Chapter 9.44
NONCOMMERCIAL NUISANCES
Sections:
9.44.010 Definitions.
The following words and phrases used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise clearly indicates, shall have the following meanings:
A. “Abate” means to repair, replace, remove, destroy or otherwise remedy a condition which constitutes a violation of this chapter by such means and in such a manner and to such an extent as the applicable department director determines is necessary in the interest of the general health, safety and welfare of the community.
B. “Building materials” means and includes lumber, plumbing materials, wallboard, sheet metal, plaster, brick, cement, asphalt, concrete block, roofing material, cans of paint and similar materials.
C. “Enforcement officer” means the city administrator of the city or his or her designee authorized in writing to enforce this chapter or Chapter 9.48 YMC.
D. “Hearing board” or “board” means the board of adjustment of the city.
E. “Notice of abatement” or “notice to abate” means a notice to abate unsafe or unlawful condition as provided in this code.
F. “Owner” means and includes without limiting the definition of that term in Chapter 1.04 YMC, any agent, lessee, owner, tenant or other person occupying or having charge or control of any premises. An owner or agent is deemed to have control if he or she has actual or constructive knowledge of the maintenance upon the premises of any nuisance as defined in this chapter.
G. “Person” means and includes, without limiting its definition in Chapter 1.04 YMC, individuals, firms, partnerships, corporations, and all associations of natural persons, whether acting by themselves or by any agent or employee.
H. “Premises” means any building, lot, parcel, real estate or land or portion of land whether improved or unimproved, including adjacent sidewalks and parking strips and any lake, river, stream, drainage way or wetland.
I. “Public nuisance” and “nuisance” each mean and consist of 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. Unreasonably injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health or safety of others; or
2. Offends public decency; or
3. Is offensive to the senses of reasonable persons, or use of property. (Ord. 415 § 2, 1991; Ord. 213 § 10(B)(1), 1977).
9.44.015 Prohibited conduct.
It is a violation of this chapter for any person to permit, create, maintain, or allow, upon any premises, any of the acts or things declared in YMC 9.44.010 or 9.44.020 to be a public nuisance, or to fail to abate such a nuisance pursuant to lawful notice given under Chapter 9.48 YMC. (Ord. 415 § 3, 1991).
9.44.020 Nuisances declared.
The following specific acts, omissions, places and conditions are declared to be public nuisances:
A. Erecting, continuing or using any building or other place in the city for the exercise of any trade, employment or manufacture, which by occasioning noxious exhalation, offensive smells or other annoyances, become injurious and dangerous to the health, comfort or property of individuals or the public;
B. Causing or allowing any offal, filth, poison, or noisome substance to be collected or to remain in any place, street, highway, or alley in the city to the prejudice of others;
C. Maintaining any house, shop, stable or other structure which cannot be occupied or rented and which poses danger of incendiarism and/or injury;
D. All houses or premises kept for the purpose of prostitution or for the performance of “lewd acts” as that term is defined in YMC 9.16.010;
E. All houses or places where drunkenness, fighting or other breaches of the peace are carried on or permitted;
F. All dirt, offal, or vegetable matter, the content of any hog pen or sty, poultry house, privy, drain or vault, which by noxious air, poisonous gas, or noise, shall offend inhabitants of the neighborhood;
G. Keeping howling or barking dogs or permitting any animal to run at large which defiles, injures or destroys lawns, gardens, trees or shrubbery;
H. Building or maintaining any structure in such condition as to be dangerous to the health of the citizens of the city;
I. Obstructing or encroaching upon or rendering unsafe for passage any public highway, private way, street, alley, park, square, driveway, lake, or stream in the city;
J. Carrying on, within the city limits, a business of manufacturing gunpowder, nitroglycerin, or other highly explosive substance, or mixing or grinding the materials therefor, in any place within 250 yards of any building in existence at the time such business may be commenced;
K. Placing, depositing, keeping, having or leaving in or upon any private lot, building, structure or premises, or in or upon any street, avenue, park, parkway or public or private place in the city any one or more of the following conditions, places or things:
1. Any putrid, unsound or unwholesome bones, meat, hides, skins, or the whole or any part of any dead animal, fish or fowl,
2. Privies, vaults, cesspools, sumps, pits or like places which are not securely protected from flies or rats, or which are foul or malodorous,
3. Filthy or littered trash-covered cellars, house yards, factory yards, vacant areas in rear of stores, vacant lots, houses, buildings or premises,
4. Animal manure in any quantity which is not securely protected from flies and the elements, or which is kept or handled in violation of any ordinances of the city,
5. Poison oak or poison ivy (whether growing or otherwise), liquid household waste, human excreta, garbage, butcher’s trimmings and offal, parts of fish, or any other vegetable or animal matter in any quantity; provided nothing placed in receptacles in the manner approved by the health officer of the city or the dumping of nonputrifying waste in a place and manner approved by the health officer shall be considered a nuisance,
6. Tin cans, bottle, glass cans, small pieces of scrap iron, wire, material, bric-a-brac, broken crockery, broken glass, broken plaster, scrap building materials, and all such trash or abandoned material unless the same be kept in covered bins or galvanized iron receptacles approved by the health officer,
7. Trash, litter, weeds or grass, rags, accumulations of empty barrels, boxes, crates, packing cases, mattresses, bedding, excelsior, packing straw, or other packing materials, lumber not piled, scrap iron, abandoned stoves, kitchen appliances, tin and other metal not neatly piled, or anything whatsoever in which flies or rats may breed or multiply or which may be a fire danger,
8. Any abandoned unattended or discarded icebox, refrigerator, freezer or other container having an airtight door or lid and a snap lock or other locking device which may not be easily released from the inside when such lid or door is in a closed position,
9. Laying out, exposing or leaving exposed, in an unenclosed place known to be accessible to domestic animals or children, any substance or combination of substances known to be a poison or poisonous if consumed by a human, animal, or fowl,
10. The emitting of loud and raucous noise, from whatever the source or location, in a manner which, under the circumstances, unreasonably disturbs others,
11. Causing or allowing any other nuisance as defined in YMC 9.44.010 or other provision of the Yelm Municipal Code. (Ord. 415 § 4, 1991; Ord. 213 § 10(B)(2), 1977).