CO Code § 31-15-711 (2021)
2021 Colorado Code|Title 31 - Government - Municipal|Article 15 - Exercise of Municipal Powers|Part 7 - Public Property and Improvements|§ 31-15-711. Other Public Improvements

  The governing body of each municipality has the power:   To deepen, widen, dock, cover, wall, alter, or change the channel of watercourses;    To establish markets and market houses and provide for the regulation and use thereof. No charge or assessments of any kind shall be levied on any truck or other vehicle, or on the owner thereof, bringing produce or provisions to any of the markets in the municipality, for standing in or occupying a place in any of the marketplaces of the municipality or in the streets contiguous thereto on market days and evenings previous thereto. The governing body has full power to prevent forestalling, to prohibit or regulate huckstering in the markets, and to prescribe the kind and description of articles which may be sold and the stands and places to be occupied by the vendors. The governing body may authorize the immediate seizure, arrest, or removal from the markets of any person violating its regulations as established by ordinance, together with any article of produce in his possession, and additionally may authorize the immediate seizure and destruction of tainted or unsound meat or other provisions.    To establish and operate at public expense municipal slaughterhouses and cold storage plants where animals may be slaughtered at the cost of labor and other necessary expense, held in cold storage, and delivered to the owners or sold. Any municipality establishing and operating such slaughterhouse shall charge a reasonable fee for the slaughter of animals and the storage of meat, and said fees shall be used to pay the necessary expenses of conducting the business.    To provide for and regulate public scales and to require the vendors of coal, hay, and like articles of merchandise, when requested to do so by the purchaser of such articles, to weigh the same upon the public scales before delivering the same to their customer or vendees;    To erect, establish, and maintain public hospitals, medical dispensaries, and other suitable places of relief. No such hospitals, medical dispensaries, or other suitable places of relief shall be established, acquired, or erected by a municipality unless the question is submitted at a regular or special election and approved in the manner provided for authorization of bonded indebtedness by section 31-15-302 (1)(d) and unless such municipality does not have a general licensed medical and surgical hospital in operation within its municipal limits within the twelve months immediately preceding said election.    To provide by ordinance for the construction, maintenance, and operation of public parking facilities, buildings, stations, or lots and to pay for their cost by general tax levy or otherwise or by the issuance of bonds of such municipality, which bonds may be retired by revenues assessed and collected as rentals, fees, or charges from the operation of such facilities or from parking meter rentals or charges;    To develop, maintain, and operate mass transportation systems, either individually or jointly with any government, county, or other political subdivision, pursuant to the provisions of part 2 of article 1 of title 29, C.R.S.;    To construct and keep in repair bridges, viaducts, and tunnels and regulate their use and to establish within the municipal limits all toll bridges and ferries, license and regulate the same, and, from time to time, fix tolls thereon;    To construct, maintain, and operate safety measures that are necessary to allow the municipality to restrict the sounding of locomotive horns at highway-rail grade crossings in compliance with 49 U.S.C. sec. 20153, as amended, and the applicable rules of the federal railroad administration. The governing body of the municipality shall construct, maintain, and operate the safety measures in accordance with the provisions of section 40-4-106, C.R.S., and the standards of safety prescribed by the public utilities commission pursuant to section 40-29-110, C.R.S.    To provide in the municipal budget for programs that support education and outreach on environmental sustainability and for financing capital improvements for energy efficiency retrofits and the installation of renewable energy fixtures, as defined in section 30-11-107.3, C.R.S., for private residences and commercial property within the municipality but that do not exempt the municipality from the requirements of any other statute;    To encourage homeowners to participate in utility demand-side management programs where applicable.        History. Source: L. 75: Entire title R&RE, p. 1119, § 1, effective July 1. L. 2006: (1)(i) added, p. 348, § 3, effective August 7. L. 2008: (1)(j) and (1)(k) added, p. 1299, § 20, effective May 27.    Editor's note:   The provisions of this section are similar to provisions of several former sections as they existed prior to 1975. For a detailed comparison, see the comparative tables located in the back of the index.   ANNOTATION   Annotator's note. Since § 31-15-711 (1)(a) is similar to former § 31-12-101 (23) prior to the 1975 repeal and reenactment of this title, and laws antecedent thereto, relevant cases construing those provisions have been included in the annotations to this section.   Discretionary power in subsection (1)(a). The privilege, the right, the power given under subsection (1)(a) is given to be exercised or not, at the discretion of the city, and there is nothing obligatory; no compulsory legislation. McCord v. City of Pueblo, 5 Colo. App. 48, 36 P. 1109 (1894).   Contractual work ministerial. When a corporation has adopted a plan and enters upon the construction of a public work, the work is then ministerial, and the plan must be followed in detail, and any departure or negligence causing damage to an individual furnishes a cause of action. McCord v. City of Pueblo, 5 Colo. App. 48, 36 P. 1109 (1894).   A municipal corporation is liable for injuries caused by negligence in the construction of improvements under subsection (1)(a) to the same extent a private person or corporation would be, under like circumstances, for the negligent omission to discharge such duty resulting in an injury to others. McCord v. City of Pueblo, 5 Colo. App. 48, 36 P. 1109 (1894).