The code of the city of Charlottesville, Virginia, 1965 : ::

The council of the city, except as hereinbefore provided,
shall have the power within said city to control and manage
the fiscal and municipal affairs of the city and all property,
real and personal, belonging to said city; they shall have
power to provide a revenue for the city, and appropriate the
same to its expenses, also to provide the annual assessments
of taxable persons and property in the city, and it may make
such ordinances, orders, and bylaws relating to the foregoing
powers of this section as it shall deem proper and necessary.
They shall likewise have power to make such ordinances, bylaws,
orders and regulations as it may deem desirable to carry
out the following powers which are hereby vested in them:

First. Streets and sidewalks — Generally. To close, extend,
widen, narrow, lay out, grade, improve and otherwise alter
streets and public alleys in the said city, and have them properly
lighted and kept in good order, and it may make or construct
sewers or ducts through the streets or public grounds
of the city, and through any place, or places whatsoever, when
it may be deemed expedient by the said council. The ownership
of any land included in any street that is closed shall be in accord
with general law. The said council may have over any
street or alley in the city, which has been, or may be ceded to
the city, like authority as over streets or alleys, and may prevent
or remove any structure, obstruction or encroachment
over, or under, or in a street or alley, or any sidewalk thereof.

Second. Same — Obstructions; cleaning sidewalks. To prevent

the cumbering of the streets, avenues, walks, public
squares, lanes, alleys, or bridges in any manner whatsoever;
to compel the occupant or owner of buildings or grounds to
remove snow, dirt or rubbish from the sidewalks in front
thereof.

Third. Fires and fire prevention. To extinguish and prevent
fires, prevent property from being stolen, and to compel
citizens to render assistance to the fire department in case of
need, and to establish, regulate and control a fire department
for said city; to regulate the size of materials, and construction
of buildings hereafter erected, in such manner as the
public safety and convenience may require; to remove, or require
to be removed, any building, structure, or addition thereto
which, by reason of dilapidation, defect of structure, or
other causes, may have, or shall, become dangerous to life
or property, or which may be erected contrary to law; to
establish and designate from time to time fire limits, within
which limits wooden buildings shall not be constructed, removed,
added to or enlarged, and to direct that all future
buildings within such limits shall be constructed of stone, natural
or artificial, concrete, brick or iron.

Fourth. Breadth of tires on vehicles. To regulate and prescribe
the breadth of tires upon the wheels of wagons, carts,
and vehicles of every kind and description used upon the
streets of said city.

Fifth. Preservation of health; hospitals; births and deaths.
To provide for the preservation of the general health of the
inhabitants of said city, make regulations to secure the same,
prevent the introduction or spreading of contagious or infectious
diseases, and prevent and suppress diseases generally;
to provide and regulate hospitals within or without the
city limits, and to enforce the removal of persons afflicted
with contagious or infectious diseases to hospitals provided
for them; to provide for the appointment and organization
of a board of health or other board to have the powers of a
board of health for said city, with the authority necessary for
the prompt and efficient performance of its duties, with power
to invest any or all the officials or employees of such department

of health with such powers as the officers of the city
have; to regulate the burial, cremation, or disposition of the
dead; to compel the return of births and deaths to be made
to its health department, and the return of all burial permits
to such department.

Sixth. Cemeteries. To acquire by purchase, condemnation,
or otherwise, either within or without the city, lands to be
appropriated, improved and kept in order as places for the
interment of the dead, and may charge for the use of the
grounds in said places of interment, and may regulate the
same; to prevent the burial of the dead in the city, except in
public burying grounds; to regulate burials in said grounds;
to require the keeping and return of bills of mortality by the
keepers (or owners) of all cemeteries, and shall have power
within the city to acquire by purchase, condemnation, or otherwise,
such lands, and in such quantity as it may deem proper
or necessary for the purpose of burying the dead; provided,
however, that no part of such cemeteries, when established or
enlarged, shall be within one hundred feet of any residence
without the consent of the owner of the legal and equitable
title of such residence, and provided further, that the provisions
of chapter one hundred and seventy-six of the Code of
Virginia,[5] as now existing or hereafter amended, for condemnation
of land thereunder so far as applicable shall apply to
condemnation proceedings by the city hereunder.

The title to any land acquired by condemnation hereunder
shall vest in the City of Charlottesville.

Seventh. Quarantine. To establish a quarantine ground
within or without the city limits, and such quarantine regulations
against infectious and contagious diseases as the said
council may see fit, subject to the laws of the state, and of
the United States.

Eighth. Nuisances, etc. To require and compel the abatement
and removal of all nuisances within the said city, or
upon any property owned by said city, without its limits, at
the expense of the person or persons causing the same, or

the occupant or owner of the ground whereon the same may
be; to prevent and regulate slaughterhouses, and soap and
candle factories within said city, or the exercise of any dangerous,
offensive or unhealthy business, trade or employment
therein; to regulate the transportation of all articles through
the streets of the city; to compel the abatement of smoke and
dust; to regulate the location of stables, and the manner in
which they shall be constructed and kept.

Ninth. Stagnant water or offensive substances on property.
If any ground in the said city shall be subject to be covered
by stagnant water, or if the owner or occupant thereon shall
permit any offensive or unwholesome substance to remain or
accumulate thereon, the said council may cause such ground
to be filled up, raised, or drained, or may cause such substance
to be covered or removed therefrom, and may collect
the expense of so doing from the said owner or occupant by
distress or sale, in the same manner in which taxes levied
upon real estate for the benefit of said city are authorized to
be collected; provided, that reasonable notice shall be first
given to the said owner or occupant or his agent. In case of
nonresident owners, who have no agent in said city, such
notice may be given by publication for not less than ten days,
in any newspaper published in said city, such publication to
be at the expense of said owner, and cost thereof to be collected
as a part of the expense hereinbefore provided for.

Tenth. Explosives and inflammables; carrying concealed
weapons. To direct the location of all buildings for storing
gunpowder or other explosives or combustible substances; to
regulate or prohibit the sale and use of dynamite, gunpowder,
firecrackers, kerosene oil, gasoline, nitroglycerine, camphene,
burning fluid, and all explosives or combustible materials, the
exhibition of fireworks, the discharge of firearms, the use of
candles and lights in barns, stables and other buildings, the
making of bonfires and the carrying of concealed weapons.

Eleventh. Animals and fowl generally. To prevent the running
at large in said city of all animals and fowl, and to
regulate and prohibit the keeping or raising of the same within

said city, and to subject the same to such confiscation,
levies, regulations and taxes as it may deem proper.

Twelfth. Use of streets; abuse of animals. Insofar as not
prohibited by general law, to prevent the riding or driving
of animals at improper speed, to regulate the speed and manner
of use upon the streets of said city of all animals or vehicles;
to prevent the flying of kites, throwing of stones, or
the engaging in any employment or sport in the streets or
public alleys, dangerous or annoying to the public, and to prohibit
and punish the abuse of animals.

Thirteenth. Drunkards, vagrants and beggars. To restrain
and punish drunkards, vagrants, mendicants and street beggars.

Fourteenth. Offenses generally. To prevent vice and immorality;
to preserve public peace and good order; to prevent
and quell riots; disturbances and disorderly assemblages; to
suppress houses of ill fame, and gaming houses; to prevent
lewd, indecent or disorderly conduct or exhibitions in the city,
and to expel from said city persons guilty of such conduct.

Fifteenth. Repealed by 1972, c. 184.

Sixteenth. Ordinances necessary for general welfare; effect
on other powers. And the said council shall also have power
to make such other and additional ordinances as it may deem
necessary for the general welfare of said city; and nothing
herein contained shall be construed to deprive said city of
any of the powers conferred upon it, either by general or
special laws of the State of Virginia, except insofar as the
same may be inconsistent with the provisions of this charter.

Seventeenth. Official bonds. Said council shall have power to
require and take from such officers and employees, as they
may see fit, bonds with security and in such penalty as they
may prescribe, which bonds shall be made payable to the
city by its corporate name, and conditioned for the faithful
discharge of their duties; such bonds shall be filed with the
clerk of the council.

Eighteenth. Gas works, waterworks and electric light
works. Said council shall have power to erect, or authorize
or prohibit the erection of gas works, waterworks, or electric
light works, in or near the city, and to regulate the same.

Nineteenth. Pollution of water. To prohibit the pollution of
water which may be provided for the use of the city.

Twentieth. Additional and incidental powers; jurisdiction
beyond corporate limits. To pass all bylaws, rules and ordinances,
not repugnant to the constitution and laws of the
state, which they may deem necessary for the good order and
government of the city, the management of its property, the
conduct of its affairs, the peace, comfort, convenience, order,
morals, health, and protection of its citizens or their property,
including authority to keep a city police force; and to
do such other things, and pass such other laws as may be
necessary or proper to carry into full effect any power, authority,
capacity, or jurisdiction, which is, or shall be granted
to, or vested in said city, or officers thereof, or which may be
necessarily incident to a municipal corporation; and to enable
the authorities of said city more effectually to enforce the
provisions of this section, and any other powers conferred upon
them by this charter, their jurisdiction, civil and criminal,
is hereby declared to extend one mile beyond the corporate
limits of said city.

Twenty-first. Floating debt for installing or extending utilities.
To create a floating debt not exceeding two hundred
thousand dollars when, by a vote of the total membership of
the council, the council has passed a resolution declaring it
expedient to do so, and when the creating of the floating debt
thereby provided for is for the purpose of installing, or extending,
one or more public utilities, which constitute an asset,
or assets, at least equal in value to the amount expended
thereon, which utility, or utilities, shall materially add to the
service rendered by the city to its taxpayers and other citizens;
and it shall be the duty of the council to provide in the
next bond issue for the bonding of the floating debt thus created,

20.1

and failure to do this shall suspend this clause. (1950,
c. 413; 1972, c. 184.)

Effect of amendments.—The 1950 amendment increased the amount
of floating debt authorized by paragraph 21 from $100,000 to $200,000.

The 1972 amendment rewrote paragraphs 1 and 17 and repealed paragraph
15.

[5]

See now, Code of Va., § 25-46.1 et seq.

University of Virginia Library

Sec. 14. Same—Powers enumerated.