CHAPTER 249

AN ACT to amend and reenact §§ 11 and 31 of Chapter 289 of
the Acts of Assembly of 1934, approved March 27, 1934, so
as to broaden the powers of the Council of the City of Staun-
ton respecting real estate, and the board of health and de-
partment of public welfare, to restrict the requirement that
ordinances be published, to empower the Council to levy
certain taxes, and to make permissive a certain provision as
to public ways.

[ H 270 ]

Approved April 3, 1950

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 11 and 31 of Chapter 239 of the Acts of Assembly
of 1934, approved March 27, 1934, be amended and reenacted as
follows:

§ 11. The Council shall have all 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 exer-
cise under the Constitution, except such as may be specifically
denied by Act of the General Assembly; and shall further have
power:

First. To control and manage the fiscal and municipal af-
fairs of the City, and all property, real and personal, belonging
to the City, and make such ordinances, order and by-laws, relat-
ing to the same as it may deem proper and necessary.

Second. * To acquire by purchase, gift, devise, condemna-
tion, or otherwise, property, real and personal, or any estate or
interest therein, within or without the City or State and for any
of the purposes of the City as provided by law; and to hold,
improve, sell, lease, mortgage or pledge the same or any part
thereof, including any property now owned by the City; to issue
purchase money obligations without a vote of the people pro-
vided such obligations shall not be general obligations of the
City of Staunton, but shall be secured solely by the property
purchased; and such obligations as may be from time to time
issued for the purchase of property shall clearly show that such
obligations are not general obligations of the City, but are
secured only as herein provided, provided that nothing herein
contained is contrary to or inconsistent with the Constitution of
Virginia.

Third. To establish markets in the City and regulate the
same.

Fourth. To erect in or near the City limits suitable work-
houses, jails, houses of correction or reformation, and houses for
the reception and maintenance of the poor and destitute. It shall
appoint necessary officers and other persons proper to be con-
nected with any institution or house which it may establish, and
regulate pauperism within the limits of the City, and the Coun-
cil, through such 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 build-
ings; to establish and regulate public squares; airports, play-
grounds and parks in or near the City, and to acquire by pur-
chase, condemnation, or otherwise, the land it may deem neces-
sary for such uses, and to construct in such public squares, play-
grounds, or parks, as it may maintain, or upon any City proper-
ty, stadiums, swimming pools, and recreation or amusement
buildings, structures, or inclosures of every character, refresh-
ment stands and restaurants; to charge for admissions, and to
rent out or lease the privileges of construction or using such
swimming pools, recreation or amusement buildings, structures
or inclosures of every character, refreshment stands or res-
taurants.

Sixth. To acquire, establish, maintain and enlarge water
works within or without said City; to contract with the owners
of land, water and riparian rights, for the use or purchase there-
of, for an estate or interest in lands or any right or easement
therein, or to have the same condemned for the location or en-
largement of said works, or the pipe, pipe lines, 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 said Council may be necessary
to insure a sufficient supply of water for the said City, and to pro-
tect the same from pollution; and to prevent by injunction any
pollution or threatened pollution of such water supply, and any
and all acts likely to impair the purity thereof; to acquire 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 fix-
tures, whether within or without the City, against injury and
pollution, by appropriate ordinances and penalties, to be en-
forced as are other ordinances of said City. 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.

Seventh. To establish or acquire by purchase and to main-
tain and operate within * and without the corporate limits suit-
able works for gas and the generation of electricity for illumi-
nation 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 con-
demned.

Eighth. To establish, or acquire by purchase, such other
public utilities, abattoirs, and other enterprises, either within
or without the City, as may in its judgment be in the public in-
terest, and to that end may contract with owners of land, with
or without buildings, for the use or the purchase thereof, or
may have the same condemned.

Ninth. To establish, open, widen, extend, grade, improve,
construct, maintain, light, and clean public highways, streets,
alleys and sidewalks, boulevards and parkways, and to alter or
close the same; make or construct sewers or public ducts through
the same or wherever else they may deem expedient; build
bridges in or culverts under said streets or alleys, prevent or re-
move 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 whatsoever.

Tenth. To acquire and own land suitable for stone quarries,
or the quarry rights in such lands; to take stone therefrom and
to manufacture the same into crushed stone for City uses.

Eleventh. To grant aid to military companies and to con-
tribute to the support of a band maintained within the City, to
grant aid to literary, educational or benevolent organizations or
institutions, and to a public library, provided such action is not
prohibited by the Constitution of the State, and that such or-
ganizations or institutions be located in the City.

Twelfth. To secure the inhabitants from contagious, in-
fectious or other dangerous diseases; to establish a quarantine
ground; to provide, regulate and maintain hospitals; to compel
the removal of patients to said hospitals; to appoint and organ-
ize a board of health * and a department of public welfare; to
define * their duties and grant to * them the necessary authority
effectually to discharge them, including the authority to coordi-
nate their duties and efforts with appropriate agencies and de-
partments of the State of Virginia and other of its political sub-
divisions.

Thirteenth. To compel the abatement and removal of all
nuisances within the City at the expense of the person or per-
sons 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 stagnant water, or to make them so at the
expense of the owners or occupants thereof; to regulate or pre-
vent slaughter houses or other noisome or offensive business
within the said City, the keeping of animals, poultry or other
fowl therein, or the exercise of any dangerous or unwholesome
business, trade or employment therein; to compel the abatement
of smoke and dust; to prevent unnecessary noise therein ; to reg-
ulate the location of stables, garages and gasoline filling stations,
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, safety, comfort, con-
venience and welfare of the inhabitants of the City.

Fourteenth. To direct the location of all buildings for stor-
ing explosives or combustible substances; to regulate the sale
and use of gunpowder, nitroglycerine, dynamite, fireworks,
kerosene, oil, gasoline or other combustible material; to regulate
the exhibition of fireworks, the discharge of firearms and the
making of bonfires in the streets and yards.

Fifteenth. To prescribe traffic regulations upon the streets,
alleys, and parkways of the City, not in conflict with general
law, and shall have full authority by ordinance to require all
public conveyances, cabs, buses, and trucks, operated by motor
or other power, within the City, or in and out of the City, to
provide terminals at such points as shall meet with the approval
of the Council, and to provide all reasonable regulations govern-
ing the same, to regulate the operation and speed of engines and
cars upon the railroads within the City; to prevent any sort of
employment or sports in the public streets which is dangerous
or annoying to passers-by, and to prohibit and punish the abuse
of animals.

Sixteenth. To restrain and punish vagrants and mendi-
cants; to prevent vice and immorality; to preserve public peace
and good order; to prevent and quell riots, disturbances and dis-
orderly assemblages; to suppress houses of ill-fame and gaming
houses and gambling devices of all kinds; to prevent lewd, inde-
cent and disorderly conduct or exhibitions in the City, and to ex-
pel therefrom persons guilty of such conduct who have resided
therein less than one year.

Seventeenth. To remove, or require to be removed, any
building, walls, structure, or addition thereto which, by reason
of dilapidation, defect or structure, or other causes, may have
become dangerous to life or property, or which may be erected
contrary to law.

Eighteenth. To provide for the regular and safe construc-
tion of houses in the City for the future, and to provide a com-
plete building code for the City, and to provide setback lines on
the streets beyond which no building may be constructed.

Nineteenth. 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
Citv 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.

Twentieth. To provide any penalty for the violation of any
City ordinance, not exceeding five hundred dollars, or three
months’ imprisonment in the City or Augusta County jail, or

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Twenty-first. To pass all by-laws, rules and ordinances
not repugnant 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
fiscal and municipal affairs, the peace, comfort, convenience, or-
der, morals, health and protection of its citizens or their prop-
erty, and do such other things and pass such other laws as may
be necessary or proper to carry into full effect any power, au-
thority, capacity, or jurisdiction, which is or shall be granted
to or vested in said City, or in the Council, Court, or officers
thereof, or which may be necessarily incident to a municipal
corporation.

Twenty-second. To provide for the due publication in the
newspapers or otherwise of its ordinances and resolutions.

Twenty-third.—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 for five
days consecutively in one of the daily newspapers of said City to
be designated by the said Council, or by handbills, as the Coun-
cil may direct; such handbills shall be posted in at least ten pub-
lic places in each ward of the City; a certificate of such posting
shall be filed by the Sergeant in the City Clerk’s office, provided,
however, that this requirement as to publication shall not apply
to any ordinance re-ordained or restated in or by a compilation
or codification of said ordinances provided the ordinance adopt-
ang such codification or restatement shall have been duly pub-
lished as aforesaid

Twenty-fourth. For the execution of its powers and duties
the Council may raise annually, by taxes and assessments in said
City, such sums of money as it shall deem necessary to defray
the expenses of the same, and in such manner as it shall deem
expedient, in accordance with the laws of this State and of the
United States, and may by curative ordinance, ratify and con-
firm regular assessments and levies of taxes heretofore or here-
after made, and the acts of all ministerial officers in connection
therewith, and any such ordinance heretofore passed is hereby
ratified and confirmed.

Twenty-fifth. The Council may provide, by ordinance, for
the collection of City taxes or levies on property at such times
and with such penalties for nonpayment in time as may he
fixed by ordinance.
Twenty-sixth_—The Council may levy a tax or a license on
any person, firm, or corporation conducting any business or pro-
fession whatsoever in the City, except when prohibited by gen-
eral law, whether a license may be required therefor by the State
or not, and may exceed the State license, if any be required.

Twenty-seventh. The Council may provide by ordinance
for the levy of an admission tax on persons paying an admis-
ston charge or persons admitted free, when an admission charge
ts paid by others, to places of amusement or entertainment, for
the amount of such tax, for the collection thereof and for penal-
ties for the failure to pay to such tax so levied. For the purpose
of this subsection, admission charge and place of amusement or
entertainment shall mean :—

(a) Admission charge. The charge made for admission to
any entertainment, exclusive of any Federal tax thereon, includ-
ing a charge made for season tickets whether obtained by con-
tribution or subscription, a cover charge or a charge made for
the use of. seats or tables, reserved or otherwise, and similar ac-
commodations, in the City.

(b) Place of Amusement or Entertainment. Any place in
the City wherein or whereat any of the following are located,
conducted, performed, exhibited or operated and for which an
admission charge 1s made: a circus, a carnival, a menagerie, a
moving picture show, a fair, a show or an exhibition of any
kind, a dance; a baseball, basketball or football game; a wrestling
match or a boxing match or a sport of any kind; a swimming
contest or exhibition; a swimming pool; a concert; a theatrical,
vaudeville, dramatic, operatic or musical performance or a per-
formance similar thereto; a lecture, talk, literary reading or
performance similar thereto; an attraction such as a merry-go-
round, ferris wheel, roller coaster, leap-the-dips or the like; an
automobile race, a midget auto race, or a horse race; a horse
show; an ice skating or roller skating rink or arena; or any
other public amusement, performance or exhibition. The fore-
going enumeration of specific amusements and entertainments
shall not be deemed to exclude other amusements and entertain-
ments otherwise within the meaning of those words.

Twenty-eighth. In addition to the other powers conferred
by law, the City shall have power to impose, levy and collect, in
such manner as its Council shall deem expedient, a consumer
or subscriber tax upon the amount paid for the use within the
City of water, electricity, gas, telephone and any other public
utility service or upon the amount paid for any one or more of
such public utility services, used within the City and the Council
may provide that such tax shall be added to and collected with
bills rendered consumers for such services.
§ 81. Whenever any street, alley or lane in said City shall
have been opened to and used as such by the public for the period
of five years, the Council may declare the same * a street, lane or
alley for public purposes, and the Council shall have the same
authority and jurisdiction over and rights and interest therein,
as they have by law over the streets, alleys and lanes laid out by
them, and any street or alley reserved in the division or sub-
division into lots of any portion of the territory within the cor-
porate limits of said City by a plot or plan of record, shall be
deemed and held to be dedicated to public use, unless it appears
by said record that the said street or alley so reserved is designed
for private use; but upon a petition of a majority of the persons
interested therein, the Council shall have the power to open the
same for the use of the public.

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

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