§ 18. Ordinances; authority enumerated
The general grant of ordinance promulgating authority in section 16 of this charter,
and in addition to those powers enumerated in 24 V.S.A. § 2291, such authority shall include the authority to fix and impose licenses, fees, or
taxes within the limits of the City and collect the same for purposes of regulation
and revenue in respect to the following matters and things:
(1) To restrain and prohibit all types of gaming.
(2) To regulate, restrain, prohibit, suppress, license, and fix reasonable and necessary
fees or tax for the purpose of revenue, places of public resort or public amusement
whether indoor or outdoor, including theaters, lodging establishments, and bowling
alleys; places dispensing food and drink to the public, including transient merchants,
lodging establishments, restaurants, bars, or private clubs; public dances; and itinerant
vendors, peddlers, and transient merchants; and all monies received for such licenses
or taxes shall belong to the City and be paid into the City Treasury.
(3) To prevent riots, noises, disturbances, or disorderly assemblages.
(4) To establish and regulate a Fire Department.
(5) To regulate or restrain the running at large of dogs and other domestic animals, including
any such animals as may be kept by residents of the City of St. Albans, whether classified
as “domestic,” “exotic,” or otherwise.
(6) To compel the cleaning or repair of any premises; to abate and remove nuisances; to
regulate or prohibit the storage and accumulation on premises within the City of garbage,
ashes, rubbish, refuse, and waste materials that in the judgment of the City Council
are dangerous to the health or safety of the public; to tax or license for revenue
and regulate or prohibit the collection and removal of such materials from such premises
and the disposal of the same by private persons or agencies; to compel and regulate
the removal and disposal of such materials by owners, tenants, and occupants of such
premises; to require and provide for the collection, removal, and disposal of such
materials by the City at its expense by contract with some private individual or agency
or by some City official, officials, or department either existing or hereafter created
and established by the City Council for that purpose; to establish, in case the collection,
removal, and disposal of such materials is done at the expense of the City, service
rates to be paid to the City by the owners, tenants, or occupants of premises from
which said materials are collected and removed for services rendered by the City in
collecting, removing, and disposing of such materials, to compensate the City for
the cost and expense of those services. All service rates against owners or others
shall be collected and enforced under such regulations and ordinances as the City
Council shall prescribe. All such service rates shall constitute a lien and charge
upon the buildings, lots, and other property so supplied and may be collected in the
same manner as any tax assessed by the City.
(7) To adopt and enforce police ordinances regulating and prohibiting the use of firearms,
air rifles, and devices having a capacity to inflict personal injury and the parking,
operation, and speed of motor vehicles upon City and State aid streets and highways.
(8) To provide for the lighting of the streets and public buildings of the City.
(9) To manage and control the public places, parks, and commons in said City, and to regulate
the use of the same by the public, and to prevent and punish trespasses or willful
injuries to or upon any appurtenances, building, or structure placed therein by or
under the orders of the City, in such a manner as shall not be inconsistent with the
laws of the State.
(10) To regulate or prohibit the suspending or putting up of any sign, billboard, or awning
in or over any street, lane, alley, common, or other public place in the City; and,
whenever the public good may require, to order and direct that signs, billboards,
or awnings heretofore erected or suspended as aforesaid shall be taken down or removed.
(11) To provide a supply of water for the protection of the City against fire and for other
purposes, including the supplying of water outside the limits of the City, and to
regulate the use of same; and to establish and maintain reservoirs, aqueducts, water
pipes, hydrants, or any other apparatus necessary for such purposes, and also necessary
sewers and drains, within or without the limits of the City, upon, in, and through
the lands of individuals and corporations, on making compensation therefor; and in
taking such lands for such purposes, said City Council shall proceed in the same manner
as selectboard members of towns are authorized by law to proceed in the taking of
lands for highways; and the same right of appeal to the county court from the decision
of the City Council in taking such lands and in awarding land damages shall be allowed;
and such appeal shall be taken in the same manner as is provided by law from the decision
of selectboard members in such matters, except that such appeal, if taken from the
appraisal of damages only, shall not prevent the City from proceeding with its work
as though no appeal had been taken. All monies accruing on account of the City Water
and Wastewater Departments shall be paid into the City Treasury, and the City Treasurer
shall keep separate accounts thereof showing fully all receipts and payment. Such
monies shall be devoted solely to the expense of construction, reconstruction, improvements,
additions, repairs, and maintenance of said water system and to the payment of any
indebtedness created on account thereof.
(12) To make all regulations and ordinances for preventing the corruption and for the protection
of the water supply and for the protection from injury of any dam, reservoir, aqueduct,
pipe, hydrant, or source of supply of water connected with any water plant now owned
or hereafter acquired by the City.
(13) To provide for the establishment of rates to be paid for the use of water and wastewater
services supplied by the City Water and Sewer Departments, which shall be called service
rates. Such service rates may be charged either against the owner or occupants of
a house or other building supplied with water or wastewater services, or both, under
such rules or regulations as the City Council may prescribe, and in either case, such
service rates together with such reasonable collection fees as the City Council may
by ordinance prescribe, and all costs accrued or accruing thereon, shall be and remain
a lien in the nature of a tax upon such house or other building, and upon the lot
or lots of land upon which such house or other building is situated until fully paid
or otherwise discharged. For the enforcement of such lien, the City shall have the
right, without the enactment of any special ordinance in this regard, to resort to
any and all remedies that would be available under the laws of this State if it were
a lien for taxes. The City Council shall also have power to make and enforce ordinances
for the collection of said service rates either by requiring payment at the office
of the City Treasurer or the appointment of a collector or collectors to demand and
collect the same, and the attempt to collect such rates by any of the methods herein
mentioned shall not in any way invalidate the lien upon said land or premises. Nothing
herein contained shall affect service rates that have accrued or are in arrears at
the time this charter becomes effective; and the schedule of service rates that is
in effect at the time of the passage of this charter shall continue in full force
and effect until modified or superseded through express action of the City Council
subsequently taken.
(14) To establish rules and regulations governing the use of said water and wastewater
services, including the installing of a meter system, which said water from said City
Water Department may be furnished outside the limits of the City of St. Albans.
(15) To prescribe regulations concerning the use and travel upon or over streets of the
City in the course of construction, alteration, improvement, or repair, and to prohibit
the use thereof.
(16) In the furnishing of water and wastewater services outside the limits of the City
of St. Albans, said City shall have the right, without the enactment of any special
ordinance in that regard, to act by its Council or the Council’s designee in accordance
with the provisions of 19 V.S.A. § 1111 and 24 V.S.A. chapter 89.
(17) To adopt and enforce ordinances relating to the operation, parking, soliciting, delivery,
or fares in the taxi business within the City, whether or not such vehicles are engaged
in carrying passengers entirely within the City; to prescribe the duties and privileges
of such owners and drivers; to fix and regulate rates of fare, including maximum and
minimum rate or rates, for any such transportation of passengers within the City;
to license and regulate all such vehicles; to rescind any and all licenses granted
hereunder, and to prohibit the operation of such vehicles upon the streets of the
City when either the owners or the drivers thereof have not complied with all the
provisions of ordinances duly enacted hereunder; provided, however, that no license
shall be granted hereunder unless the applicant has first complied with all the requirements
of the laws of the State of Vermont relative to the registration and operation of
motor vehicles to enable the applicant to use the license for which he or she applies;
and to limit and restrict the use of its streets and highways by such motor vehicles
in such manner as will promote the safety and general welfare of the public.
(18) To condemn lands or buildings to which public ownership is deemed necessary for the
exercise of any of the powers of the City or of City Council, and to hold public hearings
thereon for just compensation to be paid to the owners of any right or interest therein.
(19) To promote and safeguard the public health, safety, comfort, or general welfare by
the adoption of ordinances and regulations relating to the following subjects.
(A) The design, construction, repair, alteration, removal, and demolition of buildings
and structures of all kinds.
(B) The design, installation, repair, alterations, removal, and maintenance of plumbing
systems, sanitary sewers, and drains.
(C) The installation, repair, alteration, use, and maintenance of electrical wiring, motors,
devices, equipment, and appliances, and appurtenances thereof.
(D) The handling, transportation, storage, and use or sale of explosives, radioactive
materials, or devices, and other hazardous chemicals, materials, substances, or devices,
and the use and occupancy of buildings, structures, land, and premises for such purposes.
(E) The installation, repair, and alteration of furnaces, stoves, fireplaces, and devices
used for heating, cooking, or in any industrial process from which damage by fire
may occur.
(F) The air-conditioning and ventilation of buildings and structures.
(G) The lighting of buildings and other structures and open areas;
(H) The minimum dimensions of rooms used for habitation, based on the number of occupants
thereof.
(I) The minimum requirements for sanitary facilities in buildings used for habitation
or for dispensing food or food products.
(J) The fixing and determination of fire limits within the City based on density of buildings,
and the prescription of standards for buildings and structures within each fire limit
area with reference to the type of occupancy within a building.
(K) The adoption of a Building Code, Electric Code, Plumbing Code, Fire Prevention Code,
and Housing Code. A book, pamphlet, or other publication may be made a part of any
ordinance, bylaw, or regulation by reference therein to such publication by its title,
clearly identifying it. When a book, pamphlet, or other publication is so incorporated
by reference, it need not be published in a locally distributed newspaper; but copies
shall at all times be available for public inspection in the office of the City Clerk,
who shall keep a reasonable supply in his or her office for sale, at cost, to residents
of the City.
(L) Prescribing the powers and duties of building inspectors, inspectors of electric wiring,
plumbing inspectors, fire prevention inspectors, and housing inspectors, and appointing
such qualified inspectors as may be necessary.
(M) Providing penalties for noncompliance with orders of any inspector named in subdivision
(L) of this subdivision (19), made by virtue of any resolution, ordinance, bylaws,
or regulation adopted by the City Council hereunder. However, provision shall be
made to appeal such orders and decisions in the manner specified by 24 V.S.A. chapter
83.
(N) Expanding and enlarging, consistent with this section and the charter, the requirements,
powers, duties, and other provisions of 24 V.S.A. chapter 83.
(20) To acquire voting machines, so-called, and prescribe the use thereof in any or all
elections held within the City.
(21) The City Council may make and establish and the same alter, amend, or repeal such
other bylaws, rules, ordinances, and regulations, including emergency ordinances effective
for no more than 30 days, and therein may impose such licenses and taxes for the purpose
of regulation or revenue, in all cases in a manner that is consistent with enabling
authority granted by the provisions of this charter and the general statutes of this
State, as it may deem necessary for the well-being of the City and not repugnant to
the Constitution and laws of this State. (Amended 2009, No. M-23 (Adj. Sess.), § 19, eff. May 20, 2010.)