Section 1. The said City of Grand Blanc shall be a body corporate and politic, shall have perpetual succession, shall have a corporate seal, may sue and be sued and may contract and be contracted with.
Section 2. The City shall have the power:
(1) To acquire for a public use or purpose within the scope of its powers, and to hold, manage, control, lease and sell property or any interest therein, within the corporate limits and also without the corporate limits to the full extent permitted by law. To sell a piece of real property a public hearing and approval of a two-thirds majority of City Council members be required before disposition of any City owned real property, excepting City parks or cemeteries which sale shall require the approval of a majority of the City’s electors voting on the question of sale.
(Amended 11-7-2000)
(2) To acquire real and personal property by gift made by grant, devise, bequest, or in any other manner, for public parks, grounds, boulevards, zoological gardens, cemeteries, public buildings and other public purposes, whether made directly or in trust, and whether within or without the corporate limits of the City, or within or without the corporate limits of the County of Genesee, and the City Council may appropriate funds for the maintenance and upkeep of gifts so acquired.
(3) To make and enforce ordinances and resolutions for the care, protection, control and management of property belonging to the City located within the corporate limits. It may also make and enforce such ordinances and resolutions as to such property located without the corporate limits, as is permissible under the laws of the State.
(4) To acquire, construct, establish, own, equip, maintain, conduct, manage and operate libraries, hospitals, markets, market houses, playgrounds, parks, public grounds, recreation buildings, comfort stations, police stations, jails, fire houses, City Hall, office buildings for use of City officials, public buildings, sewage disposal systems and plants, lighting systems and plants, water systems and pumping stations, water filtration plants, public parking grounds, public works, works and plants for preparation, manufacture, storage, handling or transportation of materials required in public work, and all buildings, establishments, institutions and places which are necessary or convenient for the transaction of public business or for promoting the health, morals, safety or welfare of the inhabitants of the City whether the same be specifically enumerated herein or not; and to acquire sites therefor.
(5) To establish any department that it may deem necessary for the general welfare of the City and for the separate incorporation thereof; provided that these provisions shall not extend to and include public schools.
(6) To establish by ordinance districts or zones within which the use of land and structures, the height, the area, the size and location of buildings and required open spaces for light and ventilation of such buildings and the density of population may be regulated by ordinance, and such regulations in one or more districts may differ from those in other districts.
(7) To enact a building code and a housing code; to regulate the erection and repair of buildings; to prevent the erection of unsafe buildings and to provide for the removal of any such buildings; to require building permits for all buildings and structures erected in the City; to regulate the maintenance and occupancy of buildings in so far as the same affects health and safety.
(8) To regulate the location, construction, size and height of billboards and the maintenance thereof; or to entirely prohibit the construction of billboards in the City.
(9) To establish and maintain definite fire limits and to prohibit within such limits the construction of buildings and other structures of materials easily inflammable.
(10) To enact and enforce ordinances in relation to the prevention and suppression of fires.
(11) To regulate the height, construction and location of all fences; to provide for the building and maintenance of partition fences and all things in relation thereto; to provide for a Board of Fence Viewers to determine all disputes between owners in relation to partition fences and for the enforcement of the decisions of such Board.
(12) To regulate the construction of cellars and basements so far as the same in any manner affects the public safety or health.
(13) To regulate and license the storing, handling, disposing and sale of combustible and explosive substances of every character.
(14) To regulate, restrict and limit the number and location of oil and gasoline stations.
(15) To define, prohibit, abate, suppress, regulate and or prevent all nuisances and all things detrimental to the health, morals, comfort, safety, convenience and welfare of the inhabitants of the City, and the causes of all nuisances and such things.
(16) To care for and give relief to poor and indigent persons, delinquent and juvenile offenders, and mentally or physically deficient persons.
(17) To provide for taking a census of the City.
(18) To provide for and regulate the numbering of buildings upon streets and highways of the City.
(19) To exercise jurisdiction over all diseased or noxious trees, shrubs and plants.
(20) To regulate the location of all poles used by public utilities.
(21) To require the approval of all plats of lands by the City Council subject to such terms and conditions as may be deemed best.
(22) To regulate and control the disposition and handling of garbage, ashes, dead animals and any other things detrimental to public health or good sanitation.
(23) To maintain, operate, license, own and or control public fuel supplies and markets of every kind.
(24) To regulate the speed of motor vehicles and to prohibit the reckless driving thereof, upon the streets, highways and alleys of the City.
(25) To regulate traffic and parking of automobiles and other vehicles; to prohibit such parking on designated highways, streets and alleys or parts thereof; to provide for the impounding of vehicles parked in violation of such regulations or prohibitions and of vehicles abandoned and left on the streets, highways and alleys of the City; and to provide for the sale of any impounded vehicle which shall not be claimed and the impounding and other charges paid, within sixty days after being impounded.
(26) To make and enforce local, police and sanitary regulations.
(27) To inspect, regulate and control all weights and measures and the use thereof and to seize and destroy inaccurate or fraudulent weights and measures.
(28) To regulate and license taxicabs, jitneys, and all kinds of vehicles used for the conveyance of persons and property for hire; and to regulate, license and control the drivers of such taxicabs, jitneys and other vehicles above mentioned.
(29) To regulate and license hotels, rooming houses, boarding houses, restaurants, candy manufacturers, distributors and retailers, and soft drink manufacturers, distributors and retailers.
(30) To regulate and license billiard and pool tables, and rooms, and bowling alleys, and to restrict the number and location thereof.
(31) To regulate and license theaters, motion picture shows, public shows, exhibitions, and other amusements.
(32) To regulate and license public dances or to prohibit the same.
(33) To regulate and license auctioneers, pawnbrokers, hawkers, peddlers, solicitors, transient merchants, junk dealers and junk yards. The above occupations may also be prohibited unless such prohibition may be contrary to State or Federal law.
(34) To regulate or prohibit the use, selling, storing and transportation of firearms and fireworks.
(35) To prohibit the manufacture, transportation, possession, and sale of intoxicating liquors, except for medicinal, mechanical, chemical, scientific or sacramental purposes in accordance with the laws of the State.
(36) To license dogs and other animals and to prevent their running at large.
(37) To require all employees in barber shops, beauty parlors and places where foods are handled to submit to physical examinations and to prohibit the employment in any such place of any person who is afflicted with any infectious disease.
(38) To provide for the inspection, and to regulate and license the manufacture, sale and keeping for sale, of provisions, foods, food supplies and beverages.
(39) To regulate and license trades, occupations and amusements, not inconsistent with State and Federal laws, whether the same be specifically herein mentioned or not.
(40) To prescribe the terms and conditions upon which licenses shall be granted and may require the payment of such license fees and the furnishing of such bond as the Council shall deem reasonable and proper. Licenses shall be subject to revocation by the Council as provided in each particular ordinance.
(41) To issue the bonds of the City for the purpose of providing the first cost of installation and connection of sewers and water works on and to property in the City used solely for dwelling house purposes, when such installation and connection shall be ordered by the proper health authorities; and to provide a lien on such property for the amount of such cost and the manner of payment thereof.
(42) To regulate the obstructing of streets, highways and alleys by trains, engines, cars or otherwise; to regulate the speed of all locomotives and railroad trains and street cars within the City.
(43) To require that wires in streets, highways and alleys be placed underground.
(44) To establish building lines; and to establish by ordinance future street lines where the City contemplates to open or widen any street or highway.
(45) To exercise all Municipal powers in the management and control of Municipal property and in the administration of the Municipal government whether such powers be expressly enumerated or not; to do any act to advance the interest of the City, the good government and prosperity of the Municipality and its inhabitants, and through its legally constituted authority to pass all laws and ordinances relating to its Municipal concerns, subject to the Constitution and general laws of this State.
(46) To do any act permitted by the provisions of Act No. 279 of the Public Acts of 1909, as amended or as may be amended, commonly known as the Home Rule Act, whether such Act is specifically mentioned or not.
(47) The City-owned properties commonly known as Grand Blanc Commons, Rust Park and Physicians Park are to be held in perpetuity as community park land.
(Amended 11-7-2000)
Section 3. The City shall possess all the powers which are permitted to be possessed by cities in this State under the Constitution and general laws of the State and the enumeration of particular powers in this Charter shall not operate as an exclusion or limitation of any general powers.
Section 4. The City Council shall exercise all the powers of the City which are not otherwise delegated in this Charter, and said Council shall have authority to make and enforce ordinances and resolutions in relation thereto, and also such as they may deem necessary or proper for the safety, order and good government of the City and the general welfare of the inhabitants thereof, subject to the Constitution and laws of the State and the provisions of this Charter.