Chap. 367.—An ACT to amend and reenact Section 23 of Chapter 280 of tne
Acts of Assembly of 1932, approved March 24, 1932, and providing a new
charter for the city of Alexandria, by empowering the city manager to employ
department heads and by authorizing the council to make grants in aid of the
Alexandria Bicentennial Commission. {H 534]

Approved March 31, 1948

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That section twenty-three of chapter two hundred eighty of the
Acts of Assembly of nineteen hundred thirty-two, approved March
twenty-four, nineteen hundred thirty-two be amended and reenacted as
follows:

Section 23. The council shall have ail the general powers vested in
it by the Constitution and laws of the State, and it shall have power to
enact ordinances providing for the exercise within its jurisdiction of all
police powers which the State itself may exercise under the Constitution,
except such as may be specially denied cities by act of the General
Assembly ; and shall further have power :

First: To control and manage the fiscal and municipal affairs of the
city, and all property, real and personal, belonging to the city, and make
such ordinances, orders and by-laws, relating to the same as it may deem
proper and necessary.

Second: To purchase, hold, sell and convey all real and personal
property necessary for its uses and purposes.

Third: To establish markets in the city and regulate the same, and
to enforce such regulations in regard to the keeping and sale of fresh
meat, vegetables, eggs, and other green groceries, and the trade of huck-
sters and junk dealers, as may be deemed advisable.

Fourth: To erect in or near the city limits suitable workhouses,
houses of correction or reformation, and houses for the reception and
maintenance of the poor and destitute. It shall possess and exercise exclu-
sive authority over all persons within the limits of the city receiving the
benefits of the poor law ; appoint officers and other persons connected with
any institution or house which it may establish, and regulate pauperism
within the limits of the city, and the council, through a board of overseers
of the poor or such other agencies as it may appoint for the direction and
management of the poor of the city, shall exercise the powers and perform
the duties vested by law in overseers of the poor.

Fifth: To erect and keep in order all necessary public buildings; to
establish and regulate public squares, airports, playgrounds, and parks in
or near the city, and to acquire by purchase, condemnation, or otherwise,
the land it may deem necessary for such uses, and to construct in such
public squares, playgrounds or parks, as it may maintain, or upon any
city property, stadiums, swimming pools, and recreation or amusement
buildings, structures, or inclosures of every character, refreshment stands,
restaurants, et cetera; to charge for admissions, and use of the same, and
to rent out or lease the privileges of construction or using such swimming
pools, recreation or amusement building, structures or inclosures of every
character, refreshment stands or restaurants, et cetera.

Sixth: To establish, maintain and enlarge water works or gas works
within or without the city; to contract with the owners of land, water
and riparian rights, for the use or purchase thereof, or to have the same
condemned for the location or enlargement of said works, or the pipes
and fixtures thereof, and to acquire by purchase or condemnation such
quantity of the watershed land adjacent to the intake or source of supply,
as in the judgment of the council may be necessary to insure a sufficient
supply of water for the city, and to protect the same from pollution; to
ae by purchase or condemnation from lower riparian owners the
right to divert streams into the present or any future reservoir; and to
protect said water supply, works, pipes, reservoirs and fixtures, whether
within or without the city, against injury and pollution, by appropriate
ordinances and penalties, to be enforced as are other ordinances of the
city.

Seventh: To establish or acquire by purchase and to maintain and
operate within or without the corporate limits suitable works for the
generation of electricity for illumination or other purposes, and to supply
the same to consumers in or near the city at such price and on such terms
as it may prescribe, and to that end may contract with owners of land and
water power for the use thereof, or may have the same condemned.

Eighth: To establish, or acquire by purchase such other public utili-
ties, abattoirs and other enterprises, either within or without the city, as
may in its judgment be in the public ‘interest, and to that end may con-
tract with owners of land, with or without buildings, for the use or the
purchase thereof, or may have the same condemned.

Ninth: To take care, supervision and control of streets, squares and
commons, and to close, vacate, abandon, extend, widen, narrow, lay out,
pave, graduate, grade, regrade, improve and otherwise alter the streets
in the city; to improve, repair, pave and repave sidewalks, pavements
and gutters, and set and reset curbs ; have the streets properly lighted and
kept in good order; build bridges in or culverts under said streets or
alleys, prevent or remove obstructions or encroachments over, under or
in the same; plant shade trees along the same, and prevent the cumbering
of streets, alleys, walks, public squares, lanes or bridges in any manner
whatever.

Tenth: To construct and own sewers, sanitary and storm water, in
and through the streets, alleys and other public ways or properties or
such areas as may be acquired for the purpose, to adopt and establish
such rules, regulations and ordinances regulating the drainage and sewer-
age of the city, its streets, alleys and highways, and as to the use of same
as the council may deem expedient and necessary, and to enforce same by
reasonable fines and penalties, and to impose and collect reasonable
charges against persons for connecting with and receiving service from
any sewer or sewers owned. by the city and to collect reasonable service
charges from all persons who obtain sewer service through any such
sewers by indirect connection through privately constructed sewers con-
nected with such sewers owned by the city.

Eleventh: To permit railroads to be built and to determine and
designate the routes and grade thereof; to permit poles for electrical,
telephone, or telegraph purposes to be erected, gas and steam pipes and
conduits for wires to.be laid in the streets, and to prescribe an annual
license charge for the privileges granted hereunder ; to regulate the speed
of engines and cars upon the railroads within the city and to wholly
exclude the same where the welfare of the city may demand it.

Twelfth: To provide for the weighing .of hay, fodder, oats and
shucks or other long forage, ice, coal and live stock, and the measuring
of wood and lumber. To require every merchant or trader in property
of any description which is sold by measure or weight, to have his weights
and measures sealed by the city sealer, or other officer designated to per-
form such duties,

Thirteenth: To provide for aid in the support or maintenance of
public free schools ; to appoint the school board for the city, and to desig-
nate the age of pupils to be admitted into the public schools and the grade
of such schools.

Fourteenth: To grant aid to military companies and to contribute
to the support of a band maintained within the city, to associations for the
advancement of agriculture or the mechanic arts, to scientific, literary,
educational or benevolent organizations or institutions, to the Alexandria
Bicentennial Commission and to public libraries, provided such action
is not prohibited by the Constitution of the State, and that all such socie-
ties, organizations or institutions be located in or near the city, and pro-
vided further that no appropriation for any such purposes shall be made,
nor shall aid be otherwise granted through exemption from charge -for
use of water or light facilities or otherwise, either with or without charge,
beyond the city limits, unless two-thirds of all the members elected to the
council vote therefor.

Fifteenth: To secure the inhabitants from contagious, infectious or
other dangerous diseases; to establish a quarantine ground; to provide
and maintain hospitals; to compel the removal of patients to same; to
appoint and organize a board of health or a department of public welfare ;
to define its duties and grant to it the necessary authority effectually to
discharge same.

Sixteenth: To provide for the registration of births in the city, and
to that end may require physicians, midwives, or parents to report the
same to the board of health or department of public welfare under such
regulations as it may deem proper.

Seventeenth: To provide in or near the city lands to be used as
burial places for the dead, to improve and care for the same and the
approaches thereto, and to charge for and regulate the use of ground
therein; to prohibit the burial of dead within the city and to regulate
public cemeteries, and to require the return of bills of mortality by the
keepers of all cemeteries in or near the city.

Eighteenth: To compel the abatement ‘and removal of all nuisances
within the city, or upon property owned by the city beyond its limits, at
the expense of the person or persons causing the same, or of the owner
or occupant of the ground or premises whereon the same may be; to
require all lands, lots and other premises within the city to be kept clean,
sanitary and free from weeds or to make them so at the expense of the
owners or occupants thereof; to regulate or prevent slaughter houses or
other noisome or offensive business within the city; the keeping of ani-
mals, poultry or other fowl therein, or the exercise of any dangerous or
unwholesome business, trade or employment therein; to regulate the
transportation of articles through the streets of the city; to compel the
abatement of smoke and dust; to prevent unnecessary noise therein; to
regulate the location of stables and the manner in which they shall be
kept and constructed; to provide means for and to regulate the cleaning
of all dry closets and to assess against the owner or occupant of the prem-
ises on which the same is located a reasonable charge therefor, which
shall be collectible as any other city taxes, and generally to define, prohib-
it, abate, suppress and prevent all things detrimental to the health, morals,
safety, comfort, convenience and welfare of the inhabitants of the city.

Nineteenth: To authorize and regulate the erection of party walls
and fences, and to prescribe how the cost thereof shall be borne by coter-
minous owners.

Twentieth: To direct the location of all buildings for storing explo-
sives or combustible substances; to regulate the sale and use of gun-
powder, nitroglycerine, fireworks, kerosene oil or other like materials;
to regulate the exhibition of fireworks, the discharge of firearms and
the making of bonfires in the streets and yards.

Twenty-first: To prevent fowls and animals being kept in or run-
ning at large in the city, or any thickly populated portion thereof, and to
subject the same to such taxes, regulations and confiscations as it may
think proper.

Twenty-second: To prevent the riding or driving of horses or other
animals at improper speed; to prevent the flying of kites, throwing of
stones, or engaging in any sort of employment in the public streets which
is dangerous or annoying to passersby, and to prohibit and punish the
abuse of animals.

Twenty-third: To regulate the use of automobiles and other automo-
tive vehicles upon the streets; to regulate the routes in or through the
city to be used by motor vehicle carriers operating in or through the
city and to prescribe different routes for different carriers ; to prohibit the
use of certain streets by motor trucks; and generally to prescribe such
regulations respecting motor vehicle traffic therein as may be necessary
for the general welfare.

Twenty-fourth: To restrain and punish drunkards, vagrants and
mendicants ; 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 and gam-
bling devices of all kinds; to prevent lewd, indecent and disorderly
conduct or exhibitions in the city, and to expel therefrom persons guilty
of such conduct who have resided therein less than one year.

Twenty-fifth: To prevent the coming into the city of persons having
no ostensible means of support, or of persons who may be dangerous to
the peace and safety of the city, and for this purpose may require any
railroad company bringing such passengers into the city to enter into
bond, with approved security, that such persons shall not become charge-
able to the city for one year, or may compel such company to take them
back from whence they came, or compel such persons to leave the city
if they have not been in the city more than six months before the order
is given.

Twenty-sixth: To regulate and control auction sales, livery stables,
garages, gasoline filling stations, slaughter houses, theatrical performances
or other public shows or exhibitions, the hiring or use for pay of carri-
ages, carts, wagons and drays, automobiles and other automotive vehicles,
and the business of hawkers, peddlers, persons selling goods by sample,
persons keeping billiard tables, tenpin alleys and pistol galleries for profit,
and all other similar businesses and occupations and employments, and
as to such trades, occupations and employments, and any other of a like
nature, may grant or refuse license as it may deem proper.

Twenty-seventh: To compel persons sentenced to confinement in
the jail of the city for petty larceny or other misdemeanor or other viola-
tions of the city ordinances to work on the public streets, parks or other
public works of the city ; and on the requisition of the judge of the muni-
cipal court it shall be the duty of the sergeant of the city to deliver such
person to the duly authorized agent of the city for such purposes from
day to day as he may be required.

Twenty-eighth: To establish administrative departments. offices, or
agencies, and to provide for the employment of such officers and
employees as it may deem necessary. There are hereby created the depart-
ments of Public works, police, fire, public health, public welfare, and
recreation and parks, the heads of which shall be appointed by the city
manager. The council by ordinance may create, change, and abolish
offices, departments, or agencies, other than the offices, departments, and
agencies created by this charter. The council by ordinance may assign
additional duties or functions to the offices, departments, and agencies
created by this charter. When a vacancy occurs in any office to which the
incumbent is elected by the council, the council is empowered to fill the
vacancy, and when such vacancy occurs otherwise than by the regular
expiration of the term of the incumbent, the election shall only be for the
unexpired term.

Twenty-ninth: To change the boundaries of wards and decrease or
increase the number thereof.

Thirtieth: To give names to or alter the names of streets.

Thirty-first: To make such regulations and orders as will protect its
citizens from unsafe houses or walls, and to that end it shall have the
power to cause to be condemned and taken down any such building or
wall, but no such condemnation shall be made or such house or wall taken
down until the owner thereof, or in case of an infant or insane person,
his guardian or committee, be duly summoned before the board of officers
of the city, or the committee of the council thereof charged by the ordi-
nances with such duty, and allowed reasonable opportunity to show
cause against such action.

Thirty-second: To provide for the regular and safe construction of
houses in the city for the future, and to provide a complete building code
for the city, and to provide setback lines on the streets beyond which no
building may be constructed.

Thirty-third: To designate and prescribe from time to time the
parts of the city within which no buildings of wood shall be erected, and
to regulate the construction of buildings in the city so as to protect it
against danger from fire; and to enact an ordinance dividing the city
into zones under the provisions of the State law ; and to provide for a city
planning commission and define its powers.

Thirty-fourth: To provide any penalty for the violation of any city
ordinance, not exceeding three hundred dollars, or three months’
imprisonment in the city jail, or both.

Thirty-fifth: To pass all by-laws, rules and ordinances not repug-
nant to the Constitution and laws of the State which it 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, and
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 jurisdic-
tion, which is or shall be granted to or vested in the city, or in the council,
court or officers thereof, or which may be necessarily incident to a muni-
cipal corporation.

Thirty-sixth: To provide for the due publication in the newspapers
or otherwise of its ordinances and resolutions.

Thirty-seventh: To contribute funds or other aid to the building or
improvements of permanent public roads leading to the city, or of bridges
on such roads, or to the purchase of bridges on such roads by an affirma-
tive vote of at least two-thirds of the members elect of the council,
previded that no such appropriation shall be made toward the building,
purchase, or improvement of any road or bridge at a point more than five
miles beyond the corporate limits of the city measured along the route
of such road.
Thirty-eighth: No ordinance hereafter passed or amended by the
council for the violation of which any penalty is imposed shall take effect
until the same shall have been published in one of the daily newspapers
of the city, to be designated by the council, provided, that the require-
ments shall not apply to an ordinance merely granting to a person some
individual right or privilege nor to any ordinance re-ordained or amended
or re-ordained in or by compilation or codification of said ordinances. The
record or entry made by the clerk of the city or a copy of such record or
entry duly certified by him shall be prima facie evidence of the time of
such publication; and all laws, regulations and ordinances of the city
council may be read in evidence in all courts of justice and in all pro-
ceedings before any office, body or board in which it shall be necessary to
refer thereto, either from a copy thereof certified by the clerk of the city
or from copies thereof printed by authority of the city council.

An emergency exists and this act is in force from its passage.