[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Trustees of the Village of Sagaponack 8-13-2007 by L.L. No. 19-2007. Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Fire prevention — See Ch. 82.
Property maintenance — See Ch. 164.
Vehicles and traffic — See Ch. 2150
The Board of Trustees, recognizing that the uncontrolled placing or keeping of junked motor vehicles constitutes an unsanitary, unsafe, unsightly and dangerous condition, and that to protect and promote the public safety, health and general welfare of the people of the Village it is necessary to provide for the removal of such junked vehicles, hereby declares such junked vehicles to be a public nuisance.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:
JUNKED VEHICLE
Any vehicle, including a trailer, which is without a currently valid license plate or plates and is in such a rusted, wrecked, discarded, dismantled, partly dismantled, inoperative or abandoned condition as to be no longer intended or in condition for legal use on the public highways. The Building Inspector shall make the final determination as to whether any particular vehicle shall be classified as a junked vehicle.
A. 
Whenever the Building Inspector shall determine that a vehicle at any location within the Village shall be classified as a junked vehicle, he shall serve a notice or order in the manner prescribed herein, specifying in what respect the vehicle is determined to be so classified and requiring the owner to remove such junked vehicle within 30 days after service of such notice or such lesser period of time as may be determined by the Building Inspector when an emergency exists. Such notice shall provide that if the owner shall fail to remove such junked vehicle within the period of compliance prescribed, the Building Inspector may remove or cause such junked vehicle to be removed and shall further notify the owner of his right to a hearing as hereinafter provided.
B. 
Whenever such a thirty-day notice is served, the owner may, within 15 days after such service, request a hearing before the Building Inspector to review the determination contained in the notice, and such hearing shall be had prior to the expiration of the period for compliance prescribed. The decision of the Building Inspector shall be either to affirm the notice or rescind it.
C. 
The rules of evidence prevailing in courts of record shall not be controlling in hearings held pursuant to this chapter.
D. 
If such junked vehicle is not removed by the owner within the time prescribed, after service of such notice, the Building Inspector may proceed with the removal of the junked vehicle as provided in the notice or may cause the same to be done.
E. 
If the Building Inspector proceeds with the removal of a junked vehicle, he may let contracts therefor. The cost of such removal may be met from appropriations made therefor. The Building Inspector shall keep a record of such notices together with the procedures involved and the items of cost incurred in their execution.
F. 
All costs and expenses incurred by the Village in connection with the proceeding to remove junked vehicles pursuant to this chapter, including a reasonable charge for administration and handling expenses, shall be assessed against the land on which said junked vehicle was located and from which it was removed and shall be and become a lien on said land as of the date of such assessment.
G. 
Notwithstanding the foregoing, and in addition to any other remedy, the Building Inspector may maintain an action against the owner to recover the cost of executing such notice and/or removal of such junked vehicle.
Unless an emergency shall be determined by the Building Inspector to exist, every notice issued pursuant to this chapter shall be served at least 30 days before the time for compliance specified therein. It shall be sufficient service of such notice if it is posted in a conspicuous place upon the premises and upon the vehicle affected and a copy thereof mailed by certified or registered mail on the same day as such posting to the last known address of the owner of the real property so affected as the same shall appear in the most recent tax rolls.