Chapter 8.12
NUISANCES

Sections:

8.12.010    Defined.

8.12.020    Health.

8.12.030    Morals and decency.

8.12.040    Peace and safety.

8.12.050    Abatement.

8.12.060    Repealed.

8.12.010 Defined.

“Nuisance” means a thing, act, omission to act, occupation or use of property which:

A. Unreasonably annoys, injures or endangers the safety, health, comfort or repose of the public;

B. Offends public decency;

C. Unlawfully interferes with, obstructs or renders dangerous for passage a lake, navigable river, bay, stream, canal or basin, or a public park, square, street, alley or highway;

D. In any way renders the public insecure in life or in use of property. (Ord. 31 § 1, 1962)

8.12.020 Health.

The following are nuisances affecting health:

A. All decaying or unwholesome food offered for sale to the public;

B. All diseased animals running at large;

C. All ponds or pools of stagnant water;

D. Carcasses of animals not buried or destroyed within 24 hours after death;

E. Accumulations of manure or rubbish except a compost pile so covered or concealed as not to affect the health, safety or depreciation of adjoining property;

F. Privy vaults and garbage cans which are not fly-tight;

G. The pollution of any public well or cistern, stream, lake, canal or body of water by sewage, creamery or industrial wastes, or other substances;

H. All noxious weeds and other rank growth upon public or private property;

I. Dense smoke, noxious fumes, gas and soot, or cinders, in unreasonable quantities;

J. Offensive trades and businesses defined by statute not licensed by the health officer, as provided by law;

K. All public exposure of persons having a contagious disease;

L. The use of a common public drinking cup or roller towel;

M. The distribution of samples of medicines or drugs unless such samples are placed in the hands of an adult person;

N. All other acts, omissions of acts, occupations and uses of property which are deemed by the health officer to be a menace to the health of the inhabitants of this city, or any considerable number thereof. (Ord. 318 § 1, 1984; Ord. 31 § 2, 1962)

8.12.030 Morals and decency.

The following are nuisances affecting public morals and decency:

A. All gambling devices and slot machines;

B. All houses kept for the purpose of prostitution or promiscuous sexual intercourse, gambling houses, houses of ill fame and bawdy houses;

C. All places where intoxicating liquors are manufactured, sold, bartered or given away in violation of law, or where persons are permitted to resort for the purpose of drinking intoxicating liquors as a beverage in violation of law, or where intoxicating liquors are kept for sale, barter or distribution in violation of law, and all liquors, bottles, kegs, pumps, bars and other property kept at and used for maintaining such a place;

D. Betting, bookmaking, prize fighting not under the supervision of the city, and all apparatus used in such occupations. (Ord. 318 § 1, 1984; Ord. 31 § 3, 1962)

8.12.040 Peace and safety.

The following are nuisances affecting public peace and safety:

A. All snow and ice not removed from public sidewalks within a reasonable time after the snow and ice has ceased to be deposited thereon;

B. All trees, hedges, billboards, fences or other obstructions which prevent persons from having a clear view of traffic approaching an intersection from cross streets in sufficient time to bring a motor vehicle driven at a reasonable speed to a full stop before the intersection is reached;

C. All limbs of trees which are less than eight feet above the surface of any public sidewalk or 12 feet above the surface of any street;

D. All buildings, walls and other structures which have been damaged by fire, decay or otherwise so as to endanger the safety of the public;

E. All explosives, inflammable liquids and other dangerous substances stored in any manner or in any amount other than that provided by ordinance;

F. Obstructions and excavations affecting the ordinary use by the public of streets, alleys, sidewalks or public grounds, except under such conditions as are provided by ordinance;

G. Any use of property abutting on a public street or sidewalk or any use of a public street or sidewalk which causes large crowds of people to gather, obstructing traffic and the free use of the streets or sidewalks;

H. All hanging signs, awnings and other similar structures over the street or sidewalks, or so situated as to endanger public safety, not constructed and maintained as provided by ordinance;

I. All other conditions or things which are liable to cause injury to the person or property of anyone;

J. All places used or maintained as a junkyard or dumping grounds, or for the wrecking or disassembling of automobiles, trucks, tractors, or machinery of any kind, or for the storing or leaving of worn out, wrecked or abandoned automobiles, trucks or other machinery of any kind, or of any of the parts thereof;

K. Any poisonous or harmful substance which is reasonably accessible to persons or to animals;

L. The keeping, using or maintaining of any pen, stable, lot, place or premises in which any hog, cattle or fowl may be confined or kept, in such manner as to be nauseous, foul or offensive;

M. The keeping or harboring of any animal which by frequent or habitual howling, yelping, barking or the making of other noises, or the keeping or harboring of any fowl which by frequent habitual crowing or the making of other noises annoys or disturbs a neighborhood or any considerable number of persons;

N. All unused, abandoned or discarded refrigerators, ice boxes or like containers which are left in any place exposed or accessible to children and which are of a capacity of one and one-half cubic feet or more, unless all doors thereon may be readily opened from the inside thereof or have been removed therefrom, or unless all locks and locking devices have been removed therefrom;

O. Unregistered bee colonies, abandoned bee colonies, diseased bees, or bees living in trees, buildings, or any other space except in movable-frame hives. (Ord. 820 § 3, 2000; Ord. 31 § 4, 1962)

8.12.050 Abatement.

A. Whenever any nuisance is of such a character, and is so situated that the same can be abated without the invasion or destruction of private property, and the further continuance is likely to result in expense to the city or injury to any person, it is the duty of the chief of police to abate and remove the same summarily without waiting for the conviction of the author thereof.

B. When judgment is rendered against any person, persons, firm or corporation, finding them guilty of creating, keeping or maintaining a nuisance, as provided in this chapter, it is the duty of the court before whom the conviction is had, in addition to imposing the penalty or penalties provided in this chapter, to order the defendant or defendants in such action forthwith to abate and remove such nuisance, and if the same is not done by such offender within 24 hours, the same shall be abated and removed at the expense of the chief of police of the city, or by any officer authorized by the order of the court, which order of abatement shall be entered upon the docket of the court and made a part of the judgment in the action. (Ord. 318 § 1, 1984; Ord. 31 § 6, 1962)

8.12.060 Violation – Penalty.*

Repealed by Ord. 784. (Ord. 318 § 1, 1984; Ord. 31 § 5, 1962)

*Code reviser’s note: Penalty provisions can be found in Chapter 8.90 LFPMC.