[HISTORY: Adopted by the City Council of the City of Galax as Ch.
9 of the 1974 Code. Amendments noted where applicable.]
For the purpose of promoting the safety, health, welfare, convenience
and enjoyment of public travel, to protect the public investment in City highways
and streets and to preserve and enhance the scenic beauty of lands bordering
City highways and streets, it is hereby declared to be in the public interest
to regulate and restrict the establishment, operation and maintenance of junkyards
as hereinafter set out.
For the purposes of this chapter, the following words and phrases shall
have the meanings respectively ascribed to them by this section:
Old or scrap copper, brass, rope, rags, batteries, paper, trash,
rubber debris, waste or junked, dismantled or wrecked automobiles, parts thereof,
iron, steel and other old or scrap ferrous or nonferrous materials.
An establishment or place of business which is maintained, operated
or used for storing, keeping, buying or selling junk or for the maintenance
or operation of an automobile graveyard, and the term shall include garbage
dumps and sanitary landfills.
A.
Any person proposing to establish a junkyard in the City
shall make application to the City Manager for a permit for such operation.
He shall advertise this application for two weeks, stating where the yard
is to be located.
B.
The City Manager shall hold a public hearing on this
application before any permit will be issued.
C.
Final action on such application shall be approved by
the City Council, with the cost of advertising to be paid by the applicant.
D.
If the permit is granted, the applicant shall procure
such license as may be required by the Commissioner of the Revenue.
E.
The license shall be revoked any time that the applicant
fails to comply with any of the sections or parts of this chapter.
A.
No junkyard shall be allowed in the City, any portion
of which is within 500 feet of the nearest edge of the right-of-way of any
highway or City street, unless it is completely screened on any open side
by a masonry wall, a uniformly painted solid board fence or an evergreen hedge
between eight and 10 feet in height. In the event that a fence or masonry
wall is used, it must be painted and kept in a good state of repair, and no
signs or advertising may be placed on the fence or wall other than a sign
not larger than four by six feet advertising such operation.
B.
All junkyards shall be restricted to and located in industrial
zones only, as shown on the Zoning Map of the City.
A.
There shall be no burning of materials of any kind in
a junkyard, unless in an approved incinerator, and all combustible materials,
such as paper, rags, rubber, etc., shall be stored in an enclosed building.
B.
The door must be removed from refrigerators, iceboxes
or similar household appliances before being placed in a junkyard.
Any junkyard which comes into existence after August 20, 1970, and which
cannot be made to conform to the requirements set out herein is declared to
be a public and private nuisance and may be forthwith removed, obliterated
or abated by direction of the City Council or its representative. The Council
may collect the costs of such removal, obliteration or abatement from the
person owning or operating the junkyard.
Any person violating or failing to comply with any provision of this chapter shall, upon conviction, be subject to punishment as provided in § 1-13.
