Chapter 9.16
Nuisances
Sections:
9.16.010 Definitions.
The following words and phrases used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise clearly indicates, shall have the following meanings:
(a) “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 control if he or she has actual or constructive knowledge of the maintenance on the premises of any nuisance as defined in this chapter.
(b) “Person” means and includes owner, individual, firm, partnership, corporation, and all associations of natural persons, whether acting by themselves or by an agent or employee.
(c) “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. (Ord. 06-818 § 1; Ord. 08-864 § 1).
9.16.020 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 DMC 9.16.030 to be a public nuisance or to fail to abate such a nuisance pursuant to lawful notice given under DMC 1.17.060. (Ord. 06-818 § 1; Ord. 08-864 § 1).
9.16.030 Nuisances declared.
The following specific acts, omissions, places and conditions are declared to be public nuisances:
(a) Noxious Odors. Using any building or place in the City for the exercise of trade, employment or manufacture which produces noxious exhalation, offensive smells or other annoyances, becoming injurious and dangerous to the health, comfort, or property of individuals or the public.
(b) Noxious Substances. Causing or allowing any offal, filth, poison, or noisome substance to be collected or remain in any place, street, highway, or alley in the City to the prejudice of others.
(c) Dangerous Buildings. Building or maintaining any structure in a condition that is dangerous to the health or safety of the citizens of the City.
(d) Manufacturing Explosives. Manufacturing, within the City limits, gunpowder, nitroglycerin, or other highly explosive substance, for personal or commercial use.
(e) Obstruction and Encroachment of Public Ways. Obstructing, encroaching upon or rendering unsafe for passage any public highway, private way, street, alley, park, square, greenway, driveway, lake, or stream in the City.
(f) Wreckage and Junk Vehicles. Any wrecked, inoperable, unlicensed, abandoned, disabled or disassembled trailer, house trailer, boat, tractor, automobile or other vehicle, or any parts thereof, including vehicles that are missing the essential parts needed to allow the vehicle to be lawfully driven on a public roadway; provided, that nothing herein shall prevent the keeping or storage of any vehicle on private property which is screened from view.
(g) Recreational Vehicles and Trailers. Trailers, mobile homes, recreational vehicles and camp cars shall not be parked on any street, alley, or highway within the City for more than 24 hours unless a permit has been granted by the City, but in no event for more than seven continuous days.
(h) Offenses on Public or Private Property. The following conditions are considered unsafe, offensive, and prima facie indications of a nuisance:
(1) Any putrid bones, meat, hides, skins or the whole or any part of a 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 house yards, factory yards, vacant areas behind stores, vacant lots, buildings or premises.
(4) Animal manure in any quantity which is not securely protected from flies and the elements or which is handled in violation of any health or safety code of the City.
(5) Poison oak, noxious weeds, and overgrowth creating a threat of fire.
(6) Recycling materials such as tin cans, bottles, glass bottles, iron, wire, metal, or newspaper, unless such materials are contained in receptacles approved by the City and subject to regular removal, except that materials can be stored in containers or buildings approved by the City when they are out of view.
(7) Trash, litter, weeds or grass, rags and accumulations of boxes, crates, bedding, packing materials, or lumber not piled.
(8) 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.
(9) Trees or shrubs which overhang a public sidewalk presenting unsafe obstacles capable of making contact with the face or body of a pedestrian using the sidewalk.
(10) Allowing any trees, shrubs or other objects, improvements or obstructions to impede the line of sight clearance for vehicular and pedestrian traffic at street corners and intersections within the City.
(11) Discharging directly or indirectly into the City’s storm drain system or into the waters of any stream, lake, or wetland or similar area within the City any material that shall cause or tend to cause a polluted condition or contribute to the violation of applicable water quality standards. Utility maintenance and firefighting activities by City personnel shall not be considered nuisances.
(12) Causing or allowing any other nuisance defined in other provisions of the DuPont Municipal Code.
(13) Any other act, omission, condition or thing which:
(i) Unreasonably injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health or safety of others; or
(ii) Offends public decency; or
(iii) Is offensive to the senses of reasonable persons; or
(iv) In any way renders other persons insecure in life or use of property. (Ord. 06-818 § 1; Ord. 08-864 § 1).
9.16.040 Enforcement.
Any violation of any provision, or failure to comply with any of the requirements, of this chapter shall be subject to the terms and conditions of Chapter 1.17 DMC, Enforcement. (Ord. 06-818 § 1; Ord. 08-864 § 1).