Any or all lots or pieces of ground within the city limits shall be drained or filled so as to prevent stagnant water or any other nuisance accumulating thereon.

The owner or occupant of any lot or piece of ground within the city limits shall keep the lot or piece of ground and the adjoining street and alleys free of any growth of 12" or more in height of weeds, grasses or worthless vegetation.

The throwing, depositing, or accumulation of litter on any lot or piece of ground within the city limits is prohibited, provided that grass, leaves, and worthless vegetation may be used as a ground mulch or in a compost pile.

It is a nuisance to permit, allow or maintain any growth of 12" or more in height of weeds, grasses or worthless vegetation or to litter or cause litter to be deposited or remain thereon except in proper receptacles.

    Any owner or occupant of a lot or piece of ground shall, upon conviction of violation of the ordinance, be guilty of a Class V misdemeanor.

   Litter shall include: trash, rubbish, refuse, garbage, paper, rags and ashes; wood, plaster, cement, brick or stone building rubble; grass, leaves and worthless vegetation; offal and dead animals; and any machine(s), vehicle(s), or parts of a machine or vehicle which have lost their identity, character, utility, or serviceability as such through deterioration, dismantling, or the ravages of time, are inoperative or are unable to perform their intended functions, or are cast off, discarded, or thrown away and left as waste, wreckage, or junk; and weeds shall include, but not be limited to, bindweed (convolvulus arvensis), puncture vine (tribulus terrestris), leafy spurge (euphorbia esula), Canada thistle (cirsium arvense), perennial peppergrass (lepidium draba), Russian knapweed (centaurea picris), Johnson grass (sorghum halepense), nodding or musk thistle, quack grass (agropyron repens), perennial sow thistle (sonchus arvensis), horse nettle (solanum carolinense), bull thistle (cirsium lanceolatum), buckthorn (rahmnus sp.) (tourn.), hemp plant (cannibis sativa), and ragweed (ambrosiaceae).

Nuisances

A nuisance, defined by the Tecumseh city code, generally consists of doing any unlawful act, or omitting to perform a duty, or suffering or permitting any condition or thing to be or exist, which act, omission, condition or thing either: injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health or safety of others; offends decency; is offensive to the senses; unlawfully interferes with, obstructs, tends to obstruct or renders dangerous for passage any stream, public park, parkway, square, street or highway in the city; in any way renders other persons insecure in life or the use of property or essentially interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life and property, or tends to depreciate the value of the property of others.

Specifically defined, the maintaining, using, placing, depositing, leaving or permitting of any of the following are declared nuisances by the Tecumseh city code:

-The Storage or Use of furniture manufactured for indoor use only, on porches and other exterior areas which are open to the elements.  Furniture manufactured for indoor use only shall include, but not be limited to: sofas, couches, recliners, divans, ottomans, bedding, bed mattresses, and bed box springs.

-Any odorous, putrid, unsound or unwholesome grain, meat, hides, skins, feathers, vegetable matter, or the whole or any part of any dead animal, fish or fowl.

-Privies, vaults, cesspools, dumps, pits or like places which are not securely protected from flies or rats, or which are foul or malodorous.

-Filthy, littered or trash-covered cellars, houseyards, barnyards, stableyards, factory yards, mill yards, vacant areas in rear of stores, granaries, vacant lots, houses, buildings or premises.

-Animal manure in any quantity which is not securely protected from flies and the elements, or which is kept or handled in violation of a city ordinance.

-Liquid household waste, human excreta, garbage, butcher's trimmings and offal, parts of fish or any waste vegetable or animal matter in any quantity; provided, nothing herein contained shall prevent the temporary retention of waste in receptacles in a manner provided by the municipal health officer, nor the dumping of non-putrefying waste in a place and manner approved by the health officer.

-Tin cans, bottles, glass, cans, ashes, small pieces of scrap iron, wire metal articles, bric-a-brac, broken stone or cement, broken crockery, broken glass, broken plaster, and all trash or abandoned material, unless it be kept in covered bins or galvanized iron receptacles.

-Trash, litter, rags, accumulations of barrels, boxes, crates,

packing crates, mattresses, bedding, excelsior, packing hay, straw or other packing material; lumber not neatly piled, scrap iron, tin or other metal not neatly piled, old automobiles or parts thereof, or any other waste materials when any of said articles or materials create a condition in which flies or rats may breed or multiply, or which may be a fire danger or

which are so unsightly as to depreciate property values in the vicinity.

-Any unsightly building, billboard or other structure, or any old, abandoned or partially destroyed building or structure or any building or structure started and not completed, which said buildings, billboards or other structures are either a fire hazard, a menace to public health or safety, or are so unsightly as to depreciate the value of property in the vicinity.

-All places used or maintained as junkyards, or dumping grounds, or for the wrecking and dissembling of automobiles, trucks, tractors or machinery; or for the storing or leaving of worn-out, wrecked or abandoned automobiles, trucks, tractors or machinery of any kind, or of any parts thereof, or for the storing or leaving of any machinery or equipment used by contractors or builders or by other persons, which are kept or

maintained so as to essentially interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property by others, or which are so unsightly as to tend to depreciate property values in the vicinity.

-Stagnant water permitted or maintained on any lot or piece of ground.

-Stockyards, granaries, mills, pigpens, cattle pens, chicken pens or any other place, building or enclosure, in which animals or fowls of any kind are confined or on which are stored tankage or any other vegetable matter, or on which any animal or vegetable matter including grain is being processed, when said places in which said animals are confined, or said premises on which said vegetable or animal matter is located, are maintained and kept in such a manner that foul and noxious odors are permitted to emanate therefrom, to the annoyance of city residents, or are maintained and kept in such a manner as to be injurious to public health.

-All other things specifically designated as nuisances elsewhere in the code.

Dogs, cats, animals

It is unlawful to own, maintain or possess any dog within the Tecumseh city limits, unless a license fee is paid and dog tags are constantly worn by the dog, except in the case of a kennel, where the owner or possessor shall have readily accessible a kennel receipt. Any visually impaired person may license their guide dog without the payment of the prescribed fees, but proof of compliance must still be provided to the municipal police.

It is unlawful for the owner of any dog to allow the dog to run at large at any time within the city limits.

It is unlawful to own, keep or harbor a cat more than three months old without being licensed. It is unlawful for the owner of any cat to allow the cat to run at large at any time within the city limits without a collar and current license tag provided by the police department.

It is unlawful for any person to keep or maintain within the city limits any horse, mule, sheep, cow, goat, swine or other livestock within 100 feet of any dwelling unit within the city limits.  It is unlawful for the owner, keeper or harborer of any animal or fowl, or any person having the charge, custody or control of, to permit a horse, mule, cow, sheep, goat, swine, chicken, turkey, goose, or other animal or fowl to be driven or run at large on any public ways and property, or upon the property of another, or to be tethered, staked out or picketed upon any public street, alley, park or public grounds, or to be tethered, staked out or picketed in such a manner so as to allow such animal to reach or pass into any public

way.

Abandoned vehicles

It is unlawful to abandon any automobile on the city streets, highways, alleys, parks or other property.

No person shall park a vehicle continuously in the same block for a period in excess of 168 hours on any of the following streets:  3rd Street between Broadway Street and Clay Street; 4th Street between Broadway Street and Clay Street; Broadway Street between 3rd Street and 4th Street; Clay Street between 3rd and 4th Street; Clay Street between 2nd Street and 3rd Street, and Broadway Street between 4th Street and 5th Street.

Sidewalks

The city officials in charge of sidewalks may require city

sidewalks to be repaired.

All sidewalks within the business district shall be cleaned within five hours after cessation of a storm, unless the storm or snowfall occur during the night, in which case the sidewalk shall be cleaned before 10 a.m. the following day. Residential sidewalks shall be cleaned within 24 hours after a storm.

Building Permits

No person, firm or corporation shall erect, construct, enlarge, alter, repair, move, improve, remove, convert, or demolish any building, structure, swimming pool, or parking lot in the City, or within 1 mile of the corporate limits of the City, without first obtaining a Building Permit from the Municipal Clerk.

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