Chap. 225.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 2 of chapter 473, of the
acts of assembly of 1924, entitled “an act to provide a new charter for the
city of Roanoke and to repeal the existing charter of said city and the
several acts amendatory thereof, and all other acts or parts of acts incon-
sistent with this act, so far as they relate to the city of Roanoke,” as last
amended by chapter 333 of the acts of assembly of 1928 the parts of said
section here amended being paragraphs (1), (7) and (11) thereof.
[S B 379]
Approved March 22, 1930

Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
two, of chapter four hundred and seventy-three, of the acts of assem-
bly of nineteen hundred and twenty-four, as last amended by chapter
three hundred and thirty-three of the acts of assembly of nineteen
hundred and twenty-eight, be amended and re-enacted so as to read
as follows:

Section 2. In addition to the powers mentioned in the preceding
section, the said city shall have power:

First. To raise annually by taxes and assessments in said city such
sums of money as the council hereinafter provided for shall deem
necessary for the purposes of said city, and in such manner as said
council shall deem expedient, in accordance with the Constitution and
laws of this State and of the United States; provided, however, that
it shall impose no tax on the bonds of said city; provided, further, that
said tax shall not exceed the sum of two dollars and twenty-five cents
on the one hundred dollars of assessed value of real and personal
property in this city, except as provided in section two hundred and
ninety-three of the tax Code of Virginia.

Second. To impose special or local assessments for local improve-
ments and enforce payment thereof; provided, however, that such
assessments for improvements to that part of the street which consti-
tutes the roadway, shall be made only with the consent in writing of a
majority of the owners of the property affected, subject, however, to
such limitations prescribed by the Constitution of Virginia as may be
in force at the time of the imposition of such special or local assess-
ments.

Third. Subject to the provision of the Constitution of Virginia
and of sections forty-seven, forty-eight and forty-nine of this charter,
to contract debts, borrow money and make and issue evidence of in-
debtedness.

Fourth. To expend the money of the city for all lawful purposes.
lifth. To acquire by purchase, gift, devise, condemnation or other-
wise, property, real or personal, or any estate or interest therein, within
or without the city or State and for any of the purposes of the city;
and to hold, improve, sell, lease, mortgage, pledge or otherwise dispose
of the same or any other part thereof.

Sixth. To acquire, in any lawful manner, for the purpose of en-
couraging commerce and manufacture, lands within and without the
city not exceeding at any one time five thousand acres in the aggregate,
and from time to time to sell or lease the same or any part thereof for
industrial or commercial uses and purposes.

Seventh. To make and maintain public improvements of all kinds,
including municipal and other public buildings, armories, markets,
comfort stations or rest rooms and all buildings and structures neces-
sary or appropriate for the use of the departments of fire and police;
and to establish a market or markets in and for said city, and to appoint
proper officers therefor; to prescribe the time and place for holding
the same; to provide suitable buildings and grounds therefor and to
make and enforce such rules and regulations as shall be necessary
to restrain and prevent huckstering, forestalling and regrating, and
for the purpose of regulating and controlling the sale of fresh meats,
fresh fish, farm and domestic products in said city the council shall
have authority to confine the sale of such articles or products to the
public markets and public squares provided by the city for that pur-
pose, and shall have, full power and authority to use such streets,
avenues or alleys in the city around the public market and public
squares as may be necessary to provide for vehicles from which farm
and domestic products are offered for sale, and may by resolution or
ordinance designate the streets or other public places on or in which
all licensed peddlers may sell or offer for sale their goods, wares or
merchandise, and shall have authority to levy and collect a license
tax for the sale of fresh meats and fresh fish, and may impose a cur-
bage tax for each wagon, cart or other vehicle containing farm and
domestic products brought into said city and sold or offered for sale
on the market and to acquire by condemnation or otherwise all lands,
riparian and other rights and easements necessary for such improve-
ments, or any of them.

Eighth. Yo furnish all local public service; to purchase, hire, con-
struct, own, lease, maintain and operate local public utilities, to acquire
by condemnation or otherwise, within or without the corporate limits,
lands and property necessary for any such purposes.

Ninth. To acquire in any lawful manner in any county of the
State, or without the State, such water lands, and lands under water
as the council of said city may deem necessary for the purpose of pro-
viding an adequate water supply for said city and of piping or con-
ducting the same; to lay all necessary mains; to erect and maintain
all necessary dams, pumping stations and other works in connection
therewith; to make reasonable rules and regulations for promoting the
purity of its said water supply and for protecting the same from pollu-
tion; and for this purpose to exercise full police powers and sanitary
patrol over all lands comprised within the limits of the watershed tribu-
tary to any such water supply wherever such lands may be located in
this State; to impose and enforce adequate penalties for the violation of
any such rules and regulations; and to prevent by injunction any pollu-
tion or threatened pollution of such water supply and any and all
acts likely to impair the purity thereof ; and to acquire lands or material
for any such use. For any of the purposes aforesaid said city may,
if the council shall so determine, acquire by condemnation, purchase
or otherwise, any estate or interest in such lands or any of them, or
any right or easement therein, or may acquire such lands or any of
them in fee, reserving to the owner or owners thereof such rights or
easements therein as may be prescribed in the ordinance providing for
such condemnation or purchase. The said city may sell or supply
to persons, firms or industries residing or located outside of the city
limits any surplus of water it may have over and above the amount
required to supply its own inhabitants.

Tenth. ‘To establish and enforce water rates and rates and charges
for public utilities, or other service, products, or conveniences, operated,
rendered or furnished by the city; to employ necessary competent in-
spectors to inspect the reservoirs, watersheds, filtering plants, pumps,
and pumping machinery and all other equipment of and all sources of
water supply of every water company furnishing such water for
domestic purposes, or use in the homes, of the inhabitants of the city;
to compel any such water company which owns or operates such reser-
voirs, watersheds, filtering plants, pumps and pumping machinery or
other equipment or source or sources of said water supply to pay the
reasonable cost of such inspectors; to give reasonable notice to any such
water company of any condition disclosed by any such inspection which,
in the opinion of said inspector and of a majority of the city council
renders, or unless remedied probably will render the said water or water
supply of the city or its inhabitants or any part thereof dangerous or
unfit to be used for drinking purposes or general domestic purposes
and to require any such water company to remedy any such condition
within a reasonable time to be stated in said notice; to specify in said
notice the particular acts or things which are required to be done by
any such water company to remedy or prevent any such condition of
said water or water supply; and if said condition be not remedied by
said water company and the acts and things specified in said notice
to said water company to be done by it, be not done within the time
specified in said notice, and if a majority of said city council shall by
resolution, at a meeting of said council, at which said water company
has had reasonable notice and opportunity to produce evidence and be
heard, declared that an emergency exists requiring the doing of said
acts or things, so specified in said notice of any part of them, to
remedy or prevent such unfit or improper water or water supply being
provided for or furnished to the inhabitants of the city, or any of them,
then the city council is hereby empowered and it shall be its duty im-
mediately to do the acts or things so specified in said notice to said
water company, and in said emergency resolution, and said city coun-
cil shall have the power and it shall be its duty, either by with-
holding the water rentals which may thereafter become due from
the city to said water company, to reimburse the city for any amount
expended in the doing of said acts or things, or to recover said amount
from said water company by any appropriate action at law or suit in
equity; provided, however, that the maximum amount which the said
city may so expend in any calendar half-year period, between January
first and June thirtieth, or between July first and December thirty-
first, shall not exceed the sum of seven thousand and five hundred
dollars ; and provided further, that any such water company shall have
the right by proper legal proceedings to have determined whether or
not any such expenditure which may have been so made by said city
was made through abuse of discretion or without probable cause to
believe said expenditure a necessary one for the protection of the city’s
water supply; and if in any such proceeding it shall be finally deter-
mined that said expenditure was one not necessary for said purpose,
said water company shall recover from the city any water rentals
which may have been retained as a reimbursement for said expendi-
ture; and provided further, that if said expenditure be found not a
necessary one the city shall be entitled to receive from said water com-
pany by reason of said expenditure only such amount as under a
quantum meruit it may be determined the said water company has re-
ceived actual benefit of and in justice ought to pay value received for.
Permitting the growth of alge in an amount which materially affects
the purity, taste or smell of such water, so as to render the same unfit
for drinking purposes or general domestic use, in the reservoirs or
sources of water supply is hereby declared a condition which it is the
duty of the city council to prevent or remedy under the powers granted
in this subsection. Nothing herein contained shall be construed as in
anywise limiting, altering, affecting or impairing the existing duties,
jurisdiction or powers of the State corporation commission or of the
State board of health or any other agency of the State over water com-
panies in the city of Roanoke or elsewhere, but any existing powers,
duties or jurisdiction of the State corporation commission, State board
of health or other agency of the State which are hereby conferred or
imposed upon the city council, shall be deemed to be concurrent.

Eleventh. To acquire in the manner provided by the general laws
any existing water, gas or electric plant, works or system, or any part
thereof.

Twelfth. To establish, open, widen, extend, grade, improve, con-
struct, maintain, light, sprinkle and clean, public highways, streets,
alleys, boulevards and parkways, and to alter, or close the same; to
establish and maintain parks, playgrounds and other public grounds;
to construct, maintain and operate bridges, viaducts, subways, tunnels,
sewers and drains, and to regulate the use of all such highways, parks,
public grounds and works; to plant and maintain shade trees along the
streets and upon such public grounds; to prevent the obstruction of
such streets and highways, abolish and prevent grade crossings over
the same by railroads in the manner provided by law; regulate the
operation and speed of all cars and vehicles using the same, as well
as the operation and speed of all engines, cars and trains on railroads
within the city; to regulate the services to be rendered and rates to
be charged by busses, motor cars, cabs and other vehicles for the
carrying of passengers and by vehicles for the transter of baggage;
require all telephone and telegraph wires and all wires and cables
carrying electricity to be placed in conduits under ground and pre-
scribe rules and regulations for the construction and use of such con-
duits; and to do all other things whatsoever adapted to make said
streets and highways safe, convenient and attractive.

Thirteenth. To construct and maintain, or aid in constructing and
maintaining, public roads, boulevards, parkways, and bridges beyond
the limits of the city, in order to facilitate public travel to and from
said city and its suburbs and to and from said city and any property
owned by said city and situated beyond the corporate limits thereof,
and to acquire land necessary for such purpose by condemnation or
otherwise.

Fourteenth. Subject to the provisions of the Constitution of Vir-
ginia to grant franchises for public utilities.

Fifteenth. To collect and dispose of sewage, offal, ashes, garbage,
carcasses of dead animals and other refuse, and to acquire and operate
reduction or other plants for the utilization or destruction of such
materials, or any of them; or to contract for and regulate the collection
and disposal thereof.

Sixteenth. To compel the abatement and removal of all nuisances
within the city, or upon property owned by the city, beyond its limits;
to require all lands, lots and other premises within the city to be kept
clean, sanitary and free from weeds; to regulate or prevent slaughter
houses or other noisome or offensive business within said city, the
keeping of animals, poultry or other fowls therein, or the exercise of
any dangerous or unwholesome 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, and prevent unneces-
sary noise therein; to regulate the location of stables and the manner
in which they shall be kept and constructed, and generally to define,
prohibit, abate, suppress and prevent all things detrimental to the
health, morals, comfort, safety, convenience and welfare of the inhabi-
tants of the city.

Seventeenth. If any ground in the said city shall be subject to be
covered by stagnant water or if the owner or occupant thereof shall
permit any offensive or unwholesome substance to remain or accumu-
late thereon, the said council may cause such ground to be filled up,
raised or drained, or may cause such substances to be covered or re-
moved therefrom, provided, that reasonable notice shall be first given
to the said owner or occupant or his agent. In case of non-resident
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.

Eighteenth. To direct the location of all buildings for storing gun-
powder or other explosive or combustible substances, to regulate or
prohibit the sale and use of dynamite, gunpowder, fire crackers, kero-
sene oil, gasoline, nitro-glycerine, camphene, burning fluid, and all
explosive or combustible materials, the exhibition of fireworks, the
discharge of firearms, the use of candles and light in barns, stables
and other buildings, the making of bonfires and the carrying of con-
cealed weapons.

Nineteenth. To prevent the running at large in said city of all
animals and fowls, and to regulate the keeping or raising of same within
said city, and to subject the same to such levies, regulations and
taxes as 1t may deem proper.

Twentieth. To restrain and punish drunkards, vagrants, mendi-
cants and street beggars.
Twenty-first. To prevent vice and immorality; to preserve pub-
lic peace and good order, to prevent and quell riots, disturbances and
disorderly assemblages ; to suppress houses of ill-fame, gambling houses
and gambling devices of all kinds, to prevent lewd, indecent or dis-
orderly conduct or exhibitions in the city, and to expel from said city
persons guilty of such conduct.

Twenty-second. To inspect, test, measure and weigh any commod-
ity or article of consumption or use within the city, and to establish,
regulate, license and inspect weights, meters, measures and scales.

Twenty-third. To extinguish and prevent fires and to compel
citizens to render assistance to the fire department in case of need,
and to establish, regulate and control a fire department or division;
to regulate the size, materials and construction of buildings, fences,
and other structures hereafter erected in such manner as the public
safety and convenience may require; to remove, or require to be re-
moved, any building, structure or addition thereto which by reason of
dilapidation, defect of structure, or other causes, may have 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 building shall not be constructed, removed,
added to or enlarged, and to direct that any or all future buildings
within such limits shall be constructed of stone, natural or artificial,
concrete, brick, iron or other fireproof material.

Twenty-fourth. To provide for the care, support and maintenance
of children and of sick, aged, insane, or poor persons and paupers.

Twenty-fifth. To establish, organize and administer public schools
and libraries subject to the general laws establishing a standard of
education for the State.

Twenty-sixth. To provide and maintain, either within or without
the city, charitable, recreative, curative, corrective, detentive, or penal
institutions.

Twenty-seventh. To prevent persons having no visible means of
support, paupers and persons who may be dangerous to the peace and
safety of the city from coming to said city from without the same; and
for this purpose to require any railroad company, or the owners of any
conveyance bringing such person to the city, to take such person back
to the place whence he was brought, or enter into bond with satisfactory
surety that such person shall not become a charge upon said city within
one year from the date of his arrival, and to expel therefrom any such
person who has been in said city less than ninety days.

Twenty-eighth. To provide for the preservation of the general
health of the inhabitants of said city, make regulations to secure the
same, inspect all food and foodstuffs and prevent the introduction and
sale in said city of any article or thing intended for human consump-
tion, which is adulterated, impure or otherwise dangerous to health,
and to condemn, seize and destroy or otherwise dispose of any such
article or thing without liability to the owner thereof ; prevent the intro-
duction or spread 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 af-
flicted with contagious or infectious disease to hospitals provided for
them, to provide for the organization of a department of health, 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 police officers of the city have; to
establish a quarantine ground within or without the city limits, and
such quarantine regulations against infectious and contagious disease
as the said council may see fit, subject to the laws of the State and the
United States; to provide and keep records of vital statistics and com-
pel the return of all births, deaths and other information necessary
thereto.

Twenty-ninth. To acquire by purchase, gift, devise, condemnation.
or otherwise, lands, either within or without the city, to be used, kept
and improved as a place for the interment of the dead, and to make
and enforce all necessary rules and regulations for the protection and
use thereof; and generally to regulate the burial and disposition of the
dead.

Thirtieth. To exercise full police powers, and establish and main-
tain a department or division of police.

Thirty-first. To do all things whatsoever necessary or expedient
for promoting or maintaining the general welfare, comfort, education,
morals, peace, government, health, trade, commerce or industries of the
city or its inhabitants.

Thirty-second. To make and enforce all ordinances, rules and
regulations necessary or expedient for the purpose of carrying into
effect the powers conferred by this charter or by any general law, and
to provide and impose suitable penalties for the violation of such or-
dinances, rules and regulations, or any of them, by fine not exceeding
five hundred dollars or imprisonment not exceeding six months, or
both, the city may maintain a suit to restrain by injunction the violation
of any ordinance notwithstanding such ordinance may provide punish-
ment for its violation. The enumeration of particular powers in this
charter shall not be deemed or held to be exclusive, but in addition to
the powers enumerated herein implied thereby, or appropriate to the
exercise thereof, the said city shall have and may exercise all other
powers which are now or may hereafter be possessed or enjoyed by
cities under the Constitution and general laws of this State.