CHAPTER 107

An Act to amend and reenact § 11, as amended, of Chapter 239 of the
Acts of Assembly of 19384, which provided a charter for the city of
Staunton, relating to the powers of the Councu. tH 149]

Approved February 26, 1964

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 11, as amended, of Chapter 239 of the Acts of Assembly of 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 exercise 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 affairs of the
City, and all property, real and personal, belonging to the City, and make
such ordinances, order and by-laws, relating to the same as it may deem
proper and necessary.

Second. To acquire by purchase, gift, devise, condemnation, or other-
wise, 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 pro-
vided 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 provided
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 con-
tained 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 workhouses, 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 connected with any institution or house
which it may establish, and regulate pauperism within the limits of the
City, and the Council, 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 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
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, refresh-
ment stands or restaurants. ;

Sizth. To acquire, establish, maintain and enlarge water works with-
in or without said City; to contract with the owners of land, water and
riparian rights, for the use or purchase thereof, for an estate or interest
in lands or any right or easement therein, or to have the same condemned
for the location or enlargement 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 protect 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 fixtures, whether within or
without the City, against injury and pollution, by appropriate ordinances
and penalties, to be enforced 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 maintain and
operate within and without the corporate limits suitable works for gas and
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 con-

emned.

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 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 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 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 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 contribute 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 organizations or institutions be located in the City.

Twelfth. To secure the inhabitants from contagious, infectious 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 organize a board of health and a department of
public welfare; to define their duties and grant to them the necessary au-
thority effectually to discharge them, including the authority to coordinate
their duties and efforts with appropriate agencies and departments of the
State of Virginia and other of its political subdivisions. ,
Thirteenth. To compel the abatement and removal of all nuisances
within the City 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 stagnant water, or to
make them so at the expense of the owners or occupants thereof; to regu-
late or prevent 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 em-
ployment therein; to compel the abatement of smoke and dust; to prevent
unnecessary noise therein; to regulate 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, convenience
and welfare of the inhabitants of the City.

Fourteenth. To direct the location of all buildings for storing ex-
plosives or combustible substances; to regulate the sale and use of gun-
powder, 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.

Sizteenth. To restrain and punish vagrants and mendicants; to pre-
vent vice and immorality ; to preserve public peace and good order; to pre-
vent and quell riots, disturbances and disorderly assemblages; to suppress
houses of ill-fame and gaming houses and gambling 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.

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 prop-
erty, or which may be erected contrary to law.

Eighteenth. 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.

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 regu-
late 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.

Twentieth. To provide any penalty for the violation of any City
ordinance, not exceeding five hundred dollars, or * twelve months’ impris-
onment in the City or Augusta County jail, or both.

Twenty-first. To pass all bylaws, rules and ordinances not repug-
nant to the Constitution and laws of the State which it may deem neces-
sary 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, 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 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 neces-
sarily 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 * posted in at least two public places in 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 adopting such codification or
restatement shall have been duly published as aforesaid.

Twenty-fourth. For the execution of its powers and duties the Coun-
cil 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 confirm regular assessments and levies of taxes heretofore or
hereafter made, and the acts of all ministerial officers in connection there-
with, and any such ordinance heretofore passed is hereby ratified and
confirmed.

Twenty-fifth. The Council may provide, by ordinance, for the col-
lection of City taxes or levies on property at such times and with such
penalties for nonpayment in time as may be fixed by ordinance.

Twenty-sixth. The Council may levy a tax or a license on any person,
firm, or corporation conducting any business or profession whatsoever in
the City, except when 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.

Twenty-seventh. 'The Council may provide by ordinance for the levy
of an admission tax on persons paying an admission charge or persons
admitted free, when an admission charge is paid by others, to places of
amusement or entertainment, for the amount of such tax, for the collection
thereof and for penalties 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 enter-
tainment, exclusive of any Federal tax thereon, including a charge made
for season tickets whether obtained by contribution or subscription, a
cover charge or a charge made for the use of seats or tables, reserved or
otherwise, and similar accommodations, in the City

(b) Place of Amusement or Entertainment. Any place in the City
wherein or whereat any of the following are located, conducted, per-
formed, exhibited or operated and for which an admission charge is 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 performance 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 foregoing enu-
meration of specific amusements and entertainments shall not be deemed
to exclude other amusements and entertainments 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, tele-
phone 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.

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