or public lands, and these disorderly
conditions are not timely removed or discontinued after receipt of
written notice to remove from the Village Board.
No person may create, continue, erect, maintain, cause, install,
construct or permit to exist in the Village a public nuisance associated
with, causing or likely to cause danger, disturbance or injury to
public morals or decency. The following acts, uses, activities, things,
occupations, places or physical conditions not properly and timely
removed by the owner or occupant of the land after written notice
to remove from the Village Board to the owner or occupant of the land
where the public nuisance occurs, or to any person responsible for
the creation, maintenance or permitting of such nuisance in the Village,
are specifically declared to be a public nuisance as follows:
A. Bawdyhouses. Pursuant to § 823.09, Wis. Stats., whoever
erects, establishes, continues, maintains, uses, occupies or leases
any building or part of a building, erection or place to be used for
the purpose of lewdness, assignation or prostitution, or permits the
same to be so used, in the Village, is guilty of a nuisance, and the
building, erection or place in or upon which such lewdness, assignation
or prostitution is conducted, permitted, carried on, continued or
exists, and the furniture, fixtures, musical instruments, and contents
used therewith for the same purpose, are declared a nuisance, and
shall be enjoined and abated.
B. Illegal drug houses. Pursuant to § 823.113(1), Wis. Stats.,
any building or structure that is used to facilitate the delivery,
distribution or manufacture, as defined in §§ 961.01(6),
(9) and (13), Wis. Stats., respectively, of a controlled substance
as defined in § 961.01(4), Wis. Stats., or a controlled
substance analog as defined in § 961.01(4m), Wis. Stats.,
and any building or structure where those acts take place, is a public
nuisance and may be proceeded against under § 823.113, Wis.
Stats.
C. Criminal gang houses. Pursuant to § 823.113(1), Wis. Stats.,
any building or structure that is used as a meeting place of a criminal
gang, as defined in § 939.22(9), Wis. Stats., or that is
used to facilitate the activities of a criminal gang, is a public
nuisance and may be proceeded against under § 823.113, Wis.
Stats.
D. Gambling houses. Pursuant to § 823.20, Wis. Stats., any
gambling place, as defined in § 954.01(4)(a), Wis. Stats.,
is a public nuisance and may be proceeded against under Ch. 823, Wis.
Stats.
E. Illegal alcohol houses. Pursuant to § 125.14(5), Wis. Stats.,
any building or place where alcohol beverages or alcohol is sold,
possessed, stored, brewed, bottled, manufactured or rectified without
a valid permit or license issued under Ch. 125 or 139, Wis. Stats.,
or where persons are permitted to drink alcohol beverages in violation
of Ch. 125, Wis. Stats., is a public nuisance and may be closed until
the activity in violation of Ch. 125, Wis. Stats., is abated. When
the activity is abated, the building or place may be used for any
lawful purpose.
No person shall leave unattended or stored any vehicle (regardless
of the vehicle's physical condition, registration or license held),
appliance, solid waste, equipment or machinery, or parts thereof,
on any public street, public road, public highway, or other public
property in the Village, including the road right-of-way, for such
time and under such circumstances as to cause the vehicle, appliance,
solid waste, equipment or machinery to reasonably appear to have been
abandoned. When any vehicle, appliance, solid waste, equipment or
machinery has been left unattended, parked or stored on any public
street, road, highway or other public property, including a road right-of-way,
within the Village for a period of more than 72 hours, the vehicle,
appliance, solid waste, equipment or machinery is presumed by the
Village to be abandoned and a public nuisance and may be removed in
accordance with § 342.40, Wis. Stats., and the owner of
the vehicle is subject to the imposition of forfeitures as set forth
herein below.
In addition to any other penalty imposed by this chapter for
the erection, contrivance, creation, continuance or maintenance of
a public nuisance and violation of this chapter, the cost of abatement
of any public nuisance by the Village may be collected under this
chapter or § 823.06, Wis. Stats., as a debt or expense from
the owner or occupant of the real property for causing, permitting
or maintaining the public nuisance. If notice to abate the nuisance
has been given to the owner or occupant previously, the cost of abatement
may be assessed against the real property for services rendered and
incurred by the Village to enjoin or abate the public nuisance as
a special charge under § 66.0627, Wis. Stats., unless paid
earlier. If any vehicle, structure, equipment, implement or appliance
is abandoned or remains unclaimed in violation of this chapter, the
Village Board may proceed to declare this personal property abandoned
and proceed to dispose of this personal property under § 66.0139,
Wis. Stats., by public auction or other means as determined by the
Village Board.
If any provision of this chapter or its application to any person
or circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect other
provisions or applications of this chapter that can be given effect
without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the
provisions of this chapter are severable.
All ordinances and parts of ordinances in conflict herewith
are hereby repealed.
This chapter shall be in full force and effect from and after
its date of passage and publishing.