§ 50-112. Maintenance of stormwater facilities—Commercial/industrial.

(a)

All commercial/industrial stormwater management facilities in the county shall be maintained by the owners thereof in such a manner as to maintain and enhance the public health, safety and general welfare in order to be assured that such facilities are safe and will not result in injury or harm to persons or property, to reduce and minimize damage to public and private property, to reduce and minimize the impact of such facilities on land and stream channel erosion, to assist in the attainment and maintenance of water quality standards, to reduce local flooding, and to maintain, as nearly as possible, the preexisting development runoff characteristics of the area. All such maintenance of such facilities shall be at the sole cost and expense of the owners thereof.

(b)

It shall be unlawful for the owner or the occupant of any property upon which is located a stormwater management facility to fail to maintain such facility in such a manner that the facility does not create a danger to the public health, safety or welfare. Should the owner fail to so maintain such facility, such failure shall constitute a public nuisance per se. The manager shall be entitled to inspect all stormwater management facilities subject to this article at all reasonable times in order to determine compliance or noncompliance with the terms and provisions of this article.

(c)

Subject to the terms of subsection (i) of this section, the manager shall provide written notice to the owner or the person in possession, charge or control of any property constituting a nuisance under this article, stating that in the best professional judgment of the manager the conditions existing upon the property constitute a nuisance, setting forth action to be taken to eliminate the objectionable conditions, and requesting that such action be undertaken within the number of days specified in the notice. The notice shall further state that unless the objectionable conditions are voluntarily removed or remedied within the time specified, that it will be the duty of the manager to cause a summons to be issued requiring the party notified to appear in the superior court of the county to have there determined whether the conditions involved constitute a nuisance and therefore should be abated.

(d)

If the manager shall determine that conditions constituting a nuisance exist on any property subject to this article, it shall be the duty of the manager to issue a summons to the owner of such property, persons in possession, and all parties in interest, to appear before the judge of the superior court of the county to determine whether or not such conditions constitute a nuisance and should be abated.

(e)

If, upon a hearing as provided for in this section before the judge of the superior court of the county, the judge shall find that the conditions stated in this section exist and that such conditions constitute a nuisance, and further orders to abate such nuisance within a specified time, then each subsequent ten-day period thereafter during which the conditions adjudicated to be a nuisance by the judge remain in existence subsequent to the expiration of the time filed in the judgment for abatement shall constitute an offense.

(f)

Upon the adjudication by the judge of the superior court of the county that a nuisance exists and notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (e) of this section, if the owner or person in possession of the property has not abated the nuisance after the expiration of five days from the date of the adjudication that a nuisance exists, then the manager shall cause the nuisance to be abated and the objectionable conditions to be removed from the property. The manager shall be authorized to take such actions as are necessary to remove from the property such objectionable conditions constituting the nuisance and to charge the cost and expense thereof to the owner or the person in possession.

(g)

The cost to the county of abating nuisances as specified in this section shall be paid out of the stormwater management assessment fund, which fund shall be reimbursed by the owner of the property on which the nuisance existed.

(h)

If the charges and costs provided for in subsection (g) of this section remain unpaid by the owner for a period of 30 days after notice thereof to the owner or occupant of the property upon which such conditions existed, the manager or his duly authorized representative shall cause an execution to be issued against the owner of the property for those charges. The execution shall be a lien on the property and, when recorded in the general execution docket of the county, shall be a lien on all of the property of the defendant in execution from the date of such recording.

(i)

Nothing contained in this article shall impair the right of the county to exercise any and all other remedies available at law or in equity, including, without limitation, the pursuit of injunctive relief, under emergency circumstances where there exists the danger of bodily injury or death.

(Ord. of 9-28-93; Code 1977, § 3-22.5A-39; Ord. of 4-13-04)