Coalinga Municipal Code Art. 1 Purpose and Definitions

The purpose of this chapter is to provide standards to safeguard life, health, property, and public welfare in keeping with the character of the City by allowing for the maintenance of property for each of the following purposes:

(a) To promote a sound and attractive community appearance;

(b) To safeguard the health, safety and welfare of the people by maintaining property in good and appropriate condition;

(c) To enhance the economic value of the community, and each area in it, through the regulation of the maintenance of property;

(d) To reduce the threat to health, safety, welfare, appearance, and economic value due to the decline in property condition by lawfully delineating the circumstances under which such condition may be considered illegal and/or abated; and

(e) To eliminate public nuisances.

(§ A, Ord. 584, eff. May 4, 1991, as amended by § 1, Ord. 620, eff. March 7, 1996)

For the purposes of this chapter, unless otherwise apparent from the context, the following terms are defined as follows:

"Building" shall mean any structure built and maintained for the support, shelter, or enclosure of persons, animals, chattels, or property of any kind but shall not include temporary buildings and trailers, with or without wheels.

"Director of Public Works" shall include the Director or the Fire Chief or their designees.

"Owner" shall mean any person owning property as disclosed by the equalized assessment roll for City taxes, tenant, or other person having control or possession of property.

"Person" shall mean an individual, firm, copartnership, joint venture, association, social club, fraternal organization, corporation, estate, trust, receiver, syndicate, City, County, special district, or any other group or combination acting as an entity.

"Planting" shall include any material put or set in the ground to grow or increase.

"Property" shall mean real property including but not limited to lands, tenements, and hereditaments held by any owner.

"Recreational vehicle" shall mean any vehicular type portable structure without permanent foundation which can be towed, hauled or driven and primarily designed as temporary living accommodation for recreational, camping or travel use, including but not limited to travel trailers (including those which telescope or fold down), chassis-mounted campers, tent trailers, slide-in campers, converted buses and converted vans, and self-propelled motorhomes.

"Sport vehicle" shall mean, but is not limited to, snowmobiles, snowmobile trailers, wave runners, wave runner trailers, jet-skis, jet-ski trailers, boats, boat trailers, all-terrain vehicles, and all-terrain vehicle trailers. For the purpose of this chapter, a boat, snowmobile or other sport vehicle, when stored or kept on a trailer, shall be considered as one (1) sport vehicle.

"Structure" shall mean anything constructed, built or planted upon, any edifice or building of any kind, or any piece of work artificially built up or composed of parts joined together in some definite manner, which structure requires location on the ground or is attached to something having a location on the ground, including swimming and wading pools and patios, outdoor areas, paved areas, walks, tennis courts, and similar recreation areas.

"Temporary" shall mean readily movable and used, or intended to be used, for a period not to exceed ninety (90) consecutive days.

"Weeds" shall mean any of the following: (a) weeds which bear seeds of a downy or wingy nature; (b) sagebrush, chaparral or any other brush or weeds which attain such large growth as to become, when dry, a fire menace or nuisance to adjacent property; (c) weeds which are otherwise noxious or dangerous; (d) poison oak and poison ivy when the conditions of growth are such as to constitute a menace to the public health; and (e) dry grass, stubble, brush, litter or other flammable material which endangers the public safety by creating a fire hazard.

(§ A, Ord. 584, eff. May 4, 1991, as amended by § 2, Ord. 620, eff. March 7, 1996, and § 1, Ord. 730, eff. May 17, 2008)