Lemoore Municipal Code Ch. 2 Plants and Weeds 1

No owner of any lot, place or area within the City, or agent of such owners, shall permit on such lot, place or area, or upon any sidewalk or street abutting the same, any weeds, grass, rubbish, refuse, dirt, or deleterious, unhealthful growths, or other noxious matter that may be growing, lying or located thereon.

A. The City Council may declare by resolution as public nuisances, and abate:

1. All weeds growing upon the streets, sidewalks or private property in the City.

2. All rubbish, refuse and dirt upon parkways, sidewalks or private property in the City.

B. The resolution shall:

1. Refer to the street by its commonly known name.

2. Describe the property upon which or in front of which the nuisance exists by giving its lot and block number according to the official or City assessment map.

C. Any number of streets, sidewalks or parcels or private property may be included in one resolution.

Weeds, as used in this Chapter, includes any of the following:

A. Weeds which bear seeds of a downy or wingy nature.

B. Sagebrush, chaparral and any other brush or weeds which attain such large growth as to become, when dry, a fire menace to adjacent improved 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.

E. Dry grass, stubble, brush, litter or other flammable material which endangers the public safety by creating a fire hazard.

A. At the time it adopts the resolution as provided for or by Section 4-2-2, the City Council may also find and declare that weeds on specified parcels of property are seasonal and recurrent nuisances.

B. Such seasonal and recurrent nuisances shall be abated in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter; provided, that upon the second and any subsequent occurrences of such nuisance on the same parcel or parcels within the same calendar year, no further hearings need be held and it shall be sufficient to mail a post card notice to the owners of the property as they and their addresses appear upon the current assessment roll.

C. The notice shall refer to and describe the property and shall state that noxious or dangerous weeds of a seasonal and recurrent nature are growing on or in front of the property, and that the same constitute a public nuisance which must be abated by the removal of said noxious or dangerous weeds, and that otherwise they will be removed and the nuisance will be abated by the City authorities, in which case the cost of such removal shall be assessed upon the parcel and lands from which or in front of which such weeds are removed and that, upon confirmation, such cost will constitute a lien upon such parcel or lands until paid.

D. The notice required above shall, in addition to containing all other required matters, state that the efficient and economical control of such seasonal and recurrent nuisance requires preventive chemical control of such weeds, weed seeds, and weed seedlings and that the City may require preventive chemical control of such nuisance.

E. In the event the City is once required to abate such nuisance, the City may, in addition, before and during the next following germinating season of such weeds, provide for the preventative abatement of such nuisance by using chemical control of such weeds.

After passage of the resolution, the Superintendent shall cause notices to be conspicuously posted on or in front of the property on or in front of which the nuisance exists. He shall post:

A. One notice to each separately owned parcel of property of not over fifty feet (50') frontage.

B. Not more than two (2) notices to any such parcel of one hundred feet (100') frontage or less.

C. Notices at not more than one hundred feet (100') apart if the frontage of such parcel is greater than one hundred feet (100').

The notices shall be posted at least five (5) days prior to the time for hearing objections by the City Council.

The notice described in Section 4-2-5 shall be in substantially the following form:

NOTICE TO DESTROY WEEDS AND REMOVE RUBBISH, REFUSE AND DIRT

Notice is hereby given that on the day of , 19 , the City Council of the City of Lemoore passed a resolution declaring that noxious or dangerous weeds are growing upon or in front of the property on this street, and that rubbish, refuse, and dirt are upon or in front of property on this street, and more particularly described in the resolution, and that they constitute a public nuisance which must be abated by the removal of the weeds, rubbish, refuse and dirt. Otherwise they will be removed and the nuisance abated by the City and the cost of removal assessed upon the land from or in front of which the weeds, rubbish, refuse and dirt are removed and will constitute a lien upon such land until paid. Reference is hereby made to the resolution for further particulars. A copy of said resolution is on file in the office of the City Clerk.

All property owners having any objections to the proposed removal of the weeds, rubbish, refuse and dirt are hereby notified to attend a meeting of the City Council of the City of Lemoore to be held of 19 , when their objections will be heard and given due consideration.

A. As an alternative to posting notice of the resolution and notice of the meeting when objections will be heard, the City Council may direct the City Clerk to mail written notice of the proposed abatement to all persons owning property described in the resolution. The City Clerk shall cause such written notice to be mailed to each person to whom such described property is assessed in the last equalized assessment roll available on the date the resolution was adopted by the City Council.

B. The County Assessor, at the request of the City Clerk, shall, within ten (10) days thereafter, mail to the City Clerk a list of the names and addresses of all of the persons owning property described in the resolution. The address of the owners shown on the assessment roll shall be conclusively deemed to be the proper address for the purpose of mailing such notice. The City shall reimburse the County for the actual cost of furnishing such list and the cost shall be a part of the costs of abatement.

C. The notices mailed by the City Clerk shall be mailed at least five (5) days prior to the time for hearing objections by the City Council, and said notices shall be substantially in the form provided by Section 4-2-6 except that notices shall be signed by the City Clerk.

A. At the time stated in the notices, the City Council shall hear and consider all objections to the proposed removal of weeds, rubbish, refuse and dirt. It may continue the hearing from time to time.

B. By motion or resolution at the conclusion of the hearing, the City Council shall allow or overrule any objections. Upon the passage of the motion or on adoption of the resolution, the City Council acquires jurisdiction to proceed and perform the work of removal.

C. The decision of the City Council is final.

A. If objections have not been made or after the City Council has disposed of those made, it shall order the Superintendent to abate the nuisance by having the weeds, rubbish, refuse and dirt removed. The order shall be made by motion or resolution.

B. The Superintendent may enter upon private property to abate the nuisance.

C. Before the Superintendent arrives, any property owner may remove the weeds, rubbish, refuse and dirt at his own expense. Nevertheless, in any case in which an order to abate is issued, the City Council, by motion or resolution, may further order that a special assessment and lien be imposed pursuant to subsection 4-2-12A. In that case, the assessment and lien shall be limited to the costs incurred by the City in enforcing abatement upon the parcels, including investigation, boundary determination, measurement, clerical and other related costs.

A. The Superintendent shall keep an account of the costs of abatement in front of or on each separate parcel of land where the work is done by him. He shall submit to the City Council for confirmation an itemized written report showing such cost.

B. A copy of the report shall be posted for at least three (3) days prior to its submission to the City Council on or near the location for the posting of the agenda for any meeting of the Council, with a notice of the time of submission of the report to the Council.

C. At the time fixed for receiving and considering the report, the City Council shall hear the report with any objections of the property owners liable to be assessed for the abatement. It may modify the report if it is deemed necessary. The City Council shall then confirm the report by motion or resolution.

Abatement of the nuisance may, in the discretion of the City Council, be performed by contract awarded by the City Council on the basis of competitive bids let to the lowest responsible bidder pursuant to the Government Code of the State of California. In such event, the contractor shall keep the account and submit the itemized written report for such separate parcel of land.

A. The cost of abatement in front of or upon each parcel of land and the costs incurred by the City in enforcing abatement upon the parcels, including investigations, boundary determination, measurement, clerical and other related costs, constitutes a special assessment against that parcel. After the assessment is made and confirmed, a lien attaches on the parcel upon recordation of the order confirming the assessment in the office of the County Recorder of Kings County, except that if any real property to which such lien would attach has been transferred or conveyed to a bona fide purchaser for value, or if a lien of a bona fide encumbrance for value has been created and attaches thereon, prior to the date on which the first installment of such taxes as imposed by subsection B would become delinquent, then the lien which would otherwise be imposed by this Section shall not attach to such real property and the costs of abatement and the costs of enforcing abatement, as confirmed, relating to such property shall be transferred to the unsecured roll for collection.

B. Except as provided in subsection A, after confirmation of the report, a copy shall be delivered to the County Assessor and the Tax Collector, who shall add the amount of the assessment to the next regular tax bill levied against the parcel.

C. Except as provided in subsection A, if the County Assessor and the Tax Collector assess property and collect taxes for the City, a certified copy of the report shall be filed with the County Auditor on or before August 10 of each year. The descriptions of the parcels reported shall be those used for the same parcels on the County Assessor's map books for the current year.

D. The County Auditor shall enter each assessment on the County tax roll opposite the parcel of land.

E. The lien of said assessment shall have the priority of the taxes with which it is collected.

A. The amount of the assessment shall be collected at the time and in the manner of other assessments and taxes. If delinquent, the amounts shall be subject to the same penalties and procedure of foreclosure and sale provided for ordinary assessments and taxes.

B. As an alternative method, the County Tax Collector, in his discretion, may collect the assessments without reference to the general taxes by issuing separate bills and receipts for the assessments.

C. The Superintendent may receive the amount due on the abatement cost and issue receipts at any time after the confirmation of the report and until ten (10) days before a copy is given to the County Assessor and Tax Collector, or where a certified copy is filed with the County Auditor, until August 1 following the confirmation of the report.

The City Council may order refunded all or part of an assessment paid pursuant to this Chapter if it finds that all or part of the assessment has been erroneously levied. An assessment or part thereof shall not be refunded unless a claim is filed with the Clerk of the City Council on or before November 1 after the assessment lien became due and payable. The claim shall be verified by the person who paid the assessment, or his guardian, executor or administrator. (Ord. 8901, 2-7-89)