GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 2009

SESSION LAW 2009-19

SENATE BILL 452

AN ACT to make statewide a local act authorizing municipalities to give annual notice to chronic violators of its overgrown vegetation ordinances.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 160A‑200 reads as rewritten:

"§ 160A‑200.  Annual notice to chronic violators of overgrown vegetation ordinances.

(a)        A municipality may notify a chronic violator of the municipality's overgrown vegetation ordinance that, if the violator's property is found to be in violation of the ordinance, the municipality shall, without further notice in the calendar year in which notice is given, take action to remedy the violation and the expense of the action shall become a lien upon the property and shall be collected as unpaid taxes. The initial annual notice shall be served by registered or certified mail. A chronic violator is a person who owns property whereupon, in the previous calendar year, the municipality took remedial action at least three times under the overgrown vegetation ordinance.

(b) This section applies to the Towns of Ahoskie, Ayden, Franklinton, Leland, Marshville, Pinetops, Pineville, Smithfield, Spring Lake, Wingate, and Yadkinville, and to the Cities of Durham, Eden, Gastonia, Greensboro, High Point, Lexington, Louisburg, Monroe, Mount Airy, Reidsville, Roanoke Rapids, Rockingham, Rocky Mount, Wadesboro, and Winston‑Salem only."

SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law. A municipality may adopt an ordinance under G.S. 160A‑200 when this act becomes law, but the ordinances may not become effective prior to October 1, 2009. The repeal herein of any local act does not affect the rights or liabilities of a municipality that arose during the time the act was in effect, or under an ordinance adopted under such an act. If any municipality adopted an ordinance under any act repealed by this act, and the ordinance would be permitted under G.S. 160A‑200, as enacted by this act, that ordinance shall remain in effect until amended or repealed by that municipality.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 23^rd day of April, 2009.

                                                    s/  Walter H. Dalton

                                                         President of the Senate

                                                    s/  William L. Wainwright

                                                         Speaker Pro Tempore of the House of Representatives

                                                    s/  Beverly E. Perdue

                                                         Governor

Approved 3:12 p.m. this 30^th day of April, 2009