Section 7-701
§ 7-701 Legislative declaration. The council of the city of New York
finds that public nuisances exist in the city of New York in the
operation of certain commercial establishments and the use or alteration
of property in flagrant violation of the building code, zoning
resolution, health laws, multiple dwelling law, penal laws regulating
obscenity, prostitution and related conduct, licensing laws,
environmental laws, laws relating to the sale and consumption of
alcoholic beverages, laws relating to gambling, controlled substances
and dangerous drugs and penal laws relating to the possession of stolen
property, all of which interfere with the interest of the public in the
quality of life and total community environment, the tone of commerce in
the city, property values and the public health, safety, and welfare;
the council further finds that the continued occurrence of such
activities and violations is detrimental to the health, safety, and
welfare of the people of the city of New York and of the businesses
thereof and visitors thereto. It is the purpose of the council to create
one standardized procedure for securing legal and equitable remedies
relating to the subject matter encompassed by this law, without
prejudice to the use of procedures available under existing and
subsequently enacted laws, and to strengthen existing laws on the
subject.
Section 7-702
§ 7-702 Short Title. This chapter shall be known as the "nuisance
abatement law".
Section 7-703
§ 7-703 Public nuisance defined. The following are declared to be
public nuisances:
(a) Any building, erection or place, including one- or two-family
dwellings, used for the purpose of prostitution as defined in section
230.00 of the penal law. Two or more criminal convictions of persons for
acts of prostitution in the building, erection or place, including one-
or two-family dwellings, within the one-year period preceding the
commencement of an action under this chapter, shall be presumptive
evidence that the building, erection or place, including one- or
two-family dwellings, is a public nuisance. In any action under this
subdivision, evidence of the common fame and general reputation of the
building, erection or place, including one- or two-family dwellings, of
the inmates or occupants thereof, or of those resorting thereto, shall
be competent evidence to prove the existence of the public nuisance. If
evidence of the general reputation of the building, erection or place,
including one- or two-family dwellings, or of the inmates or occupants
thereof, is sufficient to establish the existence of the public
nuisance, it shall be prima facie evidence of knowledge thereof and
acquiescence and participation therein and responsibility for the
nuisance, on the part of the owners, lessors, lessees and all those in
possession of or having charge of, as agent or otherwise, or having any
interest in any form in the property, real or personal, used in
conducting or maintaining the public nuisance;
(b) Any building, erection or place, including one- or two-family
dwellings, used for the purpose of obscene performances. The term
"obscene" shall have the same meaning as that term is defined in
subdivision one of section 235.00 of the penal law. The term
"performance" shall have the same meaning as that term is defined in
subdivision three of section 235.00 of the penal law. Two or more
convictions, as defined in subdivision thirteen of section 1.20 of the
criminal procedure law, of persons for production, presentation or
direction of an obscene performance or for participation in such
performance, in the building, erection or place, including one- or
two-family dwellings, within the one-year period preceding the
commencement of an action under this chapter, shall be presumptive
evidence that the building, erection or place, including one- or
two-family dwellings, is a public nuisance;
(c) Any building, erection or place, including one- or two-family
dwellings, used for the purpose of promotion of obscene material. The
term "obscene" shall have the same meaning as that term is defined in
subdivision one of section 235.00 of the penal law. The term "material"
shall have the same meaning as that term is defined in subdivision two
of section 235.00 of the penal law. Two or more convictions, as defined
in subdivision thirteen of section 1.20 of the criminal procedure law,
of persons for promotion of or possession with intent to promote obscene
material in the building, erection or place, including one- or
two-family dwellings, within the one-year period preceding the
commencement of an action under this chapter, shall be presumptive
evidence that the building, erection or place, including one- or
two-family dwellings, is a public nuisance;
(d) Any building, erection or place, other than a one-or two-family
dwelling classified in occupancy group J-3 pursuant to section 27-237 of
this code, which is in violation of article five of subchapter two of
chapter one of title twenty-six or of article three, four, six, ten,
twenty-two or twenty-four of subchapter one of chapter one of title
twenty-seven of this code. A conviction, as defined in subdivision
thirteen of section 1.20 of the criminal procedure law, of persons for
offenses, as defined in subdivision one of section 10.00 of the penal
law, in violation of the aforesaid provisions of this code in the
building, erection or place, including one- or two-family dwellings,
within the period of one-year preceding the commencement of an action
under this chapter, shall be presumptive evidence that the building,
erection or place, including one- or two-family dwellings, is a public
nuisance;
(e) Any building, erection or place, other than a one-or two-family
dwelling classified in occupancy group J-3 pursuant to section 27-237 of
this code, which is a nuisance as defined in section 17-142 of this code
or which is an infected and uninhabitable house as defined in section
17-159 of this code or which is in violation of subdivision two of
section 16-118 of this code;
(f) Any building, erection or place, including one- or two-family
dwellings, used for the purpose of a business, activity or enterprise
which is not licensed as required by law;
(g) Any building, erection or place, including one- or two-family
dwellings, wherein, within the period of one year prior to the
commencement of an action under this chapter, there have occurred three
or more violations of one or any combination of the provisions of
article two hundred twenty, two hundred twenty-one or two hundred
twenty-five of the penal law;
(h) Any building, erection or place, including one- or two-family
dwellings, used for any of the unlawful activities described in section
one hundred twenty-three of the alcoholic beverage control law;
(i) Any building, erection or place, including one- or two-family
dwellings, wherein there is occurring a violation of subchapter six,
eight or ten of chapter one of title twenty-four of this code;
(j) Any building, erection or place, including one- or two-family
dwellings, wherein there is occurring a violation of subchapter three or
four of chapter two of title twenty-four of this code;
(k) Any building, erection or place, including one- or two-family
dwellings, wherein there exists or is occurring a violation of the
zoning resolution;
(l) Any building, erection or place, including one- or two-family
dwellings, wherein there is occurring a criminal nuisance as defined in
section 240.45 of the penal law;
(m) Any building, erection or place, including one- or two-family
dwellings, wherein, within the period of one year prior to the
commencement of an action under this chapter, there have occurred two or
more violations on the part of the lessees, owners, operators, or
occupants, of one or any combination of the following provisions:
sections 165.40, 165.45, 165.50, 170.65, 170.70 or 175.10 of the penal
law or section four hundred fifteen-a of the vehicle and traffic law;
(n) Any building, erection or place, including one- or two-family
dwellings, in which a security guard, as defined in subdivision six of
section eighty-nine-f of the general business law, is employed in
violation of one or more of the following provisions: the alcoholic
beverage control law or sections 20-360.1 or 27-525.1 of this code;
(r) Any building, erection or place, including one-or two-family
dwellings, used for the creation, production, storage or sale of a false
identification document, as defined in subsection (d) of section one
thousand twenty-eight of title eighteen of the United States code, a
forged instrument, as defined in subdivision seven of section 170.00 of
the penal law, or a forgery device, as that term is used in section
170.40 of the penal law. It shall be presumptive evidence that the
building, erection or place, including one-or two-family dwellings, is a
public nuisance if there have occurred, within the one-year period
preceding the commencement of an action under this chapter, two or more
violations constituting separate occurrences on the part of the lessees,
owners, operators or occupants of one or any combination of the
following provisions: paragraph one, five or eight of subsection (a) of
section one thousand twenty-eight of title eighteen of the United States
code, section 170.05, 170.10, 170.15 or 170.40 of the penal law or,
under circumstances evincing an intent to sell or distribute a forged
instrument, section 170.20, 170.25 or 170.30 of the penal law.
Section 7-704
§ 7-704 Remedies. (a) The corporation counsel shall bring and maintain
a civil proceeding in the name of the city in the supreme court of the
county in which the building, erection or place is located to
permanently enjoin the public nuisances, defined in subdivisions (a),
(b), (d), (e), (f), (g), (h), (i), (j), (k), (l), (m), (n), and (r) of
section 7-703 of this chapter, in the manner provided in subchapter two
of this chapter.
(b) The corporation counsel shall bring and maintain a civil
proceeding in the name of the city, in the supreme court of the county
in which the building, erection or place is located to recover a civil
penalty in relation to the public nuisances defined in subdivisions (b)
and (c) of section 7-703 of this chapter, in the manner provided in
subchapter three of this chapter.
To the extent possible under law, Friends of Devin Balkind for Public Advocate has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to New York City Administrative Code. This work is published from: United States.
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