(a)

A zoning administrator shall be appointed by the director of planning to enforce this chapter by receiving applications, issuing permits and certificates where applicable, as required by this chapter, and by making inspections to ensure compliance with this chapter. The zoning administrator shall have all necessary authority on behalf of the governing body to administer and enforce this chapter, including the ordering in writing of the remedying of any condition found in violation of this chapter, and bringing a legal action to insure compliance with this chapter, including injunction, abatement, or other appropriate action or proceeding.

(b)

The zoning administrator may revoke any permit issued under the provisions of this chapter for reasons of misrepresentation or false statement as to a material and relevant fact as to the plans or the premises upon which a permit was based.

(c)

In case any building or structure is erected, constructed, reconstructed, altered, repaired, converted or maintained, or any building, structure or land is used in violation of this chapter, in addition to other remedies, the zoning administrator may institute any appropriate action or proceedings to prevent such unlawful erection, construction, reconstruction, alteration, repair, conversion, maintenance or use, to restrain, correct, or abate such violation to prevent the occupancy of the buildings, structure or land or to prevent any illegal act, conduct, business or use in or about the premises.

(d)

Any person who, having been served with an order by the zoning administrator to abate or remedy a violation of this chapter, shall fail to comply with such order within ten (10) days after such service or shall continue to violate this chapter in the respect named in such order shall be subject to a civil penalty of not more than two hundred dollars ($200.00) for the initial summons and not more than five hundred dollars ($500.00) for each additional summons. Notwithstanding, the aforementioned civil penalties:

(1)

Any violation involving nonpermitted commercial uses shall be not more than (i) two hundred dollars ($200.00) for the initial violation; (ii) one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) for a second violation; and (iii) one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500.00) for a third or subsequent violation, not to exceed an aggregate amount of four thousand two hundred dollars ($4,200.00) for all such violations within a twelve-month period. For the purpose of this section "nonpermitted commercial uses" means any use devoted to usual and customary business purposes for the sale of goods and services when such use is not authorized or permitted under the zoning ordinance.

(2)

Any repeat violation on property that is zoned or used for multifamily residential purposes, the penalty shall be not more than (i) one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) for a second violation; and (ii) one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500.00) for a third or subsequent violation, not to exceed an aggregate amount of six thousand dollars ($6,000.00) for all such violations within a twelve-month period.

(3)

Notwithstanding a court's authority to order the abatement or remedy of a zoning violation, any person who enters a waiver of trial and admits liability shall be required to abate or remedy the nonpermitted commercial use violation or any violation involving property that is zoned or used for multi-family residential purposes, within a period of time specified by the city that is no less than thirty (30) days but no more than twenty-four (24) months from the date of admission of liability.

Each day during which a violation is found to have existed shall constitute a separate offense. However, specified violations arising from the same operative set of facts shall not be charged more frequently than once in any ten-day period, and, for violations that do not involve nonpermitted commercial uses or property that is zoned or used for multifamily residential purposes, a series of specified violations arising from the same operative set of facts shall not result in civil penalties which exceed a total of five thousand dollars ($5,000.00). The designation of zoning ordinance violations for civil penalties, pursuant to this section, shall preclude the prosecution of such violations as criminal misdemeanors except that for any violation resulting in injury to persons or when civil penalties total five thousand dollars ($5,000.00) or more, the violation may be prosecuted as a criminal misdemeanor.

(e)

Any criminal conviction for a violation of this chapter shall be a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000.00). If the violation is uncorrected at the time of the conviction, the court shall order the violator to abate or remedy the violation in compliance with the zoning ordinance, within a time period established by the court. Failure to remove or abate a zoning violation within the specified time period shall constitute a separate misdemeanor offense punishable by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000.00), and any such failure during any succeeding ten-day period shall constitute a separate misdemeanor offense punishable by a fine of not more than one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500.00); any such failure during any succeeding ten-day period shall constitute a separate misdemeanor offense for each ten-day period punishable by a fine of not more than two thousand dollars ($2,000.00).

(f)

Notwithstanding subsection (e) of this section, any criminal conviction resulting from a violation of provisions regulating the number of unrelated persons in single-family residential dwellings shall be punishable by a fine of up to two thousand dollars ($2,000.00). Failure to abate the violation within the specified time period shall be punishable by a fine of up to five thousand dollars ($5,000.00), and any such failure during any succeeding ten-day period shall constitute a separate misdemeanor offense for each ten-day period punishable by a fine of up to seven thousand five hundred dollars ($7,500.00). However, no such fine shall accrue against an owner or managing agent of a single-family residential dwelling unit during the pendency of any legal action commenced by such owner or managing agent of such dwelling unit against a tenant to eliminate an overcrowding condition in accordance with the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (§ 55.1-1200 et seq.). A conviction resulting from a violation of provisions regulating the number of unrelated persons in single-family residential dwellings shall not be punishable by a jail term.

(Ord. No. 5028-97, § 1; Ord. No. 5355-99; Ord. No. 7477-18, § 1; Ord. No. 7913-23; Ord. No. 8103-25)