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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010-3241 - Ordinance - 04/22/2010 ORDINANCE NO. 2010-3241 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 7, "HEALTH AND SANITATION", OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES OF THE CITY OF COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS, BY AMENDING CERTAIN SECTIONS AS SET OUT BELOW; PROVIDING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE; DECLARING A PENALTY; AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE. BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS: PART 1: That Chapter 7, "Health and Sanitation", of the Code of Ordinances of the City of College Station, Texas, be amended as set out in Exhibit "A", attached hereto and made a part of this ordinance for all purposes. PART 2: That if any provisions of any section of this ordinance shall be held to be void or unconstitutional, such holding shall in no way effect the validity of the remaining provisions or sections of this ordinance, which shall remain in full force and effect. PART 3: That any person, firm, or corporation violating any of the provisions of this chapter shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punishable by a fine of not less than Twenty-Five Dollars ($25.00) nor more than Two Thousand Dollars ($2000.00). Each day any such violation shall continue or be permitted to continue, shall be deemed a separate offense. Said Ordinances, being a penal ordinance, becomes effective ten (10) days after its date of passage by the City Council, as provided by Section 35 of the Charter of the City of College Station. PASSED, ADOPTED and APPROVED thisZZndday of April , 2010. APPROVED: ATTEST: MAYOR CITY SECRE ARY APPROVED: .0 CITY ATTO NEY Ordinance No. 2010-3241"- 2 Exhibit A That Chapter 7 "Health and Sanitation" is hereby amended by amending Sections 1 and 2 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of College, Station Texas and to delete Section 3 in its entirety and is to read as follows: CHAPTER 7 HEALTH & SANITATION SECTION 1: STAGNANT WATER, TRASH, WEEDS, & OTHER VEGETATION PROHIBITED (A) Stagnant Water Prohibited: It shall be unlawfiil for any person who owns or occupies any house, building, establishment, lot, or yard in the City to permit or allow holes, places, or containers where water may accumulate and become stagnant. (B) Accumulation of Trash, Carrion, & Filth Prohibited: It shall be unlawful for any person who owns or occupies any house, building, establishment, lot, or yard in the City to permit or allow any trash, rubbish, carrion, filth, or other impure or unwholesome matter to accumulate or remain thereon or therein. (C) Weeds and Other Unsightly Vegetation Prohibited: It shall be unlawful for any person owning, claiming, occupying, or having supervision or control of any real property within the City to permit weeds, brush, or any objectionable or unsightly vegetation to grow due to lack of vegetation management upon any such real property. It shall be the duty of such person to keep the area from the line of his property to the curb line adjacent to it free and clear of matter referred to above. Objectionable or unsightly vegetation includes all weeds and grasses that exceed twelve inches (12") in height. (1) Exemptions: (a) State highway rights-of-way. (b) Agricultural areas, agricultural meaning crop production and/or grazing. (c) Heavily wooded areas filled with uncultivated underbrush. (d) The cultivation of concentrated wildflowers from March 1 until June 15 of each year in areas where grasses and weeds do not exceed eighteen inches (18") in height. (e) Areas that are zoned A-O or A-OR. (D) View of Traffic Obstructed by Trees, Shrubs, & Vegetation: Trees, shrubs, bushes, plants, grass, weeds, or any other vegetation growing at or near intersections in such manner as to obstruct the view of approaching traffic from the right or left shall be unlawful, and the Ordinance No. 2010-324:f- 3 City Manager is hereby authorized to remove the vegetation. (E) Work or Improvements Done by the City and Notice Requirements: (1) If the owner of property in the City does not comply with an ordinance under this chapter within seven days of notice of a violation, the City may: (a) do the work or make the improvements required; and (b) pay for the work done or improvements made and charge the expenses to the owner of the property. (2) The notice must be given: (a) personally to the owner in writing; (b) by letter addressed to the owner at the owner's address as recorded in the appraisal district records of the appraisal district in which the property is located; or (c) if personal service cannot be obtained: (1) by publication at least once; (2) by posting the notice on or near the front door of each building on the property to which the violation relates; or (3) by posting the notice on a placard attached to a stake driven into the ground on the property to which the violation relates. (3) If the City mails a notice to a property owner in accordance with Subsection (2), and the United States Postal Service returns the notice as "refused" or "unclaimed," the validity of the notice is not affected, and the notice is considered as delivered. (4) In a notice provided under this section, the City may inform the owner by regular mail and a posting on the property, or by personally delivering the notice, that if the owner commits another violation of the same kind or nature that poses a danger to the public health and safety on or before the first anniversary of the date of the notice, the City without further notice may correct the violation at the owner's expense and assess the expense against the property. If a violation covered by a notice under this subsection occurs within the one-year period, and the City has not been informed in writing by the owner of an ownership change, then the City without notice may take any action permitted by Subsections (1) (a) and (b) and assess its expenses as provided by Texas Health and Safety Code §342.007. Ordinance No. 2010-3241- 4 (F) The term "person" shall mean and include any natural person, business entity, or association of people in this Chapter. (G) A violation of this Chapter is also declared a nuisance and may be enforced 5000 feet outside the city limits. SECTION 2: UNLAWFUL CONDUCT RELATED TO HEALTH AND SAFETY (A) A person commits an offense if he: (1) uses property in a way that annoys, injures, or endangers the health, safety, comfort, or repose of any person, (2) uses property in a way that accumulates manure or rubbish or debris, (3) creates or allows any sign, awning, and other similar structure over the streets or sidewalks so situated or constructed as to endanger health, safety, comfort, or repose of any person, (4) makes filthy, littered, or trash-covered cellars, house yards, factory yards, vacant areas in rear of stores, vacant lots, houses, buildings, or premises containing trash, litter, rags, accumulation of empty barrels, boxes, crates, packing cases, lumber or firewood not neatly piled, scrap iron, tin, and other metal not neatly piled, or anything whatsoever in which flies or rats may breed or multiply or which may be a fire danger, (5) makes any unsightly building, pre-empted, or other structure, or any old, abandoned, or partially destroyed building or structure, or any building or structure commenced and left unfinished, or any abandoned well or excavation not properly protected and which may attract children and endanger them in the course of play, (6) creates places used or maintained as junk yards, or dumping grounds, or for the wrecking or disassembling of automobiles, trucks, or machinery of any kind, or for the storing or leaving of any machinery or equipment used by contractors or builders or by other persons, which said places are kept or maintained so as to essentially interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property by others, O allows the keeping of any lot or piece of ground where a pool or pond is located that holds unwholesome, impure, stagnated, or offensive water, (8) allows the open storage of commodities and materials for sale, lease, inventory or private use in areas zoned as residential. Such materials shall be screened Ordinance No. 2010-3241 5 by a solid fence and shall not be visible from a public right-of-way. Commodities are defined as, but not limited to: appliances, automotive parts, building materials, firewood, furniture (excluding patio and lawn furniture), and landscape materials. Firewood stored in rear or side yards, and A - O and A - OR zoning districts are exempt from the screening requirements, (9) possesses, manufactures, stores, sells, handles, or uses fireworks, (a) Exemption: a supervised public display of fireworks provided that a permit for such fireworks display has been obtained from the State Fire Marshall or his designated representative. (10) allows or maintains an unreasonable noise: (a) Day Time Noise (1) during the hours of 7:00 A. M. to 10:00 P.M. that when measured from the property line of a residence located in residential zoned property exceeds 63 decibels and would disturb or annoy a person of ordinary sensibilities, or (2) during the hours of 7:00 A. M. to 10:00 P.M. that when measured from a contiguous interior wall of a residence that is a multiunit residence located in residential zoned property exceeds 55 decibels and would disturb or annoy a person of ordinary sensibilities. (b) Night Time Noise (1) during the hours of 10:01 P.M to. 6:59 A. M. that when measured from the property line of a residence located in residential zoned property exceeds 56 decibels and would disturb or annoy a person of ordinary sensibilities, or (2) during the hours of 10:01 P.M to. 6:59 A. M. that when measured from a contiguous interior wall of a residence that is a multiunit residence located in residential zoned property exceeds 50 decibels and would disturb or annoy a person of ordinary sensibilities. (c) Exemptions (1) Necessary construction or property maintenance, including the use of lawnmowers, during the hours of 7:00 A.M. to 10:00 P.M., Ordinance No. Zpip-324I 6 (a) For a person to perform construction work before 7:00 A.M. or end later than 10:00 P.M. a permit must be sought and obtained from the City Building Official, and if the Building Official concludes that because of the construction operations involved construction at that time is reasonable and necessary. (b) Construction work in public rights-of-way or easements by the City or the Texas Department of Transportation. (2) Use of properly maintained air conditioning units. (d) Wolf Pen Creek Amphitheater (1) If a user, renter, or any person occupying Wolf Pen Creek Amphitheater makes or allows an unreasonable noise that would disturb or annoy a person of ordinary sensibilities the City will notify that person to lower the noise to a reasonable level. (2) If the noise level is not lowered the person may be ordered to cease use of the Amphitheater. (B) The term "person" shall mean and include any natural person, business entity, or association of people in this Chapter. (C) A violation of this Chapter is also declared a nuisance and may be enforced 5000 feet outside the city limits.