Chapter 7.06
NUISANCES
Sections:
7.06.030 Closing unoccupied building required.
7.06.050 Liability for abatement.
7.06.070 Nuisance—Courtesy notice.
7.06.075 Nuisance—Abatement—Notice.
7.06.077 Nuisance—Hearing request.
7.06.078 Immediate danger—Summary abatement.
7.06.079 Junk vehicle—Abatement—Notice—Authorizing disposal.
7.06.090 Disposition of abatement moneys.
7.06.100 Additional authority.
7.06.114 Designated—Vehicles—Private property.
7.06.116 Designated—Vehicles—Public property.
7.06.120 Abatement—Junk vehicles—Costs.
7.06.150 Penalty for violation—Junk vehicles exempted.
7.06.160 Enforcement authority.
7.06.010 Definitions.
The following terms when used in this chapter are defined as follows:
“Abatement” means action taken to remedy nuisance violations.
“Junk vehicle” means a vehicle certified under RCW 46.55.230 as meeting at least three of the following requirements:
(1) Is three years old or older;
(2) Is extensively damaged, such damage including but not limited to any of the following: A broken window or windshield, or missing wheels, tires, motor, or transmission;
(3) Is apparently inoperable;
(4) Has an approximate fair market value equal only to the approximate value of the scrap in it.
A “nuisance” consists 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) Annoys, injures, or endangers the comfort, repose, health, or safety of others; or
(2) Offends decency; or
(3) Is offensive to the senses; or
(4) Unlawfully interferes with, obstructs, or tends to obstruct or renders dangerous for passage any stream, public park, parkway, square, street, alley, or highway in the city; or
(5) In any way renders other persons insecure in life or the use of property; or
(6) Obstructs the free use of property so as to essentially interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life and property; or
(7) Creates or permits the existence or continuance of any of the specific nuisances identified in Section 7.06.020.
An “owner” as used in this chapter shall be and include an owner of record according to the records of the office of assessor of Franklin County, Washington.
“Unauthorized vehicle” means a vehicle that is subject to impoundment after being left unattended in one of the following public or private locations for the indicated period of time:
Subject to removal after:
(1) Public locations:
(a) Constituting an accident or a traffic hazard as defined in RCW 46.55.113: Immediately.
(b) On a highway and tagged as described in RCW 46.55.085: Twenty-four hours.
(c) In a publicly owned or controlled parking facility, properly posted under RCW 46.55.070: Immediately.
(2) Private locations:
(a) On residential property: Immediately.
(b) On private, nonresidential property, properly posted under RCW 46.55.070: Immediately.
(c) On private, nonresidential property, not posted: Twenty-four hours. (Ord. 850 § 2 (Exh. B) (part), 2009).
7.06.020 Designated.
The following specific acts, omissions, places, conditions, and things are declared to be nuisances:
The erecting, maintaining, using, placing, depositing, leaving, or permitting to be or remain in or upon any private lot, building, structure or premises, or in any or upon any street, avenue, alley, park, parkway, or other public or private place, in the city, of any one or more of the following disordered, disturbing, unsanitary, fly-producing, rat-harboring, disease-causing places, conditions or things; that is to say:
(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, littered, or trash-covered cellars, house yards, barnyards, stable 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 ordinance of the city;
(5) Poison oak or poison ivy (whether growing or otherwise), liquid household waste, human excreta, garbage, butchers’ trimmings and offal, parts of fish, or any waste vegetable or animal matter in any quantity; provided, nothing herein contained shall prevent the temporary retention of waste in receptacles in the manner approved by the health officer, nor the dumping of nonputrifying waste in a place and manner approved by the health officer;
(6) Tin cans, bottles, glass, cans, ashes, small pieces of scrap iron, wire metal articles, bric-a-brac, broken stone or cement, broken crockery, broken glass, broken plaster, and all such trash or abandoned material, unless they are kept in receptacles as required by ordinance;
(7) Trash, litter, rags, accumulations or empty barrels, boxes, crates, packing cases, mattresses, bedding, excelsior, packing hay, straw, or other packing material, lumber, scrap iron, tin, and other metal or anything whatsoever in which flies or rats may breed or multiply or which may be a fire danger, or which constitute a hazardous attraction to children;
(8) Any unsightly building, billboard or other structure, or any old, abandoned or partially destroyed building or structure, or any building or structure commenced and left unfinished;
(9) All places used or maintained as junkyards or dumping grounds, or for the wrecking or dissembling of automobiles, trucks, tractors, or machinery of any kind, or for the storing or leaving of worn-out, wrecked or abandoned automobiles, trucks, tractors, or machinery of any kind, or of any of the parts thereof, or for the storing or leaving of any machinery or equipment used by contractors or builders or by other persons, which places are kept or maintained so as to essentially interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property by others and which are not outlawed by zoning ordinances of the city;
(10) Any unguarded or abandoned pit, excavation, well, swimming pool, or other uncovered hole into which a person could fall;
(11) Any refrigerator, freezer, or other insulated container within which a child could suffocate;
(12) Toxic, radioactive, caustic, flammable, explosive, or other dangerous or hazardous substances, except as housed where applicable and stored in accordance with health, environmental, refuse, and zoning laws;
(13) Throw, empty, or deposit, or allow to be thrown, emptied, or deposited, into any privately or publicly owned refuse can, dumpster, or other receptacle any hazardous or dangerous substances except those designated with the owner’s written permission;
(14) All trees, plants, shrubs or vegetation or parts thereof, either living or dead, which overhang any sidewalk or street or which are growing on the property in such a manner so as to obstruct or impair the free, full and safe use of the sidewalk or street by the public; provided, however, this provision shall not apply to those trees planted on Columbia Avenue with the permission of the city council;
(15) All grass, weeds, shrubs, bushes, trees or vegetation which is growing or which has died and which is upon the property and which is a fire hazard or a menace to public health, safety and welfare; and
(16) All noxious or other objectionable weeds, including but not limited to poison oak, poison ivy, poison sumac, kochia, morning glory, Canada thistle, rush skeletonweed, dalmatian toadflax, diffuse knapweed, Scotch thistle, yellow starthistle, jointed goatgrass, and puncture vine, whether alive or dead. (Ord. 850 § 2 (Exh. B) (part), 2009).
7.06.030 Closing unoccupied building required.
It is unlawful for any agent or owner of any unoccupied building in the city to fail to keep the unoccupied building securely closed at all times against persons who may enter and commit a nuisance therein. (Ord. 850 § 2 (Exh. B) (part), 2009).
7.06.050 Liability for abatement.
Every successive owner of property who neglects to abate a continuing nuisance upon or in the use of such property caused by a former owner is liable therefor in the same manner as the owner who created it. (Ord. 850 § 2 (Exh. B) (part), 2009).
7.06.060 Prohibited.
It is unlawful for any person to erect, contrive, cause, continue, or maintain a nuisance as herein defined or prohibited. (Ord. 850 § 2 (Exh. B) (part), 2009).
7.06.070 Nuisance—Courtesy notice.
If anyone is committing or has committed a nuisance as set forth in this chapter, the chief of police and his/her appointee may cause a courtesy reminder to be made to the offender. (Ord. 850 § 2 (Exh. B) (part), 2009).
7.06.075 Nuisance—Abatement—Notice.
The chief of police or his/her designee, in his/her discretion, shall by cease and desist order abate the nuisance. Except for a condition affecting the immediate health or safety of any person or persons, notice shall be given in writing to the property owner and offender, occupant or other person concerned or affected thereby, by personal service or certified mail, and if notice cannot be so given, then by posting notice on the affected or offending premises. Such notice shall describe briefly the nature of the nuisance, and state that if the nuisance is not abated within fifteen days from the date thereof, the city will abate the nuisance, and any reasonable expense for necessary labor and/or material, such as cleaning up the offending premises or way, or furnishing garbage can or container, rack, stand, garbage can or cover, shall be charged against the offending person or occupant, and/or the property owner. If the nuisance continues after the elapse of the fifteen days given in the notice, the chief of police or his/her appointee shall abate the nuisance and send a statement for the actual reasonable cost or expense thereof to the offending person, occupant and property owner. If the statement is not paid within thirty days from date of billing, a lien of such charges and all filing fees and court costs against the property or premises shall be filed, and all filing fees and court costs against the property or premises shall be filed and foreclosed in the same manner as a sewage lien, as provided by law. The city is further authorized to collect the cost, expense and costs in a civil action. (Ord. 850 § 2 (Exh. B) (part), 2009).
7.06.077 Nuisance—Hearing request.
Any person who receives a notice of nuisance under this chapter may, by request in writing filed with the city clerk, ask for a hearing before the hearing officer on the matter complained of and, after the request is filed with the city clerk, the chief of police or his/her appointee shall suspend all abatement proceedings pending disposition of the hearing. If the person is aggrieved by the ruling of the hearing officer, he may seek relief in the superior court. If the council or other competent tribunal rules that a nuisance does exist or is or has been committed, the chief of police shall proceed with the abatement as set forth in this chapter. (Ord. 850 § 2 (Exh. B) (part), 2009).
7.06.078 Immediate danger—Summary abatement.
Whenever any condition or use of the property causes or constitutes or reasonably appears to cause or constitute an imminent or immediate danger to the health or safety of the public or a significant portion thereof, the enforcement officer shall have the authority to, summarily and without notice, abate the same. The expenses of such abatement shall become a civil debt against the owner or other responsible person and shall be collected as provided in Section 7.06.075. (Ord. 850 § 2 (Exh. B) (part), 2009).
7.06.079 Junk vehicle—Abatement—Notice—Authorizing disposal.
(a) As permitted by RCW 46.55.230, at the request of a property owner, and notwithstanding any other provision of law, any law enforcement officer having jurisdiction shall inspect an abandoned junk motor vehicle or any parts thereof. The officer shall record the make of such motor vehicle, the serial number or vehicle identification number, if available, and shall also detail the damage or missing equipment to verify that the value of such abandoned junk vehicle is equivalent to the value of the scrap metal therein only.
(b) Prior to impoundment of any junk vehicle, written notice shall be mailed to the last registered vehicle owner of record, and to the owner of the land upon which the vehicle is located, as shown on the last equalized assessment roll, if such can be determined. Such notice shall state:
(1) A description of the vehicle and license number, if licensed, and the location of the vehicle; and
(2) That the vehicle has been determined to be a public nuisance, and will be removed after the expiration of fifteen days after the date of mailing, unless a hearing is requested, with costs to be assessed against the registered owner of the vehicle and the record owner of the land. The recipient will further be advised of procedures to request the hearing.
(c) If, prior to the expiration of fifteen days after the notice is mailed, a request for hearing is received, said vehicle shall not be impounded, but a notice giving the time, location, and date of a hearing before the hearing officer on the question of abatement and removal of the vehicle, or part thereof, as a public nuisance shall be mailed, by certified or registered mail, with a five-day return requested to the owner of the land as shown on the last equalized assessment roll and to the last registered and legal owner of record, unless the vehicle is in such condition that identification numbers are not available to determine ownership.
(d) This section shall not apply to:
(1) A vehicle, or part thereof, which is completely enclosed within a building in a lawful manner where it is not visible from the street or other public or private property; or
(2) A vehicle, or part thereof, which is completely hidden from public view by a fence to the satisfaction of the chief of police; or
(3) Up to a total of two vehicles, or parts thereof, which are covered by properly fitting automobile covers that are designed for that purpose and which completely cover all body parts; or
(4) To a vehicle, or part thereof, which is stored or parked in a lawful manner on private property in connection with the business of a licensed dismantler, licensed vehicle dealer, fenced according to the provisions of RCW 46.80.130, as now or hereafter amended.
(e) The owner of the land on which the vehicle is located may appear in person at the hearing or present a written statement in time for consideration at the hearing, and deny responsibility for the presence of the vehicle on the land, with his reasons for such denial. If it is determined at the hearing that the vehicle was placed on the land without the consent of the landowner and that he has not subsequently acquiesced in its presence, then costs of administration or removal of the vehicle shall not be assessed against the property upon which the vehicle is located or otherwise attempt to collect such cost from the owner. Additionally, the owner of the property may give the city permission to remove the vehicle(s).
(f) After notice has been given of the intent of the city to dispose of the vehicle, and after a hearing, if requested, has been held, and upon ruling by the hearing officer, the vehicle or part thereof shall be removed, at the request of a law enforcement officer, with notice to the Washington State Patrol and the State Department of Licensing that the vehicle has been wrecked. The city may make final disposition of such vehicles or parts, provided such disposal shall be only as scrap. (Ord. 850 § 2 (Exh. B) (part), 2009).
7.06.080 Abatement—Suit.
(a) Whenever a nuisance exists, as defined in this chapter, the city may proceed by a suit in equity in the superior court of Franklin County to enjoin and abate it in the manner provided by law, or it may elect to enforce the provisions of this chapter by complaint or warrant in the municipal court.
(b) Whenever, in any action brought in the municipal court, it is established that a nuisance exists as defined in this chapter, the court shall, together with the fine or penalty imposed, if any, enter any order of abatement as a part of the judgment in the case, which order shall direct either:
(1) That the nuisance be abated or removed by the defendant within the time limited by the court, and not exceeding thirty days; or
(2) That the nuisance may be abated by the city at the cost of the defendant, in which case the court shall inquire into and estimate as nearly as may be the sum necessary to defray the expense of the abatement, and assess and enter it as a part of the penalty imposed, and the sum shall be a part of the judgment in the case, and shall be collected and enforced in the same manner that fines and costs are by law collected and enforced. (Ord. 850 § 2 (Exh. B) (part), 2009).
7.06.090 Disposition of abatement moneys.
All moneys collected for abatement purposes, as provided in this chapter, shall be credited by the city treasurer/finance officer to the department or division of the city which shall be actually employed in the abatement of the nuisance. (Ord. 850 § 2 (Exh. B) (part), 2009).
7.06.100 Additional authority.
(a) The abatement procedures contained in this chapter are supplemental and in addition to the procedures provided in Chapter 7.48 RCW, as now adopted or hereafter amended.
(b) The city expressly serves and invokes all lawful powers, rights, and remedies, whether in contract or law, to protect and preserve the public health, safety, and welfare by abatement or any nuisance or unhealthful or dangerous conditions affecting the public right-of-way or other publicly owned or controlled property. (Ord. 850 § 2 (Exh. B) (part), 2009).
7.06.114 Designated—Vehicles—Private property.
An unauthorized or junk vehicle on private property is a nuisance. (Ord. 850 § 2 (Exh. B) (part), 2009).
7.06.116 Designated—Vehicles—Public property.
An unauthorized vehicle on the public right-of-way or other publicly owned or controlled property will be treated as described in Sections 10.20.060 and 10.20.120.
(1) Any unauthorized vehicle in violation of this section may be impounded immediately upon the expiration of the time provided herein by a registered tow truck operator, at the direction of a law enforcement officer or other public official with jurisdiction if on public property or at the direction of the property owner or his agent if it is on private property.
(2) The procedures pertaining to redemption rights and hearing procedures, and records, inspections and enforcement, as set forth in RCW 46.55.120, shall be followed by the registered tow truck operator. (Ord. 850 § 2 (Exh. B) (part), 2009).
7.06.120 Abatement—Junk vehicles—Costs.
Costs of removal may be assessed against the last registered owner of the unauthorized vehicle or junk vehicle, if the identity of such owner can be determined, unless such owner, in the transfer of ownership of such vehicle or automobile hulk, has complied with RCW 46.12.101, as now or hereafter amended, or the costs may be assessed against the owner of the property on which the vehicle is stored. (Ord. 850 § 2 (Exh. B) (part), 2009).
7.06.150 Penalty for violation—Junk vehicles exempted.
Every person who shall violate any of the provisions of this chapter, except those violations covered under Section 10.20.060 shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. A separate offense shall be deemed committed on each day during or on which a violation occurs or continues. (Ord. 850 § 2 (Exh. B) (part), 2009).
7.06.160 Enforcement authority.
It is the duty of the chief of police or his designee to enforce the provisions of this chapter, and it is his duty to make the proper citations for the prosecution of any person or persons violating this chapter. (Ord. 850 § 2 (Exh. B) (part), 2009).