§ 8.12.010. Definitions.

As used in this chapter, except where the context indicates otherwise, the singular number includes the plural and the masculine gender includes the feminine, and the following mean:

"Abate" or "abatement" means actions to remove, stop, prevent, correct, reduce, orotherwise take steps necessary, in such a manner and to such an extent as the applicable city department director or designee(s) determines is necessary in the interest of the general health, safety and welfare of the community, to remove a condition deemed to constitute a violation of this ordinance or that has been deemed a nuisance.

"Boarded building" means a vacant building or portion of a vacant building whose doors and/or windows have been covered with plywood or other material for the purpose of preventing entry into the vacant building by persons or animals.

"Building available for sale, lease, or rent" means a building that is in compliance with the minimum property maintenance standards and has an advertising or posting of contact information concerning its availability; and/or is listed with a certified agent for the sale, lease, or rent transaction.

"Chronic nuisance:" means individual property on which multiple nuisance activities have occurred during a specified period; or nuisances which have occurred on multiple properties that are owned or controlled by a single person or entity.

"City" means the city of Sheridan.

"Condition of unsightliness" means uncovered or partially covered inoperable vehicles or solid waste upon private property which can be seen from public property, including public right-of-ways, or from property belonging to other individuals.

"Council" means the governing body of the city.

"Demolition by neglect" means the gradual deterioration of a historic building as a result of insufficient routine or major maintenance.

"Dispose" means the accumulation, storage, collection, or transportation of solid waste to a transfer facility, disposal site, sanitary landfill, or resource recovery facility.

"Disposal site" means land used for the disposal or handling of solid waste, including but not limited to, garbage or trash dumps, landfills, sludge lagoons, sludge treatment facilities, disposal sites for septic tank pumping or cesspool cleaning service, composting plants, salvage sites, incinerators for solid waste delivered by the public or by a franchised collector or franchised transporter of solid waste; but the term does not include a hazardous waste facility subject to the permit requirements of ORS Chapter 466, or, a landfill site which is used by the owner or person in control or the premises to dispose of soil, rock, concrete or other similar non decomposable materials, unless the site is used by the public, either directly or indirectly.

"Exterior property" means the open space on the premises and on adjoining property under the control of owners or operators of such premises.

"Garbage" means the animal or vegetable waste resulting from the handling, preparation, cooking, and consumption of food.

"Inoperable motor vehicle" means a vehicle which cannot be driven upon the public streets for reasons including but not limited to being unlicensed, wrecked, abandoned, in a state of disrepair, or incapable of being moved under its own power.

"Junk" means all old motor vehicles, motor vehicle parts, abandoned motor vehicles, old machinery or machinery parts, old appliances or appliance parts, old iron or other metal, glass, paper, lumber, wood, or other waste or discarded material.

"Owner" means any person, agent, operator, firm or corporation having a legal or equitable interest in the property; or recorded in the official records of the state, county, or city as holding title to the property; or otherwise having control of the property, including the conservator of the estate of any such person, and the personal representative of the estate of such person if ordered to take possession of real property by a court.

"Owner of junk" means the registered owner of a vehicle or junk as described in this chapter; a person having equity or a beneficial right, title, or interest in or to such vehicle or junk; a person having the right of temporary or permanent control of such vehicle or junk; a person who is the owner of real property on which such vehicle or junk is situated; or a person who is the lessee or in possession of property on which such vehicle or junk is situated.

"Person" means a natural person, firm, partnership, association or corporation.

"Person in charge" means unless otherwise required by the context, shall be deemed to include a property owner, agent, occupant, lessee, contract purchaser, or other person having possession or control of property or supervision of a construction project.

"Person responsible" means the person responsible for abating a nuisance includes:

1.

The owner.

2.

The person in charge of property, as defined in this section.

3.

The person who caused a nuisance or offense, as defined by this chapter to come into or continue in existence.

"Public place" means a building, place, or accommodation, whether publicly or privately owned, open and available to the general public.

"Putrescible material" means organic material that can decompose and generate foul or offensive odors or byproducts.

"Rubbish" means combustible and noncombustible waste materials, except garbage; the term shall include the residue from the burning of wood, coal, and other combustible materials, paper, rags, cartons, boxes, wood, excelsior, rubber, leather, tree branches, yard trimmings, tin cans, metals, mineral matter, glass, crockery, dust, and other similar materials.

"Solid waste" means all putrescible and non-putrescible material, including but not limited to, garbage, rubbish, refuse, ashes, wastepaper and cardboard, sewage sludge, septic tank and cesspool pumpings or other sludge; commercial, industrial, demolition and construction waste; discarded construction material; discarded or abandoned vehicles or parts thereof; discarded home and industrial appliances and equipment; manure; vegetable or animal solid and semisolid wastes; dead animals; useless or discarded material; infectious waste as defined in ORS 459.387; or, other similar wastes; but the term "solid waste" does not include hazardous wastes as defined by ORS Chapter 466 or regulations adopted by the department of environmental quality or the environmental quality commission.

"Vacant building means a building/structure that appears to be empty of furnishings and/or merchandise and not otherwise legally occupied, or any condition that, on its own or combined with other conditions present, would lead a reasonable person to believe that a property or building is unoccupied. Such conditions include, but are not limited to: overgrown and/or dead vegetation; accumulation of newspapers, circulars and/or flyers; disconnected utilities; accumulation of trash, junk and/or debris; broken or boarded up windows and/or doors; the absence of merchandise consistent with retail sale; and statements by neighbors or government employees that the property or building is vacant. Portions of buildings with more than one section such as buildings with separate storefronts may be determined to be vacant even if other portions of the building are occupied.

"Weeds and noxious growth" means all grasses, annual plants, and vegetation, other than trees, shrubs, and cultivated flowers and gardens.

(Ord. No. 2013-02, § 1, 3-18-2013)