Weed Control Ordinance
NOXIOUS WEED NOTICE TO WARREN PROPERTY OWNERS
All vacant and occupied property overgrown with weeds, grass and other rank vegetation over 6 inches high must be cut by May 1, 2023 and as often as necessary thereafter. Failure to comply with the City’s noxious weed ordinance will result in mowing by the City and a lien placed against the property. (Code of Ordinances, Chapter 21 Nuisances; Article III Noxious Weeds Section 21-46, 21-47 and 21-48)
Section. 21-47. Duty of owners and occupants.
- The ordinance requires property owners occupying and/or owning any property whether occupied or vacant, improved or unimproved, shall permit or maintain on any such property, or on the untraveled portion of streets lying between the road and sidewalk which abuts on any such property, and any growth of weeds, grass or other rank vegetation to a greater height than six (6) inches on the average, or any accumulation of dead weeds, grass, or brush.
- It shall be the duty of the occupant and/or owner of every property whether occupied or vacant, within the city to cut and remove or destroy by lawful means all such weeds, grass, or rank, poisonous or noxious vegetation once before the first (1st) day of May and as often there after as may be necessary to comply with ordinance.
- It shall be the duty of the occupant and/or owner of every property whether occupied or vacant improved, or unimproved, within the city to remove by lawful means all such garbage, excrement or other unwholesome, deleterious or offensive thing or substance, trash or rubbish, and/or dead or hazardous tree or tree limb that threatens surrounding property or the public right of way as may be necessary to comply with the ordinance.
Sec. 21-48. Failure to comply; remedy costs.
- (a) If the provisions of section 21-47 are not complied with, the director of public service, or his duly appoint representative, shall give written notice to the occupant and/or owner of the property, by a warning notice posting on the premises and/or first class mail to comply with the provisions of section 21-47 within five (5) days of the date of the notice, and if the notice is not complied with within such time, the director of public service, or his duly appointed representative, any cause such weeds, grass, or other vegetation, and any item listed in section 21-47, to be removed or destroyed and the actual cost of cutting, removal or destruction, with a charge of fifty dollars ($50.00) flat rate for administrative expenses, plus twenty-five (25) percent of the actual cost of cutting, removal, or destruction, shall be a lien on the property and added to the taxes assessed against the property as a special assessment against the property in the same manner as other assessments and taxes.
- (b) In lieu of the written notice by certified and/or first class mail provided in subsection (a), the director of public service, or his duly appointed representative, may cause to be published a notice in a newspaper of general circulation in the county during the month of March that weeds not cut by the first (1st) day of May of that year, as outlined in subsection (a), section 21-48, will be cut by the city and the owner of the property charged with the cost thereof, which costs shall be a lien on the property and added to the taxes assessed against the property as a special assessment, and shall be collected as a special assessment against the premises in the same manner as other assessments and taxes.