Chapter 8.04
NUISANCES

Sections:

8.04.010    Nuisance defined.

8.04.020    Nuisances affecting health.

8.04.030    Nuisances affecting morals and decency.

8.04.040    Nuisances affecting peace and safety.

8.04.050    Summary abatement of nuisance.

8.04.060    Court order to abate nuisance.

8.04.070    Violation – Penalty.

8.04.010 Nuisance defined.

A “nuisance” is a thing, act, omission to act, occupation, or use of property which:

A.    Shall unreasonably annoy, injure or endanger the safety, health, comfort or repose of the public;

B.    Shall offend public decency;

C.    Shall unlawfully interfere with, obstruct, or render dangerous for passage a lake, navigable river, bay, stream, canal or basin, or a public park, square, street, alley or highway;

D.    Shall in any way render the public insecure in life or in use of property.

(Ord. 616, Added, 04/18/1972)

8.04.020 Nuisances affecting health.

The following are declared to be nuisances affecting health:

A.    All decayed 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 twenty-four 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 growths upon public or private property;

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

J.    Offensive trades and businesses, as defined by statute, not licensed by the city 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 the city, or any considerable number thereof.

(Ord. 616, Added, 04/18/1972)

8.04.030 Nuisances affecting morals and decency.

The following are declared to be nuisances affecting public morals and decency:

A.    All gambling devices, except those specifically authorized by state law;

B.    All houses kept for the purpose of prostitution or promiscuous sexual intercourse, gambling houses, house 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. 1122, Amended, 07/07/1987; Ord. 1112, Amended, 07/07/1987; Ord. 616, Added, 04/18/1972)

8.04.040 Nuisances affecting peace and safety.

The following are declared to be 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 twelve 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 streets 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, except such places as are so used in accordance with TMC Title 18, after issuance by the city council of a conditional use permit;

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 shall annoy or disturb 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.    Vehicles more than six feet in height and twenty feet in length which prevent persons entering a street by way of a cross-street, alley, or driveway, from having a clear view of approaching traffic.

(Ord. 1170, Amended, 09/06/1988; Ord. 920, Amended, 09/07/1982; Ord. 616, Added, 04/18/1972)

8.04.050 Summary abatement of nuisance.

Whenever any nuisance is of such a character, and is so situated, that it 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 shall be the duty of the chief of police to abate and remove the nuisance summarily without waiting for the conviction of the author thereof.

(Ord. 616, Added, 04/18/1972)

8.04.060 Court order to abate nuisance.

When judgment shall be rendered against any person, persons, firm or corporation, finding him guilty of creating, keeping or maintaining a nuisance, as provided in this chapter, it shall be the duty of the court before whom the conviction is had, in addition to imposing the penalty or penalties provided for in this chapter, to order the defendant or defendants in such action to forthwith abate and remove such nuisance, and if this is not done by such offender within twenty-four hours, the nuisance shall be abated and removed at the expense of the defendant by authority of the chief of police, or by any other 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. 616, Added, 04/18/1972)

8.04.070 Violation – Penalty.

Anyone who shall violate or fail to comply with any provision of this chapter shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. Each separate day or portion thereof during which any violation of this chapter occurs or continues constitutes a separate violation hereof and a separate offense hereunder, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished as provided in this section.

(Ord. O2011-007, Amended, 07/19/2011; Ord. 616, Added, 04/18/1972)