Sec. 1038. General and enumerated powers of councils
of cities and towns.
In addition to the powers conferred by other general statutes,
the council of every city and town shall have power to
lay off streets, walks, or alleys; alter, improve, and light the
same, and have them kept in good order; to lay off public
grounds and provide all buildings proper for the city or town;
to provide a prison house and work house, and employ managers,
physicians, nurses, and servants for the same, prescribe
regulations for their government and discipline, and for persons
therein; to prescribe the time for holding markets and
regulate the same; to prevent injury or annoyance from anything
dangerous, offensive, or unhealthy, and cause any nuisance
to be abated; to regulate the keeping of gunpowder or other
combustibles, and provide magazines for the same; to provide
places for the interment of the dead in or near the city or town;
to acquire or otherwise obtain control of or establish, maintain,
operate, extend and enlarge water works, gas works, electric
plants, and other public utilities within or without the limits
of said city or town; to acquire within or without the limits
of the city or town by purchase, condemnation or otherwise
whatever land may be necessary for acquiring, locating, establishing,
maintaining, operating, extending or enlarging said water
works, gas works, electric plants and other public utilities and
the right of way, rails, pipes, poles, conduits or wires connected
therewith, or any of the fixtures or appurtenances thereof; provided,
that no city or town shall have the right to acquire by
condemnation the steam and electric plants, gas and water works,
or water power and the fixtures and appurtenances, or any part
thereof, owned and operated in whole or in part on the eighteenth
day of February, nineteen hundred and eight, by any
manufacturing corporation or public service corporation, for the
purpose of acquiring, establishing, maintaining, operating or enlarging
its electrical plant or water works; to prevent the pollution
of the water and injuries to water works, for which purpose
their jurisdiction shall extend to five miles above the same;
to make, erect and construct, within or without said city or town,
drains, sewers, and public ducts and to acquire within or without
said city or town by purchase, condemnation or otherwise, so
much land as may be necessary to make, erect, construct, operate
and maintain the same; to make regulations concerning the building
of houses in the city or town, and in their discretion to establish
and maintain parks, playgrounds and boulevards, and
cause the same to be laid out, equipped or beautified, and in particular
districts, or along particular streets, to prescribe and establish
building lines, or to require property owners in certain
localities or districts to leave a certain percentage of lots free
from buildings, and to regulate the height of buildings; to make
regulations for the purpose of guarding against danger from
accidents by fire, and, on the petition of the owners of not less
than two-thirds of the ground included in any square, to prohibit
the erection in such square of any building, or an addition
to any building more than ten feet high, unless the outer walls
thereof be made of brick and mortar, or stone and mortar, and
provide for the removal of any building or addition erected contrary
to such prohibition; to provide for the weighing or measuring
of hay, coal or any other articles for sale, and regulate the
transportation thereof through the streets; protect the property
of the city or town and its inhabitants, and preserve peace and good
order therein. The council of any city or town may, in their
discretion, authorize or require the fire department thereof to
render aid in cases of fire occurring beyond their limits, and
may prescribe the conditions on which such aid may be rendered.
For carrying into effect these and their other powers,
they may make ordinances and by-laws, and prescribe fines or
other punishment for violation thereof, keep a city or town
guard, appoint a collector of its taxes and levies, and such other
officers as they may deem proper, define their powers, prescribe
their duties and compensation, and take from any of them a
bond, with sureties, in such penalty as to the council may seem
fit, payable to the city or town by its corporate name, and with
condition for the faithful discharge of the said duties. Cities
and towns of this commonwealth are hereby authorized to make
appropriations of public funds, of personal property, or of any
real estate to any charitable institution or association, located
within their respective limits; provided, such institution or association
is not controlled in whole or in part by any church
or sectarian society. But the words "sectarian society" shall not
be construed to mean a non-denominational young men's Christian
association or a non-denominational women's Christian association.
And nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit
any city from making contracts with any sectarian institution
for the care of indigent, sick, or injured persons. Provided,
that no property shall be condemned for the purposes specified
in this section unless the necessity therefor shall be shown to exist
to the satisfaction of the court having jurisdiction of the
case.
Provided, further, that no property of any public service corporation,
except lands required for drains, sewers, or public
ducts shall be condemned except in accordance with clauses
fifty-two and fifty-three of section eleven hundred and five (e) of
Pollard's Code of nineteen hundred and four.
And provided further, that the provisions of this section shall
in no wise repeal, amend, impair or affect any of the powers,
rights and privileges conferred on cities and towns by charter or
under the provisions of the general law.
