§ 7. Enumeration of numerous miscellaneous powers of council; jurisdiction beyond corporate limits.

The council of said city shall have, and is hereby granted power to have said city surveyed, to lay out, open, vacate, straighten, broaden, change grade of, grade, regrade, curb, widen, narrow, repair, pave and repave streets, alleys, roads, squares, plots, sidewalks and gutters for public use, and to alter, improve, embellish and ornament and light the same, and to construct and maintain public sewers and laterals, and shall, in all cases, have power and authority to assess upon and collect from the property benefited thereby, such part of the expense thereof as shall be fixed by ordinance, except as hereinafter provided, to have control of all streets, avenues, roads, alleys and grounds for public use in said city, and to regulate the use thereof and driving thereon, and to have the same kept free from obstruction, pollution or litter on or over them; to have the right to control all bridges within said city, and the traffic thereover; to change the name of any street, avenue or road within said city, and regulate and cause the numbering and renumbering of houses on any street, avenue or road therein; to regulate the naming of streets, avenues and public places; to regulate and determine the width of streets, sidewalks, roads and alleys; to order and direct the curbing, recurbing, paving, repaving, and repairing of sidewalks and footways for public use in said city to be done and kept clean and in good order by the owners of adjacent property; to enter into a contract with the County of Kanawha, or any internal improvement company for the joint ownership of any bridge by the city and such county or company, upon such terms as may be prescribed in the contract, but any such bridge shall be a public highway and the interest of the company, county and city shall be only such proportionate part thereof as it may pay for or that may be named in the contract; to prohibit and punish the abuse of animals; to restrain and punish vagrants, mendicants, beggars, tramps, prostitutes, fortunetellers, palmists, drunken or disorderly persons within the city, and to provide for their arrest and manner of punishment; to prohibit and punish by fine the bringing into the city by steamboats, railroads or other carriers of persons known to be paupers, dangerous or objectionable characters or afflicted with contagious diseases; to control and suppress disorderly houses of prostitution or ill fame, houses of assignation and gaming houses or any part thereof; to punish those guilty of possessing, transporting or selling intoxicating liquors and to confiscate all automobiles, cars, wagons, boats, water[craft] and aircraft, beasts of burden and vehicles of any kind in connection with which intoxicating liquors are had, kept or possessed for the purpose of transportation or carrying in any way within the city; to punish those engaged in gaming and to suppress all gaming or gambling houses, and all places where gambling or betting is in any way carried on or permitted, and to punish all persons in any way connected therewith; to prohibit within the city or within two miles thereof, slaughterhouses, soap or glue factories and houses and places of like kind, and any other thing or business dangerous, unwholesome, unhealthy, offensive, indecent or dangerous to life, health, peace or property; to provide for the entry into and the examination of all dwellings, lots, yards, enclosures, buildings and structures, cars, boats and vehicles of every description, and to ascertain their condition for health, cleanliness or safety; to regulate the building and maintenance of party walls, partition fences or lines, firewalls, fireplaces, chimneys, boilers, smokestacks and stove pipes; to provide for and regulate the safe construction, inspection and repairs of all public and private buildings, bridges, basements, culverts, sewers, or other buildings or structures of any description; to take down and remove, or make safe and secure, any and all buildings, walls, structures or superstructures at the expense of the owners thereof, that are or may become dangerous, or to require the owners or their agents to take down and remove them or put them in a safe and sound condition at their own expense; to regulate, restrain or prohibit the erection of wooden or other buildings within the city; to regulate the height, construction and inspection of all new buildings hereafter erected, and the alteration and repair of any buildings already erected or hereafter erected in said city, and to require permits to be obtained for such buildings and structures, and plans and specifications thereof to be submitted to the building inspector; to regulate the limit within which it shall be lawful to erect any steps, porticos, bay windows, bow windows, show windows, awnings, signs, columns, piers or other projection or structural ornaments of any kind for the houses or buildings fronting on any street of said city; to establish fire limits and to provide the kind of buildings and structures that may be erected therein, and to enforce all needful rules and regulations to guard against fire and danger therefrom; to require, regulate and control the construction of fire escapes for any building or other structures in said city, to control the opening and construction of ditches, drains, sewers, cesspools and gutters, and to deepen, widen and clear the same of stagnant water or filth, and to prevent obstruction therein, and to fill, close or abolish the same and to determine at whose expense the same shall be done; and to build and maintain fire station houses, crematories, jails, lockups, and other buildings, police stations and police courts, and to regulate the management thereof; to acquire, establish, lay off, appropriate, regulate, maintain and control public grounds, squares and parks, hospitals, market houses, city buildings, airports, libraries and other educational or charitable institutions, either within or without the city limits, and when the council determines that any real estate rights, or materials in or out of the city is necessary to be acquired by said city for any such city purpose, or for any public purpose, or is necessary in the exercise of its powers herein granted, the power of eminent domain is hereby conferred upon said city, and it shall have the right to institute condemnation proceedings against the owner thereof, whether said property be in or out of said city, in the same manner, to the same extent, and upon the same conditions as such power is conferred upon public service corporations by chapter 42 of the Code of West Virginia of the edition of 1923, and is now or may be hereafter amended [now W. Va. Code ch. 54]; to purchase, sell, lease or contract for and take care of all public buildings and structures and real estate deemed proper for the use of such city; and for the protection of the public to cause the removal of unsafe walls, structures or buildings, and the filling of excavations; to acquire or assist in acquiring land to be donated, dedicated or conveyed to, or otherwise vested in, the State of West Virginia as a site for a state capital or other public buildings, and to donate, dedicate and convey the same to said state or otherwise procure the title to the same to be vested in said state; to prevent injury or annoyance to the business of individuals from anything dangerous, offensive or unwholesome; to abate or cause to be abated all nuisances and to that end and thereabout to summon witnesses and hear testimony; to regulate or prohibit the keeping of gunpowder and other combustible or dangerous articles, and to regulate the transportation of same through the streets, alleys and public places; to regulate, restrain or prohibit the use of firecrackers or other explosives or fireworks, and all noises or performances which may be dangerous, indecent or annoying to persons or tend to frighten horses or other animals; to provide and maintain proper places for the burial of the dead, in or out of the city, and to regulate interments therein upon such terms and conditions as to price and otherwise as may be determined; to provide for shade and ornamental trees, shrubbery, grass, flowers and other ornamentation, and the protection of the same; to provide for the poor of the city; to make suitable and proper regulations in regard to the use of the streets, public places, sidewalks and alleys by streetcars, foot passengers, animals, vehicles, motors, automobiles, traction engines, railroad engines and cars, and to regulate the running and operation of the same so as to prevent obstruction thereon, encroachment thereto, injury, inconvenience or annoyance to the public; and to regulate fares and operation of motor vehicles operating on a fixed route used in the public transportation of passengers or property; to purchase or otherwise secure life, health or accident policies on the group or other convenient plan upon the members of the city police force and fire department, and as an element of compensation of such members may appropriate the money necessary to defray the cost thereof; whenever in its opinion the safety of the public so requires to authorize or require by ordinance any railroad company operating railroad tracks upon or across any public street or streets of the city, to construct and maintain overhead or undergrade crossings wherever the tracks of said company are laid upon or across the public streets of such city, and to apportion according to general law between any such railroad company and city the cost of such construction and maintenance and the cost of the acquisition of the necessary property and rights-of-way and the damages to abutting properties between any such railroad company and city; to prohibit prize fighting and cock and dog fighting; to license, tax, regulate or prohibit theaters, moving pictures, circuses, and exhibition of showmen and shows of any kind, and the exhibition of natural or artificial curiosities, carnivals, menageries and music exhibitions and performances, and other things or business on which the state does or may exact a license tax; to organize and maintain fire companies and departments, and to provide necessary apparatus, engines and implements for the same and to regulate all matters pertaining to the prevention and extinguishing of fires; to make proper regulations for guarding against danger and damage from fires, water or other elements; to regulate and control the kind and manner of plumbing and electric wiring, the operation and height of flying of aeroplanes, airships and balloons; to regulate wireless stations, radio stations and other appliances for the protection of the health and safety of said city; to levy taxes on property, property and licenses, to license and tax dogs and other animals and regulate, restrain and prohibit them and all other animals and fowls running at large; to provide revenue for the city and appropriate the same to its expenses; to adopt rules for the transaction of business of its own regulation and government; to promote the general welfare of the city, and to protect the persons and property of citizens therein; to regulate and provide for the weighing of produce and other articles sold in said city and to regulate the transportation thereof and other things, through the streets, alleys and public places; to have the right to grant, refuse or revoke any and all licenses for the carrying on of any business within said city on which the state exacts a license tax; to establish and regulate markets and to prescribe the time for holding the same, and what shall be sold in such market, and to let stalls or apartments and regulate the same; to acquire and hold property for market purposes; to regulate the placing of signs, billboards, posters and advertising on or over the streets, alleys, sidewalks and public grounds of said city; to preserve and protect the peace, order and safety and health of the city and its inhabitants, including the right to regulate the sale and use of cocaine, morphine, opium and poisonous or dangerous drugs; to appoint and fix the place of holding city elections; to erect, own, lease, authorize or prohibit the erection of gas works, electric light works or water works, ferry boats, in or near the city, and to operate the same, and to sell the product of services therefrom and to do any and all things necessary and incidental to the conduct of such business; to build, hold, purchase, own and operate toll bridges; to enter into an agreement with the County of Kanawha, whereby the council and the county court of Kanawha County shall have the power and authority to provide for a full time health officer in charge of all the general health and sanitation activities and of the enforcement of all laws and regulations relating to public health, in the City of Charleston, the County of Kanawha, and to provide for necessary assistants, nurses, clerks and other employees, and the expenses of the administration thereof, and to provide for a proper division of all such expenses between the city and county, and make all needful rules and regulations to fully carry into effect the said joint undertaking between the City of Charleston and the County of Kanawha; to provide for the purity of water, milk, meats and provisions offered for sale in said city, and to that end provide for a system of inspecting the same and making and enforcing rules for the regulation of their sale; and to prohibit the sale of any unwholesome or tainted milk, meats, fish, fruit, vegetables, or the sale of milk, containing water or other things not constituting a part of pure milk; to provide for inspecting dairies and slaughterhouses, whether in or outside of the city, where the milk and meat therefrom are offered for sale within said city, and to prohibit the sale of any articles deemed unwholesome, and to condemn the same or destroy or abate it as a nuisance; to provide for the regulation of public processions so as to prevent interference with public traffic, and to promote the good order of the city; to prescribe and enforce ordinances and rules for the purpose of protecting the health, property, lives, decency, morality, cleanliness and good order of the city and its inhabitants and to protect places of divine worship in and about the premises where held, and to punish violations of all ordinances, although the offense under and against the same shall also constitute an offense under the laws of the State of West Virginia or the common law; to provide for the employment and safekeeping of persons who may be committed in default of payment of fines, penalties or costs under this act [this Charter], who are otherwise unable to discharge the same, by putting them to work for the benefit of the city upon the streets or other places in or out of the city provided by said city, and to use such means to prevent their escape while at work as the council may deem expedient; and the council may fix a reasonable rate per day as wages to be allowed such persons until the fine and costs against him [them] are thereby discharged; to compel the attendance at public meetings of the members of the council; to have and exercise such additional rights, privileges and powers as are granted to municipalities by chapter 47 [now chapter 8, the Municipal Code of West Virginia (W. Va. Code § 8-1-1 et seq.)] of the Code of West Virginia as amended.

For all such purposes, except that of taxation and for purposes otherwise limited by this act [this Charter], the council shall have jurisdiction for one mile beyond the corporate limits.

And the council shall have the right to establish, construct and maintain public markets, landing[s,] ferries, wharves, parking places and docks on any ground which does or shall belong to said city, or which it shall acquire, by purchase or otherwise, and to sell, release, repair, alter or remove any public markets, landings, ferries, wharves, dikes, buildings or docks which have been or shall be so constructed, and to levy and collect reasonable duty on vessels and other craft coming to or using said landings, ferries, wharves, dikes, docks, parking places and buildings, and to preserve and protect the peace and good order at the same, and regulate the manner in which they shall be used; and to have the sole right, under state laws and in the same manner as now control county courts, to establish, construct, maintain, regulate and control all such wharves, docks, ferries and landings within the corporate limits of said city.

To carry into effect these enumerated powers and all other powers conferred upon said city expressly or by implication in this and other acts of the legislature, the council of said city shall have the power in the manner herein prescribed, to adopt and enforce all needful orders, rules and ordinances not contrary to the laws and constitution of this state; and to prescribe, impose and enforce reasonable fines and penalties, including imprisonment in the city lockup, jail or stationhouse, and to work prisoners found guilty, as the council may prescribe, and market the products of such labor, and with the consent of the county court of Kanawha County, entered of record, shall have the right to use the jail of said county for any purpose necessary to the administration of its affairs.

Editor's note

Most of Charter § 7 is covered by W. Va. Code §§ 8-12-2, 8-12-5 et seq. See W. Va. Code § 8-1-6. The provisions of this section pertaining to punishment of possession or sale of intoxicating liquors are superseded by the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act (W. Va. Code § 60-6-1 et seq.). The provisions of this section pertaining to regulation of construction are somewhat inconsistent with W. Va. Code § 8-12-13. Notwithstanding language in this section, penalties imposed for ordinance violations cannot exceed those imposed under W. Va. Code ch. 61 for similar offenses and no term of imprisonment can exceed 30 days. See W. Va. Code §§ 8-1-6, 8-11-1, 8-12-5(57).