Ordinance 1581 - Regulation of Junk Vehicles, Combustible Weeds and Grasses, and Community DecayORDINANCE N0.1581
AN ORDINANCE AMENDING PORTIONS of CHAPTERS 10, 11. AND 19 of THE
.KALISPELL MUNICIPAL CODE RELATING TO THE REGULATION of JUNK
VEHICLES, COMBUSTIBLE WEEDS AND GRASSES AND COMMUNITY DECAY
AND DECLARING AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
BE IT ORDAINEDY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY of KALISPELL, M N ANA,,
AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION I Chapter 19 Section 36 of the Kalispell Municipal Code shall be and is
hereby amended to read as follows:
1 -36: JUNK VEHICLES ON PRIVATE PROPERTY:
A. Definitions:
1, "Component part" means any identifiable part of a discarded, ruined, wrecked,
or dismantled motor vehicle, including but not limited to fenders, doors, hoods,
engine blocks, motor parts, transmissions, frames, axles, wheels, tires, and
passenger compartment fixtures.
2. "'Junk vehicle"' means a discarded, rimed, wrecked, or dismantled motor
vehicle (including component parts) that is inoperative or incapable of being
riven,
3. "Public View" means any point within the public right-of-way, or private .goad
or alley, from which junk vehicles can be seen.
. "'Reasonable Diligence" means a period of lessthan sixty 6 days.
5. "Shielding" means the construction or use of fencing or man-made or natural
barriers to conceal junk vehicles from public view. The use of plastic tarps does
not constitute shielding under this section.
B. Unlawful: No junk vehicle or component part shall be placed on or allowed to remain
on any premises in the city exposed to the public view.
C. Exception This section shall not be construed to prevent any occupant of any
premises from repairing his motor vehicle on his premises even though exposed to public
view, as long as he pursues his work to completion with reasonable diligence.
D. Responsibility for violation: The occupant of any premises shall be responsible for
any violation of this section; the head of the household shall be deemed to be the
occupant. In the case of vacant or unoccupied premises, the owner thereof shall be
responsible sible for any violation of this section..
E. Wrecking; and Junkyards: This section shall apply to all. automobile wrecking and
junkyards, except to the extent permitted in industrial districts by the zoning chapter.
F. Inspection; Notice Of violation: It shall be the duty of the City Manager or his
designee to inspect the city at reasonable intervals and cause written notice of any
violation of this section to be given to the occupant of any premises or to the owner of
unoccupied premises which are in violation of this section, who shall have ten 10 days
after the service of such notice within which to comply with this section. The notice may
be personally served on the head of such household, or owner if the premises are
unoccupied, or may be served by registered mail addressed to the head of such
household, or owner of unoccupied premises, at his address on such premises, or at such
other address as he may personally reside.
G. Flotation; Nuisance: Any violation of this section shall constitute a nuisance which
may be abated as provided in section 11-26 through 1 1 -26() of this code, and the
occupant or owner of such premises, upon conviction thereof, may also be punished as
provided in section 1-9 of this code.
SECTION 11 Chapter 10 Section 9 of the Kalispell Municipal Code shalt be and is
hereby amended to read as follows:
1.0- : REMOVAL of FIRE HOARDS FROM PRIVATE PROPERTY REQUIRED:
t shall be the duty of the owner, his representative or contract purchaser, or the occupant
of real property within the city to remove all dry grass, readily combustible rubbish or
debris from said property so that such material shall not constitute a fire hazard. After
July 1 of each year all weeds and grasses over eight inches " in height constitute a fire
hazard for the purposes of this section.
.0-9: PROCEDURE UPON FAILURE of PROPERTY OWNER*
The City Manager or his designee is hereby authorized to remove such material, greeds or
sasses and charge such person with the cost of such removal and a reasonable
administrative charge if the owner, his representative or contract p-ur, aser, or the
occupant of any real. property in the city fails or refuses within ten 10) days after having
been given written notice to do so: a to remove therefrom all dry grasses, or readily
combustible rubbish or debris, or ) after July 1, to remove any grasses or weeds over
eight 'Inches " in height.
SECTION III Chapter 11 of the Kalispell Municipal Code shall be and is hereby
amended as follows:
11- 22: PURPOSE:
The purpose of this article is to regulate, control, and prohibit conditions that contribute
to comm4y decay on or adjacent to all public streets within the city of Kalispell.
1.-23: DEFINITIONS:
in this article the following terms have the meanings indicated below:
COMMUNITYDECAY: A public nuisance created by a.o�in rubble, debris jn or,
refuse to accumulate resulting in conditions that are injurious to health, indecent,
offensive to the senses, or obstruct the free use of property so as to interfere with the
comfortable enjoyment of life or property; provided, however, that "community decay,
may not be construed or defined to apply to normal farming, ranching, or other
agricultural facility, and any appurtenances thereof, during the course of its normal
operation or normal activities at a shooting range.
PUBLIC VET: Any area visible from any point within the public right-of-way, or from
a private road or alley.
PERSON: An individual, firm, partnership, company, association, corporation, city,
town, county or any other entity whether organized for profit or not.
PUBLIC NUISANCE: A condition do ieh endangers safety or health, is offensive to the
senses, or obstructs the free use of property so as to interfere with the comfortable
enjoyment of life or property by an entire community or neighborhood or by any
eo .sidera le number of persons. The condition is no less a nuisance although the extent
of the annoyance or damage inflicted upon individuals may be unequal.
SHIELDING: The construction or use of fencing or manmade made or natural barriers to
conceal community decay from public view. The use of plastic tarps does not constitute
shielding under this section.
-2 : PROHIBITION:
No person shall .maintain community decay on property owned by him., or under his
control. For purposes of this article, a public nuisance includes, but is not necessarily
limited to any of the following conditions that exist within public view. -
A. The dumping, piling, or stacking of bricks, s, concrete blocks, waste wood and similar
material on open lots or fields, uffless said material is stacked in neat piles and all
waste materials from the cleaning of such items, such as mortar, wood splinters,
broken and unusable bricks, are removed
. . The storage or accumulation of a significant amount of cardboard boxes, broken
packing boxes, paper, or other similar items on lots or fields;
C. The piling, dumping or depositing of any dirt, demolition wastes including wood,
bricks, concrete, used road blacktop and other similar materials on any open lots or
fields, unless such material is to be utilized for fill material to fill a land depression,
and provided that, if such material is -used as fill material, all such material is
completely covered with clean fill material once every tern (10) days and the fill area
is adequately fenced to restrict access to the area; and further provided that the
failure to comply with the periodic cover and access control requirements shall
constitute a violation of this article;
D. The storage and accumulation of iron, metal, component vehicle and machine parts,
junk vehicles, household appliances, barrels and other salvaged metal items unless
such material is stored in are approved, licensed, and shielded motor vehicle
wrecking; facility;
E. The accumulation and storage of any other rubble, debris, junk, or refuse that, upon
investigation., is deemed to be a "public ui a e" as defined in this article.
1 -25 : SHIELDING:
The maintenance ance of materials that would be considered community decay_ der this
article shall be lawful if such materials are shielded from public view in accordance with
the following standards:
A. Any shielding must conform to all local zoning, planning, and building provisions
and shall be of sufficient height that none of the violation on the premises is visible
to public view.
B. When .fences are used for shielding, the boards may be spaced and/or slanted to
reduce wind load'. the space between boards when viewed from a broadside vier
shall not be more than one and one-half inches 1 1/2" and the interval between
spaces shall not be less than seven and one-half inches 1/2"). Rough
dimensional lumber or better is acceptable.. Chain link fencing with standard
fiberglass or other inserts is acceptable, provided the gap between adjacent slats
does not exceed one and one-half inches 1 1/2"). The fencing is to be maintained
by the property owner or occupant in a neat and workmanlike manner and shall be
replaced when necessary.
C. Shielding; with shrubs and trees shall provide a degree of shielding similar to that
produced by fencing at all times of the year. Dirt berms are acceptable for
shielding purposes, provided the berm slopes are graded smooth and seeded with an
adequate grass seed formula.
D. other types of fencing of equivalent permanence, attractiveness, and shielding
qualities are also acceptable.
E. The use of plastic tams does not constitute shielding under this section.
F. No more than one of the approved shielding materials shall be used on any one side
of a shielding fence.
11 -2 :
ABATEMENT.-
n addition to proceedings under Chapter 1., Article I of the Kalispell City Code, the
abatement of conditions which constitute community decay prohibited by this article may
be accomplished under the provisions of this section.
A. The City of Kalispell City Manager or his designee shall be responsible for
initiating abatement proceedings.
:1 . When the City Manager or his designee receives a complaint that a condition of
community decay exists, he, or his agent, shall inspect the property alleged to be in
violation of this article to determine whether there 's a violation of this article.
C. If he determines that there is a violation of this article, the City Manager or his
designee shall notify the owner of the property in writing of the violation by
certified mail and order its abatement within thirty 3) days. The notice of
violation shall.
1. Include a statement specifically describing the violation;
2. Specify that the owner has thirty 3 days from receipt of such notice to brink; the
property into compliance with this article by means of removal or shielding of the
conditions; and
3. Advise the owner that if the violation is not abated, the city may undertake
abatement and assess the costs of that abatement to the owner.
D. The owner may, after receipt of the notice of violation, submit a plan of abatement
to the City Manager or his designee, which shall include:
1. The type of abatement or shielding to be undertaken;
2. The date for commencement of action; and
3. The date for completion of the abatement.
The City Manager or his designee may accept such plan and defer further proceedings
under this article pending the date of completion of the abatement,
E. In the alternative, the owner may, within fourteen 1 days of the date of issuance
of the orders appeal the abatement order to the City Manager. Upon receipt of a
timely notice of appeal, the City Ma.aer_shll schedule a hearing within twenty
(20) days, but may postpone that hearing at the request of either party. Following
the hearing, the City Manager may either:
... Determine that a violation exists and order abatement within thirty 3 days; or
2. Determine that no violation exists and dismiss the proceedings.
F. In the evert that the owner fails to comply with an abatement order, or a
abatement plan approved by the City Manager or his designee under subsection .
of this section, the City manager or his designee may enter upon the owner's
er's
property with the specific purpose of abating or shielding the violation, whichever
A.
the City Manager or his designee deems appropriate:
. The city .may assess the property owner/user for the actual costs of the
abatement.
2. If the assessment is not Paid, it shall become a lien upon the property and
enforced as in nonpayment of property tapes.
11-27: JURISDICTION:
This article applies to all of the city limits of the city of Kalispell.
11-2 : PENA Y.
A person convicted of the offense of maintainingmaintarning community decay under this article is
guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine rot to exceed five hundred dollars
($500.00) or imprisonment not to exceed six ) worths, or by both fine and
imprisonment.
SECTION IV This Ordinance shalt be effective thirty 3 days from and after the date
f its final passage and approval.
PASSED AND APPROVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL AND SIGNED BY THE MAYOR
AY R
HIS 7TH DAY OF .AUGUST, Zoo .
ATTEST:
Theresa White
City Clerk