[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Trustees of the Village of Sagaponack 8-13-2007
by L.L. No. 19-2007. Amendments noted where applicable.]
The Board of Trustees, recognizing that the uncontrolled placing or
keeping of junked motor vehicles constitutes an unsanitary, unsafe, unsightly
and dangerous condition, and that to protect and promote the public safety,
health and general welfare of the people of the Village it is necessary to
provide for the removal of such junked vehicles, hereby declares such junked
vehicles to be a public nuisance.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings
indicated:
Any vehicle, including a trailer, which is without a currently valid
license plate or plates and is in such a rusted, wrecked, discarded, dismantled,
partly dismantled, inoperative or abandoned condition as to be no longer intended
or in condition for legal use on the public highways. The Building Inspector
shall make the final determination as to whether any particular vehicle shall
be classified as a junked vehicle.
A.
Whenever the Building Inspector shall determine that
a vehicle at any location within the Village shall be classified as a junked
vehicle, he shall serve a notice or order in the manner prescribed herein,
specifying in what respect the vehicle is determined to be so classified and
requiring the owner to remove such junked vehicle within 30 days after service
of such notice or such lesser period of time as may be determined by the Building
Inspector when an emergency exists. Such notice shall provide that if the
owner shall fail to remove such junked vehicle within the period of compliance
prescribed, the Building Inspector may remove or cause such junked vehicle
to be removed and shall further notify the owner of his right to a hearing
as hereinafter provided.
B.
Whenever such a thirty-day notice is served, the owner
may, within 15 days after such service, request a hearing before the Building
Inspector to review the determination contained in the notice, and such hearing
shall be had prior to the expiration of the period for compliance prescribed.
The decision of the Building Inspector shall be either to affirm the notice
or rescind it.
C.
The rules of evidence prevailing in courts of record
shall not be controlling in hearings held pursuant to this chapter.
D.
If such junked vehicle is not removed by the owner within
the time prescribed, after service of such notice, the Building Inspector
may proceed with the removal of the junked vehicle as provided in the notice
or may cause the same to be done.
E.
If the Building Inspector proceeds with the removal of
a junked vehicle, he may let contracts therefor. The cost of such removal
may be met from appropriations made therefor. The Building Inspector shall
keep a record of such notices together with the procedures involved and the
items of cost incurred in their execution.
F.
All costs and expenses incurred by the Village in connection
with the proceeding to remove junked vehicles pursuant to this chapter, including
a reasonable charge for administration and handling expenses, shall be assessed
against the land on which said junked vehicle was located and from which it
was removed and shall be and become a lien on said land as of the date of
such assessment.
G.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, and in addition to any
other remedy, the Building Inspector may maintain an action against the owner
to recover the cost of executing such notice and/or removal of such junked
vehicle.
Unless an emergency shall be determined by the Building Inspector to
exist, every notice issued pursuant to this chapter shall be served at least
30 days before the time for compliance specified therein. It shall be sufficient
service of such notice if it is posted in a conspicuous place upon the premises
and upon the vehicle affected and a copy thereof mailed by certified or registered
mail on the same day as such posting to the last known address of the owner
of the real property so affected as the same shall appear in the most recent
tax rolls.
