Commerce City, CO Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Section 6-2010(a) of the Commerce City Revised Municipal Code declares a public health nuisance to be any act, thing or condition on real or personal property that is harmful to the health, safety, welfare or property of city residents, and then lists specific examples without limiting the general definition. Two of those examples target vector breeding directly: all pools of stagnant water or vessels holding stagnant water in which mosquitoes can breed, and accumulations of manure, rubbish, litter, trash, rubble, refuse, debris, paper, combustible materials, garbage or improperly stored building materials or matter of any kind in which flies, mosquitoes or other vermin can breed.

The same section also separately reaches unburied animal carcasses left more than twenty-four hours and leaking septic tanks or sewer lines causing unsanitary conditions capable of disease transmission, both classic vector and rodent-attractant hazards. Subsection (b) makes it unlawful to create such a nuisance or to permit one to occur or continue on property under a person's control, including personal property. Because this falls under Chapter 6's nuisance article, the city can pursue it as a civil infraction under Section 6-1003, proven by a preponderance of the evidence before the Commerce City Municipal Court or the city's administrative hearing process, and can abate a standing vermin-breeding condition and bill the responsible party under Sections 6-1004 and 3-2103.