Defining and Prohibiting Nuisances

City of Lastrup

ORDINANCE #102

An ordinance defining and prohibiting nuisances and providing a penalty for violation

The City of Lastrup, Minnesota, in council convened, ordains as follows:

Section 1.  Public nuisance defined

Whoever by his act or failure to perform a legal duty intentionally does any of the following is guilty of maintaining a public nuisance, which is a misdemeanor;

  1. Maintains or permits a condition which unreasonably annoys, injures, or endangers the safety, health, morals, comfort, or repose of any considerable number of members of the public; or
  2. Is guilty of any other act or omission declared by law or this ordinance to be a public nuisance and for which no sentence is specifically provided.

Section 2. Public nuisances affecting health

The following are hereby declared to be nuisances affecting health:

  1. Exposed accumulation of decayed or unwholesome food or vegetable matter;
  2. All diseased animals running at large;
  3. Carcasses and animals not buried or destroyed within 24 hours after death;
  4. Accumulations of manure, refuse, or other debris;
  5. All noxious weeds and other rank growths of vegetation upon public or private property;
  6. Dense smoke, obnoxious fumes, gas and soot, or cinders in unreasonable quantities;

Section 3.  Public nuisances affecting peace and safety

The following are declared to be nuisances affecting public peace and safety:

  1. Accumulations in the open of discharged or disused machinery, household appliances, automobile bodies, or other material, in a manner condusive to the harboring of rats, mice, snakes or varmint, or the rank growth of vegetation among the items so accumulated, or in a matter creating fire, health or safety hazards from such accumulation;
  2. The depositing of garbage or refuse on a public right of way or on adjacent private property;
  3. All other conditions or things which are likely to cause injury to the person or property of anyone.

Section 4.  Duties of city officers

The council of the City of Lastrup, through its designated representative, shall enforce the provisions of this ordinance relating to nuisances affecting public safety.  Such designated authority shall have the power to inspect private premises and take all reasonable precautions to prevent the commission and maintenance of public nuisances.

Section 5.  Abatement

Whenever the officer charged with enforcement determines that the public nuisance is being maintained or exists on premises in the city, the officer shall notify in writing the owner or occupant of the premises of such fact and order that such nuisance be terminated and abated.  The notice shall be served in person or by certified or registered mail.  If the premises are not occupied and the owner is unknown, the notice may be served by posting it on the premises.  The notice shall specify steps to be taken to abate the nuisance and the time, not exceeding 30 days, within which the nuisance is to be abated.  If the notice is not complied with within the time specified, the enforcing officer shall report that fact forthwith to the council.  Thereafter the council may, after notice to the owner of occupant and an opportunity to be heard, provide for abating the nuisance by the city.  The notice shall be served in the same manner as notice by the enforcing officer is served and shall be given at least 10 days before the date stated in the notice when the council will consider the matter.  If notice is given by posting, at least 30 days shall elapse between the day of posting and the hearing.

Section 6.  Recovery of costs

Subdivision 1- Personal Liability

The owner of premises on which nuisance has been abated by the city shall be personally liable for the cost to the city of the abatement, including administrative costs.  As soon as the work has been completed and the cost determined, the city Clerk or other official designated by the council shall prepare a bill for the costs and mail it to the owner.  Thereupon, the amount shall be immediately due and payable at the office of the city Clerk.

Subdivision 2- Assessment

If a nuisance is a public health or safety hazard on private property, or the growth of weeds on private property or outside the travelled portion of streets, the Clerk, on or before September 1, next following abatement of the nuisance, list the total unpaid charges along with all other such charges as well as other charges for current services to be assessed under Minnesota Statutes Section 429.101 against each separate lot or parcel to which the charges are attributable.  The council may then spread the charges against such property under that statute and other pertinent statutes for certification to the county Auditor and collection along with current taxes the following year or in annual installments, not exceeding10, as the council may determine in each case.

Section 7.  Penalty

Any person convicted of violating any provisions of this ordinance is guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine not to exceed $500 or imprisonment for not more than 90 days, or both, plus the cost of prosecution in either case.

 

Passed this 14th day of October, 1981