Chapter 8.15
NUISANCES
Sections:
8.15.040 Enforcement procedure.
8.15.050 Liability for continuing nuisance.
8.15.010 Definitions.
(1) 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 but is not limited to 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 mayor of the city of Entiat or his or her designee authorized in writing to enforce this chapter.
(d) “Notice of abatement” or “notice to abate” means a notice to abate an unsafe or unlawful condition as provided in this chapter.
(e) “Person” means and includes individuals, firms, partnerships, corporations, and all associations of natural persons, whether acting by themselves or by an agent or employee.
(f) “Owner” means and includes, without limiting the definition of that term in Chapter 1.05 EMC, 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) “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.
(h) “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:
(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.
(2) Definitions of Terms. All definitions in this chapter shall apply unless the context otherwise clearly indicates. (Ord. 558 §§ 1, 4, 2000)
8.15.020 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 EMC 8.15.030 to be a public nuisance, or to fail to abate such a nuisance pursuant to lawful notice given under this chapter. (Ord. 558 § 2, 2000)
8.15.030 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 manufacture 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) 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;
(3) Maintaining any house, shop, stable or other structure which cannot be occupied or rented and which poses danger of incendiarism and/or injury;
(4) All houses or premises kept for the purpose of prostitution or for the performance of lewd acts;
(5) All houses or places where drunkenness, fighting or other breaches of the peace are carried on or permitted;
(6) All dirt, offal, or vegetable matter, the contents of any hog pen or sty, poultry house, privy, drain or vault which, by noxious air, poisonous gas, or noise, shall unreasonably offend inhabitants of the neighborhood;
(7) Building or maintaining any structure in such condition as to be dangerous to the health of the citizens of the city;
(8) 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;
(9) 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;
(10) 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:
(a) Any putrid, unsound or unwholesome bones, meat, hides, skins, or the whole or any part of any dead animal, fish or fowl;
(b) Privies, vaults, cesspools, sumps, pits or like places which are not securely protected from flies, mice or rats, or which are foul or malodorous;
(c) Filthy or littered trash-covered cellars, house yards, factory yards, vacant areas in front or rear of stores, vacant lots, houses, buildings or premises;
(d) 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;
(e) Poison oak, poison ivy or other noxious weeds (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 in this chapter shall prevent the temporary retention of waste 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;
(f) Tin cans, bottles, glass, cans, scrap iron, wire, material, bric-a-brac, broken crockery, broken glass, broken plaster, scrap building materials, batteries, oil drums, scrap electrical equipment and all such trash or abandoned material unless the same be kept in covered bins or galvanized iron receptacles approved by the health officer;
(g) 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, mice or rats may breed or multiply or which may be a fire danger;
(h) 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;
(i) 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;
(j) The emitting of loud and raucous noise, from whatever the source or location, in a manner which, under the circumstances, unreasonably disturbs others;
(k) Any wrecked, inoperable, abandoned or disassembled trailer, house trailer, boat, tractor, automobile, vessel, snowmobile or other vehicle, or any parts thereof. A junk vehicle includes apparently inoperable, immobile, disassembled or extensively damaged vehicles. Evidence of inoperability and damage includes, but is not limited to, a buildup of debris that obstructs use, a broken window or windshield, a missing wheel, a flat tire, a nonfunctional motor or transmission, missing bumpers, or missing license plates, provided nothing herein shall prevent the keeping or storage of any vehicle on private property which is screened from view;
(l) Any disturbance, excavation, grading, plowing or removing the top soil of any land area, or permitting or directing same, within the city of Entiat, without taking reasonable, affirmative measures to suppress and minimize the blowing and scattering of dust;
(m) Any other nuisance as defined in this section or other provision of this chapter, and any violation of EMC Title 18, Zoning, and/or any other provision of the Entiat Municipal Code. (Ord. 638, 2005; Ord. 558 § 3, 2000)
8.15.040 Enforcement procedure.
Upon receipt of information or upon personal observation that a nuisance or code violation exists as defined in this chapter, enforcement procedure shall be accomplished per Chapter 14.12 EMC. (Ord. 638, 2005; Ord. 558 §§ 5, 7, 8, 2000)
8.15.050 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 owner who created it. (Ord. 558 § 6, 2000)
8.15.060 General public duty.
Nothing in this chapter is intended to create a cause of action or claim against the city or its officials or employees running to specific individuals. Any duty created herein is intended to be a general duty running in favor of the public citizenry as a whole and not to any specific individual. (Ord. 558 § 9, 2000)
8.15.070 Emergencies.
Nothing in this chapter shall prevent the enforcement officer or any other officer of the city of Entiat or other governmental unit from taking any other action, summary or otherwise, necessary to eliminate or minimize an imminent danger to the health or safety of any person or property, or the unlawful obstruction of any public way or easement. The city’s costs of abating any such nuisance, summarily or otherwise, shall be recoverable in the same manner and to the same extent as costs of abating nuisances under any other provisions of this chapter, in addition to or as an alternative to any other rights or remedies the city may possess. (Ord. 558 § 10, 2000)
8.15.080 Safeguards.
In any case where a nuisance is abated, 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. 558 § 11, 2000)