THE FOURTH CLASS CITY ACT (EXCERPT)
Act 215 of 1895
Chapter XI
GENERAL POWERS OF CITY CORPORATIONS.


91.1 General powers.

Sec. 1.

    (1) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (3), a city incorporated under the provisions of this act has, and the council may pass ordinances relating to, the following general powers:
    (a) To restrain and prevent vice and immorality, gambling, noise and disturbance, and indecent or disorderly conduct or assemblages; to prevent and quell riots; to preserve peace and good order; and to protect the property of the city or of persons in the city.
    (b) To prohibit vagrancy, truancy, begging, public drunkenness, disorderly conduct, or prostitution.
    (c) To prevent injury or annoyance from anything dangerous, offensive, or unhealthy; to prohibit and remove anything tending to cause or promote disease; and to prevent and abate nuisances.
    (d) To prohibit and suppress places of disorderly conduct, immorality, or vice.
    (e) To regulate or license the use of places of entertainment.
    (f) To prohibit and suppress gambling and to authorize the seizure and destruction of instruments and devices used for gambling.
    (g) To prohibit and prevent the selling or giving of alcoholic liquor as that term is defined in section 105 of the Michigan liquor control code of 1998, 1998 PA 58, MCL 436.1105.
    (h) To regulate, restrain, or prohibit sports, exhibitions, caravans, and shows for which money or other reward is demanded or received, except lectures on historic, literary, or scientific subjects.
    (i) To prevent the violation of the Sabbath day, or the disturbance of a religious meeting, congregation, or society or other public meeting assembled for a lawful purpose; and to require businesses to be closed on the Sabbath day.
    (j) To license, regulate, or prohibit auctioneers, auctions, and sales by public bids or offers by buyers or sellers in the manner of auctions; and to regulate the fees to be paid by and to auctioneers. However, a license is not required in case of sales required by law to be made at auction.
    (k) To license, regulate, or prohibit hawking and peddling and to license pawnbroking.
    (l) To license and regulate wharf boats and to regulate the use of boats in and about the harbor, if any, and within the jurisdiction of the city.
    (m) To establish, authorize, license, and regulate ferries to and from the city or a place in the city; and to regulate and prescribe the charges and prices for the transportation of persons and property by ferry.
    (n) To regulate and license taverns, houses of public entertainment, saloons, restaurants, and eating houses; and to regulate and prescribe the location of saloons. This subdivision does not authorize the licensing of the sale of alcoholic liquor as that term is defined in section 105 of the Michigan liquor control code of 1998, 1998 PA 58, MCL 436.1105.
    (o) To license and regulate vehicles used for the transportation of persons or property for hire in the city; and to regulate or fix their stands on the streets and public places and at wharves, boat landings, railroad station grounds, and other places.
    (p) To regulate and license toll bridges within the city and to prescribe the rates and charges for passage over the bridges.
    (q) To provide for and regulate the inspection of food.
    (r) To regulate the inspection, weighing, and measuring of brick, lumber, firewood, coal, hay, and any article of merchandise.
    (s) To provide for the inspection and sealing of weights and measures and to enforce the keeping and use of proper weights and measures by vendors.
    (t) To regulate the construction, repair, and use of vaults, cisterns, areas, hydrants, pumps, sewers, and gutters.
    (u) To prohibit and prevent indecent exposure of the person; the show, sale, or exhibition for sale of indecent or obscene pictures, drawings, engravings, paintings, books, or pamphlets; and indecent or obscene exhibitions and shows.
    (v) To regulate or prohibit bathing in the city's bodies of water.
    (w) To provide for the clearing of driftwood and noxious matter from the city's bodies of water; and to prohibit and prevent the depositing in the city's bodies of water of matter tending to render the water impure, unwholesome, or offensive.
    (x) To compel the owner or occupant of any grocery, tallow chandler shop, soap or candy factory, butcher shop or stall, slaughter house, stable, barn, privy, sewer, or other offensive, nauseous, or unwholesome place to cleanse, remove, or abate it when the council considers it necessary for the health, comfort, or convenience of the inhabitants of the city.
    (y) To regulate the keeping, selling, and using of dynamite, gunpowder, firecrackers and fireworks, and other explosive or combustible materials; to regulate the exhibition of fireworks and the discharge of firearms; and to restrain the making of fires in the streets and other open spaces in the city.
    (z) To direct and regulate the construction of cellars, slips, barns, private drains, sinks, and privies.
    (aa) To prohibit, prevent, and suppress mock auctions and fraudulent games, devices, and practices. Persons managing, using, or practicing; attempting to manage, use, or practice; or aiding in the management or practice of a mock auction or fraudulent game, device, or practice may be subject to the provisions of an ordinance under this subdivision.
    (bb) To prohibit, prevent, and suppress lotteries for the drawing or disposing of money or other property. Persons maintaining, directing, or managing such lotteries or aiding in the maintenance, directing, or managing of lotteries may be subject to the provisions of an ordinance under this subdivision.
    (cc) To license and regulate solicitors for passengers or for baggage to and from a hotel, tavern, public house, boat, or railroad and to provide the places where they may be admitted to solicit or receive patronage; and to license and regulate porters, runners, and drivers of vehicles used and employed for hire, to provide the places where they are admitted to solicit or receive patronage, and to fix and regulate the amounts and rates of their compensation.
    (dd) To provide for the protection and care of paupers.
    (ee) To provide for taking a census of the inhabitants of the city, whenever the council sees fit, and to direct and regulate the census.
    (ff) To provide for the issuing of licenses to the owners and keepers of dogs and to require the owners and keepers of dogs to pay for and obtain licenses; and to regulate and prevent the running at large of dogs, to require dogs to be muzzled, and to authorize the killing of dogs running at large or not licensed in violation of an ordinance of the city.
    (gg) To prohibit the possession or use of toy pistols, slingshots, and other dangerous toys or implements within the city.
    (hh) To require horses, mules, or other animals attached to vehicles or standing in the streets, lanes, or alleys in the city to be securely fastened, hitched, watched, or held and to regulate the placing and provide for the preservation of hitching posts.
    (ii) To provide for and regulate the numbering of buildings upon the streets and alleys; to require the owners or occupants of buildings to affix numbers on the buildings; and to designate and change the names of public streets, alleys, and parks.
    (jj) To provide for, establish, regulate, and preserve public fountains and reservoirs within the city, and troughs and basins for watering animals.
    (kk) To prevent or provide for the construction and operation of street railways, to regulate street railways, and to determine and designate the route and grade of any street railway to be laid or constructed in the city.
    (ll) To establish and maintain a public library, to provide a suitable building for that public library, and to aid in maintaining other public libraries as may be established within the city by private beneficence as the council considers to be for the public good.
    (mm) To license transient traders. In the case of transient traders who engage in the business of selling goods or merchandise after the commencement of the fiscal year, the license fee may be apportioned with relation to the part of the fiscal year that has expired. If transient traders continue in the same business after the commencement of the next fiscal year, and their goods or merchandise are assessed for taxes for the next fiscal year, the traders are not required to take out a second license upon the commencement of the next fiscal year.
    (2) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (3), the council may enact ordinances and make regulations, consistent with the laws and constitution of this state as they may consider necessary for the safety, order, and good government of the city and the general welfare of the inhabitants of the city, but exclusive rights, privileges, or permits must not be granted by the council.
    (3) This section is subject to the local government occupational licensing act.


History: 1895, Act 215, Eff. Aug. 30, 1895 ;-- CL 1897, 3107 ;-- CL 1915, 3021 ;-- CL 1929, 1945 ;-- CL 1948, 91.1 ;-- Am. 1994, Act 19, Eff. May 1, 1994 ;-- Am. 2018, Act 499, Imd. Eff. Dec. 27, 2018
Compiler's Notes: Enacting section 1 of Act 499 of 2018 provides:"Enacting section 1. This amendatory act is retroactive and takes effect January 1, 2018."





91.2 License; conditions for granting; revocation; sanctions.

Sec. 2.

    (1) The council may prescribe the terms and conditions upon which a license shall be granted and may require payment of a reasonable sum for a license. The person receiving the license shall, before the license is issued, execute a bond to the corporation, if required by the council, in a sum prescribed by the council, with 1 or more sufficient sureties, conditioned for a faithful observance of the charter of the corporation and the ordinances of the council, and otherwise conditioned as the council may prescribe.
    (2) A license is revocable by the council. If a license is revoked for noncompliance with the terms and conditions upon which it was granted, or on account of a violation of an ordinance or regulation passed or authorized by the council, the person holding the license shall, in addition to any other sanctions imposed, forfeit payments made for the license.


History: 1895, Act 215, Eff. Aug. 30, 1895 ;-- CL 1897, 3108 ;-- CL 1915, 3022 ;-- CL 1929, 1946 ;-- CL 1948, 91.2 ;-- Am. 1994, Act 19, Eff. May 1, 1994





91.3 License; term; transfer prohibited; sanctions.

Sec. 3.

     Except as otherwise provided in section 1(1)(mm) of this chapter, a license shall not be granted for a term beyond the next first Monday in June or be transferable. The council may provide sanctions for a person who, without license, does something for which a license is required by an ordinance or regulation of the council.


History: 1895, Act 215, Eff. Aug. 30, 1895 ;-- CL 1897, 3109 ;-- CL 1915, 3023 ;-- CL 1929, 1947 ;-- CL 1948, 91.3 ;-- Am. 1994, Act 19, Eff. May 1, 1994





91.4 License receipts; disposition.

Sec. 4.

     All sums received for licenses granted for any purpose by the city or under its authority, shall be paid into the city treasury to the credit of the contingent fund.


History: 1895, Act 215, Eff. Aug. 30, 1895 ;-- CL 1897, 3110 ;-- CL 1915, 3024 ;-- CL 1929, 1948 ;-- CL 1948, 91.4





91.5 Franchise rights in streets; council vote; private damage suits.

Sec. 5.

     The council of any city shall have authority to permit any railroad company or street railway company to lay its track, and operate its road with steam, electric or other power, in or across the streets, highways and public alleys of the city, as the council may deem expedient, upon such terms and conditions, and subject to such regulations, to be observed by the company, as the council may prescribe; and to prohibit the laying of such track, or the operating of any such road, except upon such terms and conditions. But such permission shall not affect the right or claim of any person for damages sustained by reason of the construction or location of any such railroad or street railway: Provided, That no franchise for the use or occupancy of any street for any purpose shall be granted to an individual, company or corporation, except by a 2/3 vote of all the aldermen elect, nor shall any such franchise be granted for a period exceeding 30 years.


History: 1895, Act 215, Eff. Aug. 30, 1895 ;-- CL 1897, 3111 ;-- CL 1915, 3025 ;-- CL 1929, 1949 ;-- CL 1948, 91.5





91.6 Railroad track; location and grade of street crossings; construction and repair; flagmen; lighting; enforcement of ordinance prescribing maximum speed limit.

Sec. 6.

     The council may provide for and change the location and grade of street crossings of any railroad track; compel any railroad company or street railway company to raise or lower its railroad track to conform to street grades which may be established by the city; construct street crossings in a manner and with the protection to persons crossing at those crossings as the council may require and to keep those crossings in repair; and require and compel railroad companies to keep flagmen or watchmen at all railroad crossings of streets and to give warning of the approach and passage of trains at those crossings and to light those crossings during the night. On and after the effective date of a passenger railroad maximum speed limit specified in a final order of the director of the state transportation department, an ordinance of a city prescribing the maximum speed limit of locomotives used in passenger train operations or of passenger railroad trains shall not be enforceable as to a speed limit other than the limit set forth in the order.


History: 1895, Act 215, Eff. Aug. 30, 1895 ;-- CL 1897, 3112 ;-- CL 1915, 3026 ;-- CL 1929, 1950 ;-- CL 1948, 91.6 ;-- Am. 1984, Act 12, Imd. Eff. Feb. 16, 1984





91.7 Railroad companies; drainage repairs; failure, expense of company.

Sec. 7.

     The council shall have power to require and compel any railroad company and any street railway company to make, keep open and in repair, such ditches, drains, sewers and culverts, along and under, or across their railroad tracks, as may be necessary to drain their grounds and right of way properly, and in such manner as the council shall direct, so that the natural drainage of adjacent property shall not be impeded. If any such railroad company or street railway company shall neglect to perform any such requirement, according to the directions of the council, the council may cause the work to be done at the expense of such company, and the amount of such expense may be collected at the suit of the city against the company, in a civil action, before any court having jurisdiction of the cause.


History: 1895, Act 215, Eff. Aug. 30, 1895 ;-- CL 1897, 3113 ;-- CL 1915, 3027 ;-- CL 1929, 1951 ;-- CL 1948, 91.7





91.8 Partition fence; ordinances, by-laws, regulation.

Sec. 8.

     The council is authorized to enact all such ordinances and by-laws as it may deem proper relative to the building, rebuilding, maintaining and repairing of partition fences by the owners and occupants of adjoining lots, inclosures and parcels of land in said city; and relative to the assigning to the owners or occupants of such adjoining pieces of land the portion of such partition fences to be maintained by them respectively; and may provide for the recording of such assignments and divisions when made; and may provide for the recovery of damages from any owner or occupant who shall fail to comply with the provisions and requirements of any ordinance relative to such partition fences. And the council may appoint fence-viewers, and prescribe their duties and mode of proceeding in all cases relative to partition fences in said city.


History: 1895, Act 215, Eff. Aug. 30, 1895 ;-- CL 1897, 3114 ;-- CL 1915, 3028 ;-- CL 1929, 1952 ;-- CL 1948, 91.8





91.9 Support of poor persons; director of the poor.

Sec. 9.

     The council of any city may make such provision as they shall deem expedient for the support and relief of poor persons residing in the city; and for that purpose may provide by ordinance for the election or appointment of a director of the poor for the city, and may prescribe his duties and vest him with such authority as may be proper for the exercise of his duties.


History: 1895, Act 215, Eff. Aug. 30, 1895 ;-- CL 1897, 3115 ;-- CL 1915, 3029 ;-- CL 1929, 1953 ;-- CL 1948, 91.9



Rendered 8/15/2025 5:33 AM
Michigan Compiled Laws Complete Through PA 5 of 2025
Courtesy of legislature.mi.gov