Code Enforcement

City Code | Code Enforcement Handout

The City of Butler Code Enforcement Division is dedicated to providing a quality service to preserve the image of our neighborhoods by fairly and equally enforcing city codes to ensure the health, safety, and welfare of our community.

Nuisances (Sec. 16-3)

The following are hereby declared to be nuisances: 

(1) Any abandoned property, part thereof or junk located on any property, street or highway, which represents a public safety hazard or harbors tall grass, weeds or other vegetation, or creates a fire hazard or affords a breeding place or meeting place for mosquitoes, flies, rodents, rats or other vermin, or any abandoned property, part thereof, or junk allowed to remain unmoved on any street or highway for forty-eight (48) hours. 

(2) Any building determined by the city administrator or his duly appointed representatives to be a dangerous building. 

(3) Any growth of weeds, grass or poisonous vegetation or accumulation of dead weeds, grass or brush to a greater height than seven (7) inches, on the average.

(4) Any act done or committed, or suffered to be done or committed by any person or any substance or thing kept, maintained, placed or found in or upon any public or private place within the city which is injurious, dangerous, annoying, unsafe or offensive to the public. 

(5) Any pursuit followed or act done or commission failed to be done by any person which is injurious, dangerous, annoying, unsafe or offensive to the public. 

(6) Any building, bridge or other structure which is unsafe, dangerous, injurious, unhealthy, offensive or annoying to the public.
 

(7) Any slaughterhouse, stockyard or stable, cattle yard, hog, sheep, cow or dog pen, which is offensive, injurious, obnoxious, unsafe or annoying to the public. 

(8) Any pond or pool of stagnant water or any foul or dirty water, or liquid discharged through any drain pipe or spout or thrown into or upon the street, alley, thoroughfare or lot which is injurious, dangerous, offensive, unhealthy or unsafe to the public. 

(9) Any obstruction caused or permitted on any street, sidewalk, public or private alley, which is injurious, dangerous, offensive, inconvenient, unsafe or unhealthy to the public. 

(10) Any junk, stone, rock, dirt, ashes, cinders, raw sewage, filth, excrement, sawdust, shavings or cans, brush, logs, paper, trash, rubbish, manure, refuse, water, decayed fruits or vegetables, rags, salvage material, iron or scrap metal, all animal matter, all leaves, yard waste, compost materials, or plant trimmings of any type, all dead animals or any other offensive or disagreeable substance or things thrown or deposited by anyone in or upon any street, sidewalk, street park, public square, public enclosure, property, vacant or occupied, or pond or pool of water. 

(11) The placing or storage of any green or salted hides which cause an odor, which is injurious, dangerous, obnoxious, offensive, unhealthy or unsafe to the public. 

(12) Any animal or vegetable matter or other substance liable to become putrid, offensive or unhealthy, which is injurious, dangerous, unhealthy, unsafe or offensive to the public. 

(13) Any cellar, vault, private drain, pool, privy, sewer, cistern, well, sink or container which may be sufficiently tightly closed to cause suffocation or which is not covered or protected so as to prevent humans and animals from falling into the same, which is injurious, dangerous, unsafe or offensive to the public health.

(14) Any tenement, boardinghouse or lodging house in the city leased, let, rented or occupied by any person for dwelling which is not sufficiently lighted, ventilated, heated or provided with water, or kept in a clean and sanitary condition, which is dangerous, injurious, obnoxious, offensive or unsafe to the public. 

(15) Any house or building or tank within the city used for the special or exclusive storage of powders or dynamite, with a glycerin, coal oil or other explosive substance, detrimental to the public health, or endangering human life, or any house, building or store, wherein small quantities of such explosives are kept, exposed or insecure, or kept in any manner so as to endanger the public. 

(16) Any radio, television set or musical instrument or device operated in such manner or at such hours which are injurious, inconvenient, obnoxious, offensive or annoying to the public or persons living or doing business nearby. 

(17) The maintaining, using, placing, depositing, leaving or permitting to be or remaining on any public or private property, of furniture, bedding, refrigerators, freezers, heating stoves, kitchen ranges, laundry and dish washing equipment, air conditioning units, or any other such appliances, articles or equipment designed for use inside a dwelling unit, if stored, placed or set upon the ground on any open porch, in any attached carport, in any free standing carport, or in any garage or shed that is without doors to conceal such articles.
Sec. 16-3 

Dumpsters and refuse containers must be maintained for the safety and well being of the city and its citizens. Trash, debris or junk must not exceed the top level of the dumpster or container and must not be visible to the public.
(Sec. 16-32)

Sec. 21-143. - Front, side and rear yard parking requirements. 

(a) Parking areas in the front yard of any residential unit shall only be allowed on improved parking surface in areas parallel and adjacent to the driveway or garage and then only when the driveway or garage is located adjacent to the home or in the front yard. Under no circumstances may the parked vehicle obstruct or have any portion of the vehicle upon a public sidewalk. 

(b) Parking in the front yard between the home and the street, except parking in a driveway or other improved parking surface area is prohibited. 

(c) Parking areas in the side yard of any residential unit shall only be allowed ondriveways or other improved parking surface areas adjacent to the driveway or garage. 

(d) Parking areas in the rear yard for recreational vehicles, travel trailers, boats, snowmobiles and other such recreational vehicles may occur on grass. 

(e) In the event that an attached garage is converted to a livable room of the dwelling, then the existing driveway may be used as an improved parking space in the required front yard. 

(f) Temporary vehicle parking associated with construction or landscaping may be exempt from those parking regulations if the vehicle is removed within seventy-two (72) hours of completion of the work.