Chapter 8.30
NUISANCES

Sections:

8.30.010    Definitions.

8.30.020    Prohibited conduct.

8.30.030    Nuisances declared.

8.30.040    Violation – Penalty.

8.30.050    Liability for continuing nuisance.

8.30.060    Safeguards.

8.30.010 Definitions.

Unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, the following words and phrases used in this chapter shall have the following meanings:

(1) “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.

(2) “Enforcement officer” means the city manager of the city of Covington or his/her designee authorized in writing to enforce this chapter.

(3) “Fire hazard” means vegetation which is dry and combustible, including but not limited to weeds, grass or clippings, dead bushes or trees or their parts, and other combustible vegetative materials, but specifically excluding small logs and kindling used for firewood, vegetative materials used as compost for fertilizer and decaying vegetation in wetlands and fish and wildlife habitat areas.

(4) “Health hazard” means any of the following:

(a) Vegetation or refuse which provides a harborage for rats or other pests;

(b) Vegetation which is poisonous, including but not limited to poison ivy, poison oak, poison hemlock, poison sumac, and nightshade;

(c) Vegetation which is noxious, including gorse, Japanese knotweed, purple loosestrife, giant hogweed, tansy ragwort, knapweed, Dalmatian toadflax, and any other plant which may be determined to be noxious, in accordance with RCW Title 17; and

(d) Vegetation, refuse or feces which create a danger of contamination or disease.

(5) “Person” means and includes individuals, firms, partnerships, corporations and all associations of natural persons, whether acting by themselves or by an agent or employee.

(6) “Owner” means and includes 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 such control if her or she has actual or constructive knowledge of the maintenance upon the premises of any nuisance as defined in this chapter.

(7) “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.

(8) “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:

(a) Unreasonably injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health or safety of others;

(b) Offends public decency; or

(c) Is offensive to the sense of reasonable persons; or

(d) In any way renders other persons insecure in life or use of property.

(9) “Vegetation” means trees, shrubs, grass, weeds, bushes, vines and other plant materials, including but not limited to clippings, fallen leaves, fruit or branches. (Ord. 21-01 § 1; Ord. 28-99 § 1)

8.30.020 Prohibited conduct.

It is a violation of this chapter for any person to permit, create, maintain, or allow upon any premises any public nuisance, as defined in CMC 8.30.010(8) or 8.30.030. (Ord. 21-01 § 1; Ord. 28-99 § 1)

8.30.030 Nuisances declared.

The following specific acts, omissions, places and conditions are declared to be public nuisances:

(1) Erecting, continuing or using any building or other place in the city for the exercise of any trade, employment or manufacturing operation, which by occasioning noxious exhalation, offensive smells or other annoyances, becomes injurious and dangerous to the health, comfort or property of individuals or the public;

(2) Keeping or maintaining any dangerous, decaying, falling, or damaged dwelling, or other structure;

(3) Keeping, using or maintaining any pen, stable, lot, place or premises in which any animal may be confined or kept, in such a manner to be noxious, foul or offensive to individuals or the public;

(4) Obstructing or encroaching upon or rendering unsafe for passage any public highway, private street, street, alley, sidewalk, crossing, park, square, driveway, lake, or stream in the city; provided, that this subsection shall not apply to events, parades, or the use of the streets or public rights-of-way when authorized by the city;

(5) Making or keeping any explosive or combustible substance in the city, or carrying it through the streets thereof, in a quantity or manner prohibited by Chapter 70.74 RCW;

(6) Placing, depositing, keeping, having or leaving in or upon any private lot, building, structure or premises or in or upon any street, avenue, park, sidewalk, waterway, parkway or public or private place in the city any one or more of the following conditions, places or things:

(a) Any putrid, unhealthy or unwholesome bones, meat, hides, skins, or the whole or any part of any dead animal, fish or fowl, or waste parts of fish, vegetable or animal matter in any quantity; but nothing herein shall prevent the temporary retention of waste in approved covered receptacles;

(b) Privies, vaults, drains, sewer and septic tanks, cesspools, sumps, pits or like places which are not securely protected from flies or rats, or which are noxious, foul, malodorous or injurious to the public health;

(c) Vegetation which constitutes a fire hazard or a health hazard;

(d) Refuse or feces which constitute a health hazard;

(e) Vegetation which overhangs a street, sidewalk or alley in such a way as to impede the free and full use of said street, sidewalk or alley, and vegetation which obstructs the vision of drivers such that traffic regulation signs or view of an intersection is obstructed from a position of 30 feet or closer to the intersection, and vegetation which creates injury to or other opportunity or risk of injury to passersby of the general public;

(f) Animal manure in any quantity which is not securely protected from flies and/or the elements, or which is kept or handled in violation of any ordinances of the city;

(g) An accumulation of material, including but not limited to tin cans, bottles, glass, plastic, scrap metal, ashes, wire, bric-a-brac, broken crockery, broken glass, broken plaster, trash, litter, weeds, grass, rags, garbage, accumulations of empty barrels, boxes, crates, packing cases, mattresses, bedding, excelsior, packing straw, or other packing materials or building materials which are not properly stored or neatly piled, and all such trash or abandoned material unless the same be kept in covered bins or galvanized iron receptacles approved by the enforcement officer; provided, however, this section shall exclude residential composting piles not greater than 25 square yards in area;

(h) Broken or discarded furniture, furnishings, appliances, household equipment and other similar items, in any front yard, back yard, side yard or vacant lot;

(i) Any abandoned, unattended or discarded icebox, refrigerator, freezer or other container having an air-tight 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;

(j) In a place accessible to children, any attractive nuisance dangerous to children, including but not limited to any abandoned, broken or neglected equipment, machinery, refrigerator, freezer or other large appliance;

(k) Any abandoned or unused well, pit, shaft, cistern, or storage tank without first demolishing or removing from the premises such storage tanks, or securely closing and barring any entrance or trapdoor thereto, or without filling any well, pit, shaft or cistern or capping the same with sufficient security to prevent access thereto. (Ord. 21-01 § 1; Ord. 28-99 § 1)

8.30.040 Violation – Penalty.

If the city determines that a violation of this chapter has occurred or is occurring, the city shall remedy said violation in accordance with the civil code enforcement procedures established in Chapter 1.30 CMC; except that in addition to any other person entitled to notice thereunder, the owner shall be given any notice required by Chapter 1.30 CMC. (Ord. 21-01 § 1; Ord. 28-99 § 1)

8.30.050 Liability for continuing nuisance.

Every successive owner or occupant of property who neglects to abate a continuing nuisance upon or in the use of such property caused by a former owner is liable in the same manner as the one who created it. (Ord. 21-01 § 1; Ord. 28-99 § 1)

8.30.060 Safeguards.

When a nuisance is abated by the city pursuant to Chapter 1.30 CMC, the enforcement officer or other officer, agent or employee shall proceed with due care and without unnecessary destruction of property. In all cases, the enforcement officer shall be authorized to employ such assistance and adopt such means as may be necessary to effect the entire abatement of the nuisance. (Ord. 21-01 § 1; Ord. 28-99 § 1)