Mich. Comp. Laws § 91.1 — MI Code / Chapter 81 / Act Act-215-of-1895 / Section 91.1
General powers.
Status: in_force

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