[HISTORY: Adopted by the City Council of the City of Colonial Heights
4-8-1975 as Ch. 5 of the 1975 Code. Amendments noted where applicable.][1]
[1]
Editor's Note: For statutory provisions regarding junkyards, see Code
of Virginia, § 33.1-348.
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
and automobile graveyards 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:
Any lot or place which is exposed to the weather and upon which more
than five (5) motor vehicles of any kind, incapable of being operated and
which it would not be economically practical to make operative, are placed,
located or found.
Old or scrap copper, brass, rope, rags, batteries, paper, trash,
rubber, debris, waste or junked, dismantled or wrecked automobiles or parts
thereof, iron, steel and other old or scrap ferrous or nonferrous material.
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 the garbage
dumps and sanitary fills.
[1]
Editor's Note: For statutory provisions containing similar definitions,
see Code of Virginia, § 33.1-348.
Any person proposing to establish a junkyard or an automobile graveyard
in the City shall make application to the City Manager for a permit for such
operation and shall advertise this application for two (2) weeks, stating
where the yard is to be located. The City Manager shall hold a public hearing
on this application before any permit will be issued. Final action on such
application shall be approved by the City Council, with the cost of advertising
to be paid by the applicant. If the permit is granted, the applicant shall
procure such license as may be required by the City from the Commissioner
of Revenue. The license may be revoked any time the applicant fails to comply
with any of the sections or parts of this chapter.
A.
No junkyard or automobile graveyard shall be allowed
in the city, any portion of which is within five hundred (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 (8) and ten (10) feet
in height. In the event 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 (4 x 6)
feet advertising such operation.
B.
All junkyards and automobile graveyards shall be restricted
to and located in industrial zones only, as shown on the Zoning Map of the
city.
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. The doors must
be removed from refrigerators, iceboxes or similar household appliances before
being placed in a junkyard.
Any junkyard or automobile graveyard in existence on the effective date
of this Code and which was established on or after April 4, 1968, and which
does not conform to the provisions of § 33.1-348 of the Code of
Virginia is declared to be a public and private nuisance, and unless it is,
by its owner or operator, made to conform to the provisions of § 33.1-348
of the Code of Virginia, it may be removed, obliterated or abated by the city,
and the City may collect the costs of such removal, obliteration or abatement
from its owner or operator in any manner provided by law, and on and after
the effective date of this City Code, no City permit shall be issued under
this chapter for the operation of a junkyard or automobile graveyard unless
it shall conform to the provisions of this chapter.
