Blue Hill, NE Property Maintenance: Vacant Lot Maintenance (2026)
Key Facts
- Filthy/trash-covered vacant lots
- nuisance under item 4
- Standing-water lots
- nuisance under item 15
- Investigation
- nuisance officer needs owner consent to inspect
- Penal fine
- up to $500 per offense, per day
- Abatement billing
- actual cost plus $25 administrative fee
Summary
A filthy or trash-covered vacant lot is a declared nuisance in Blue Hill. Section 3-401(C)(4) names vacant lots, yards, and vacant areas behind stores and mills specifically, and a separate item bars lots that hold standing water, giving the city's nuisance officer authority to order cleanup or drainage.
4. Filthy, littered, or trash-covered cellars, house yards, barnyards, stableyards, factory-yards, mill yards, vacant areas in the rear of stores, granaries, vacant lots, houses, buildings, or premises; ... ... 15. Undrained lots which hold or may hold stagnant water or any other nuisance;
Full Breakdown
Item 4 of Blue Hill's nuisance list in § 3-401(C) covers filthy, littered, or trash-covered cellars, house yards, barnyards, stableyards, factory-yards, mill yards, vacant areas behind stores, granaries, vacant lots, houses, buildings, or premises generally, making an unmaintained vacant lot a nuisance whether or not a structure sits on it. Item 15 adds a related standing-water rule: undrained lots that hold or may hold stagnant water are a nuisance in their own right, separate from any trash or debris on the property. Both routes into the same enforcement path used for the rest of Chapter 3's nuisances: the City Council-appointed nuisance officer under § 3-402 documents the condition with photographs and a legal description, presents it to the Council for confirmation, and then the owner receives notice with a five-day window to request a hearing under § 3-403.
If a hearing is requested, the clerk must set it within 15 days, and the Council's findings are due within 14 days after that, with any abatement extension capped at 60 days. The nuisance chapter's territorial reach extends one mile beyond the city limits under § 3-415, so an unmaintained vacant parcel just outside town is not automatically exempt.
Violations & Fines
An owner who leaves a vacant lot filthy, trash-covered, or holding stagnant water after notice can be prosecuted as a misdemeanor with a fine up to $500.00 per offense under § 3-403(B), with each day the condition continues counted separately. The city can also clean up or drain the lot itself and bill the owner the actual cost plus a $25.00 administrative fee under § 3-404, converting an unpaid bill into a special assessment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Blue Hill cite me for an unmaintained vacant lot?
Does standing water on a vacant lot count as a violation too?
What notice do I get before the city acts on a vacant lot?
What happens if the lot still isn't cleaned up?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Blue Hill
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