CHAPTER 329

An Act to amend and reenact § 2, as amended, of Chapter 1 of Chapter 198
of the Acts of Assembly of 1950, approved March 14, 1950, which
provided a new charter for the City of Martinsville, the section re-
lating to powers of the city.

[S 151]

Approved March 30, 1962

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 2, as amended, of Chapter one of Chapter one hundred ninety-
three of the Acts of Assembly of nineteen hundred fifty, approved March
fourteen, nineteen hundred fifty, be amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 2. Powers of the City.

In addition to the powers mentioned in the preceding section, the
said City shall have power:

(1) To raise annually by taxes and assessments in said City on ali
subjects the taxation of which by cities is not forbidden by general law,
such sums of money as the council herein provided for shall deem neces-
sary 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 said tax shall not exceed
the sum of two dollars and twenty-five cents on the hundred dollars of
assessed value of real and personal property subject to taxation by the

ity.

(2) The City council may levy a tax or a license on any person, firm,
or corporation conducting any business, employment or profession what-
soever in the City, except when expressly prohibited by general law,
whether a license may be required therefor by the State or not, and may
exceed the State license, if any be required.

(3) The council may require of owners of motor vehicles, trailers and
semitrailers, residing in or having a place of business in the City in
which business the said motor vehicle is used, licenses for the privilege
of operating such vehicles in the City, such licenses to be issued and the
fees therefor fixed by the council.

(4) All goods and chattels wheresoever found, may be distrained and
sold for taxes assessed and due thereon, and no deed of trust or mort-
gage upon goods and chattels shall prevent the same from being distrained
and sold for taxes.
(5) There shall be a lien on real estate for the City taxes as assessed
thereon from the commencement of the year for which they were assessed.
The council may require real estate in the City delinquent for the non-
payment of City taxes to be sold for said taxes, with interest thereon at
the rate of six per centum per annum, and such per centum as the council
may prescribe for charges. Such real estate may be sold and may be
redeemed in the manner provided by law; provided that at any such sale,
where no person bids the amount chargeable on any such real estate, it
shall be lawful for the City treasurer to purchase the same for the benefit
of the City upon the same terms and conditions prescribed by general law,
for the purchase of delinquent real estate by the treasurer for the benefit
of a city.

(6) To impose special or local assessments for local improvements
and enforce payment thereof, subject, however, to limitations prescribed
by the Constitution of Virginia, as may be in force at the time of the
imposition of such special or local assessments.

(7) To contract debts, borrow money and make and issue evidence
of indebtedness.

(8) To expend the money of the City for all lawful purposes.

(9) To acquire by purchase, gift, devise, condemnation or otherwise,
property, real or personal, or any estate or interest therein, within or with-
out 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.

(10) To acquire or lease in any lawful manner for municipal pur-
poses or for the purpose of encouraging commerce and manufacture, lands
within and without the City not exceeding at any one time five thousand
acres in the aggregate, and may from time to time sell or lease the same
or any part thereof for all lawful purposes.

(11) To make and maintain public improvements of all kinds, includ-
ing municipal and other public buildings, airports, armories, markets,
municipal off street parking stations, swimming pools, libraries, hospitals,
comfort stations or rest rooms and all buildings and structures necessary
or appropriate for the use of the dpartments of fire and police; and to
establish a market or markets in and for said City for the sale of food-
stuffs, 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, seafood,
farm and domestic products and all perishable foods in said City; the
council shall also have authority to confine the sale of such articles or
products to the public markets and public squares provided by the City
for that purpose, and shall have full power and authority to regulate the

(12) To furnish all local public services; to purchase, hire, construct,
own, lease, maintain and operate local public utilities, to acquire by con-
demnation or otherwise, within or without the corporate limits, lands
and property necessary for any such purposes.

(13) To own, operate and maintain electric light and/or gas works,
either within or without the corporate limits of the said City for the
generating of electricity and/or the supplying of gas for illuminating,
power and other purposes, and to supply the same whether said gas
and /or electricity be generated or purchased by said City to its customers
and consumers both at such price and upon such terms as it may pre-
scribe, and to that end it may contract with owners of land and water
power for the use thereof, or may have the same condemned, and to pur-
chase such electricity and/or gas from the owners thereof, and to furnish
the same to its customers and consumers, both within and without the
corporate limits of the said City at such price and on such terms as it
may prescribe.

(14) To establish, impose and enforce water, light and sewerage
rates and rates and charges for public utilities, or ohter service, products
or conveniences, operated, rendered or furnished by the City; and to
assess, or cause to be assessed, water, light and sewerage rates and
charges against the proper tenant or tenants or such persons, firms, or
corporations as may be legally liable therefor; and the council may by
ordinance require a deposit of such reasonable amount as it may by such
ordinance prescribe, before furnishing any of said services to any person,
firm or corporation, but nothing herein shall be construed as conferring
upon said council authority to regulate rates and charges of public utilities
which are subject to the jurisdiction of the State Corporation Commission.

(15) Subject to the provisions of the Constitution of Virginia to
grant franchises for public utilities.

(16) To acquire in the manner provided by the general laws any
existing water, gas or electric plant, works or system, or any part thereof.
Any public utility owned or operated by the City of Martinsville, whether
it be water, gas, electric plant or otherwise shall not be sold until the
same shall have been first submitted to the qualified voters of the City at
a general or special election and shall have been approved by two-thirds
of such voters voting on the question of such sale, which two-thirds shall
include the majority of qualified registered voters owning real estate in
said City and voting in such election on such sale.

(17) To establish, open, widen, extend, grade, improve, construct,
maintain, light, sprinkle and clean, public highways, streets, alleys, boule-
vards and parkways, and to alter, or close the same; to establish and
maintain public parks, playgrounds and other public grounds; to con-
struct, maintain and operate public 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
street drains and highways; to regulate the operation and speed of all
locomotives, cars, and vehicles using the streets or railroads within the
City; to regulate the services to be rendered and rates to be charged by
public busses, motor cars, taxicabs and other public vehicles used for
hauling passengers and baggage for hire, except when prohibited by the
State Corporation Commission of Virginia, or the Interstate Commerce
Commission; to require any telephone and telegraph wires and any wires
and cables carrying electricity to be placed in conduits under ground and
to prescribe rules and regulations for the construction and use of such
conduits; and to do all other lawful things whatsoever adapted to make
said streets and highways safe, convenient and attractive.

(18) To construct and maintain, or aid in constructing and main-
taining, public roads, boulevards, parkways and bridges beyond the limits
of the City, in order to facilitate public travel 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.

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

(20) To compel the abatement and removal of all public 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 businesses within said City, the keep-
ing 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 or materials through the streets
of the City; to compel the abatement of smoke, odors and dust; to prevent
unnecessary 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 inhabitants
of the City.

(21) 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 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, 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 or having general circulation therein.

(22) To direct or prevent the location of all buildings for storing
gunpowder or other explosive or combustible substances, to regulate or pro-
hibit 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 fire-
arms, the use of candles and light in barns, stables and other buildings,
the making of bonfires and the carrying of concealed weapons.

(23) 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 it may
deem proper.

(24) To inspect, test, measure and weigh any commodity or article
offered for human consumption or use within the City.

(25) To provide for the care, support and maintenance of children
and of sick, aged, insane, or poor persons and paupers.

(26) To establish, organize and administer public schools subject to
the general laws establishing a standard of education for the State.

(27) To provide and maintain, either within or without the City,
charitable, recreative, curative, corrective, detentive, or penal institutions.

(28) 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 consumption, which is adulter-
ated, 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 introduction 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 afflicted 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 per-
formance of its duties, with powers 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 with-
out 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 sta-
tistics and compel the return of all births, deaths and other information
necessary thereto.

(29) 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.

(30) To exercise full police powers, and establish and maintain a
department or division of police.

(31) To create, regulate and maintain a fire department for the City
and to prescribe the duties of said department and its officers.

(32) For the purpose of guarding against the calamities of fires, the
City council may, from time to time, designate such portions and parts of
the City as it deems proper within which inflammable buildings may not
be erected. It may prohibit the erection of wooden buildings or buildings
of inflammable material in any portion of the City without its permission,
and may provide for the removal of such buildings or additions which shall
be erected contrary to such prohibition at the expense of the builder or
owner thereof; or if any building in process of erection or already built
appears clearly to be unsafe, the council may cause such building to be
taken down, after reasonable notice to the owner; and the council may,
by proper ordinance, divide the City into zones; specify the kind and
character of buildings which may be erected in the different zones; pro-
vide for the disposition of garbage and waste; provide precautionary
measures against danger from fires; provide for the removal of buildings
or structures of any kind, erected in violation of ordinances, at the
expense of the builder or owner; and may do all other things lawful to be
done, looking to the health and safety of the inhabitants of the City.

(33) (a) The city council shall not take or use any private property
for streets or other public purposes without making the owner thereof
just compensation for the same; but in cases where the council cannot
by agreement obtain title to the ground for such purposes the council
may exercise the power of eminent domain, as provided by law; and shall,
subject to the following paragraphs, have all the powers provided in
§ 15-77.60 to § 15-77.68 inclusive, of the Code of Virginia, as in force
on January one, nineteen hundred sixty, which is incorporated herein by
reference.

(ob) The city may enter upon the property to be condemned at any
time after the filing of its petition for condemnation and prior to the de-
termination and deposit of the award of just compensation for its purposes
if, upon the petitioner's application to do so, the court, after thirty days
notice to the parties and after hearing all parties in interest, finds (1)
that a public necessity or an essential public convenience requires such
entry for such purposes, and that an emergency exists justifying such
entry, before the time when just compensation can be determined and the
amount so determined paid into court, and (2) that the interests of the
owners of such property will be adequately protected by the payment into
court or to the clerk thereof for the benefit of the owners of the amount
of the offer made in accordance with law. Upon such payment, the petitioner
shall have the right to enter upon the property as described in its petition.
At any time after such payment into court or to the clerk thereof, a party
whose property or interest therein 1s to be taken or damaged may apply
to the court for the withdrawal of his share thereof in the manner pro-
vided by law.

(c) At any time during the condemnation proceedings, if it appears
necessary so to do in order to protect the owners of the property or
estate or interest therein to be condemned and assure unto them the
payment of just compensation to which they are entitled, the court may
require the petitioner to pay such additional sums into court as deemed
necessary to protect the owners of the property or estate in interest being
condemned.

(d) If the petitioner enters upon the property under this section and
does any work thereon, or causes any injury or damage to such property,
it shall not thereafter be entitled, without the consent of the owner, to
abandon the proceedings for the condemnation thereof, but shall conduct
such proceedings with reasonable dispatch to final judgment and the
petitioner shall pay to the owner of the property or into court the amount
of just compensation determined in the condemnation proceedings.

(34) In every case where a street in said City has been, or shall be
encroached upon by any fence, building or otherwise, the council may re-
quire the owner to remove the same, and if such removal be not made
within the time prescribed by the council, it may impose such penalty
as it deems proper for each and every day it is allowed to continue there-
after, and may cause the encroachment to be removed, and collect from
the owner all reasonable charges therefor, with costs by the same process
that council is hereinafter empowered to collect taxes.

Except, in case where there is a bona fide dispute as to the true
boundary line or the location of the true street line (and if such passage
over such street is not seriously impeded) the same shall be first estab-
lished and determined by an adjudication of a court of competent juris-
diction in a proceeding instituted by either the City or the property
owner for that purpose before the said City shall take any steps to
remove the said obstruction or encroachment, or to impose any penalty
therefor. No encroachment upon any street, however long continued,
shall constitute any adverse possession to or confer any rights upon the
persons claiming thereunder as against the said City.

(35) Dedication of any street, alley or lane in said City may be
made by plat or deed. Any street or alley reserved in the division or
subdivision into lots of any portion of the territory within the corporate
limits of said City, by a plan or plot of record, shall be deemed and held
to be dedicated to public use, unless it appears by said record that the
street or alley so reserved is designated for private use. The council
shall have the right to elect, by resolution entered on its minutes, whether
it will or will not accept the dedication of any street or alley.

(36) To do all things whatsoever necessary or expedient for pro-
moting or maintaining the general welfare, comfort, education, morals,
peace, government, health, trade, commerce or industries of the city or
its inhabitants.

(37) 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 ordinaces, rules and reg-
ulations, or any of them, by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars or im-
prisonment not exceeding twelve months, or both; the City may main-
tain a suit to restrain by injunction the violation of any ordinance not-
withstanding such ordinance may provide punishment 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
or implied thereby, or appropriate to the exercise thereof, the said City
shall have and may exercise all other powers which are now or may here-
after be possessed or enjoyed by cities under the Constitution and general
laws of this State not inconsistent with this charter.
(38) Notwithstanding any of the provisions of the Housing Authori-
ties Law (§§ 36-1, et seq., of the Code of Virginia, as amended), the members
of the council of the city of Martinsville, Virginia, during their respective
terms of office as councilmen, are authorized and empowered to act as the
Commissioners of the Martinsville Redevelopment and Housing Authority,
whenever the said Council shall adopt a resolution declaring

3 (a) The need for an authority to function in the city of Martinsville,
an

(b) The determination that the members of the Council of the city
of Martinsville shall act as the Commissioners of the said Authority.

Should the Council determine to act as the Commissioners of the Mart-
insville Redevelopment and Housing Authority as above provided, it shall
designate which of the Commissioners shall be the Chairman of the
Authority, and four Commissioners shall constitute a quorum of the
said Authority for the purpose of conducting its business and exercising
its powers and for all purposes, and action may be taken by the Authority
upon the vote of a majority of the Commissioners present, unless in any
case the by-laws of the Authority shall require a larger number.

The determination of the Council made hereunder and any determin-
ation that may be made by the Authority as constituted hereunder shall
be effective without the prerequisite of an election being held to determine
the question as provided by the Housing Authorities Law. Nothing herein
contained shall be construed to prevent the Council and the Authority from
otherwise proceeding under and in accordance with the Housing Authori-
ties Laws; provided, however, that notwithstanding any other provision
of Title 36 of the Code of Virginia, no bonds of the Authority shall be
issued unless and until a majority of the voters voting on the question
of such bond issue shall have approved the same in a referendum called
and held in accordance with § 41 of this charter.

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