[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Board of the Town of North
East 9-10-1970 (Ch. 65 of the 1979 Code). Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Garbage, rubbish and refuse — See Ch. 101.
This chapter is enacted in recognition of the fact that junk
cars abandoned or stored on private property can constitute both a
public and private nuisance. They are a source of potential hurt to
children and others who may find them an attractive nuisance. They
are replete with broken glass, sharp torn metal edges and points,
gasoline remaining in tanks of a highly explosive and combustible
nature and hurtful acid in batteries, to mention but a few of the
more obvious sources of potential physical hurt found on these junk
cars. Besides this, these junk cars constitute a blight on the Town's
landscape; they destroy the aesthetic qualities of the Town; and they
are generally otherwise unsightly. Their existence tends to depreciate
not only the property on which they are located but also the property
of other persons in the neighborhood and Town generally. They constitute
the Town a less safe and less pleasant place in which to live and
to do business. They hurt the welfare of the Town as a whole. The
intent of this chapter is to establish a legal procedure for the removal
of these junk cars where they are found in the Town outside duly licensed
establishments.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated:
The Town Code Enforcement Officer.[1]
Any motor vehicle, whether automobile, bus, truck, trailer,
tractor or any other contraption originally intended for travel on
public highways, which is abandoned, left or located by its owner
or any other person, or is permitted or condoned to be abandoned,
left or located by its owner or any other person, on private premises
in the Town of North East and outside any establishment duly licensed
by the Town, and which junk car is unregistered by the State of New
York or any other state and not operable. The use of the term in the
singular herein is intended, where applicable, to include the plural.
Any individual, person or persons, firm, partnership or corporation,
whether business, membership, religious, charitable or otherwise,
or any association or other unit or entity owning real property in
the Town of North East.
A.Â
Any junk car, as defined by § 110-2 hereinabove, may be removed from the premises on which it is located by the Town of North East in the manner hereinafter provided.
B.Â
The enforcement officer, upon detecting a junk car, shall have one
of the Town patrolmen serve written notice on the person owning the
premises on which the same is located ordering such person to remove
the same or cause the same to be removed therefrom within 30 days
of the date of such service. Such notice shall also contain a description
of the premises, a statement as to the location thereon of a junk
car, reference to this chapter and to the fact that the location of
such junk car on such premises is in violation of this chapter. If
such premises are owned by more than one person, personal service
on any one of such owners shall suffice. However, as to any owner
not personally served with such notice, or if no owner can be located
upon whom to make personal service, the enforcement officer shall
mail such notice to owners not personally served, or to the owner
and to all the owners if no owner was personally served, by registered
mail to their or his last known address as shown on the latest completed
assessment roll of the Town. In addition, such enforcement officer
shall post conspicuously a copy of such notice on the premises upon
which such junk car is located.
C.Â
At the expiration of 30 days after the service or mailing and posting
of such notice, if such junk car has not been removed, the enforcement
officer shall report such fact to the Town Board in writing. Such
report shall recite the violation, the notices given as required hereunder
and the failure to comply therewith, and may include or refer to photographs
of such junk car and of the premises upon which it is located. Such
report shall be entered in the official minutes of the Town Board
by the Town Clerk and any such photographs shall be filed in the Town
Clerk's office. The Town Board shall thereafter hold a public hearing,
on 10 days' prior notice published in the official newspaper of the
Town, if there is one, otherwise in a newspaper having general circulation
in the Town, and posted on the signboard of the Town Clerk's office.
Such notice of hearing shall include a statement that the purposes
of the hearing are to give the person owning such junk car an opportunity
to be heard as to why same has not been removed and also for the Town
Board to receive proposals for the removal of such junk car.
D.Â
After the hearing, the Town Board may contract for the removal of
such junk car. Any expense to the Town in accomplishing such removal
may be assessed by the Town Board on the real property from which
such junk car was removed, and the expense so assessed shall constitute
a lien and charge on the real property on which it is levied until
paid or otherwise satisfied or discharged as other Town charges.
