City Ordinance Chapter 001 - General Provisions

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                               PART II

                    CODE OF ORDINANCES


                              Chapter 1

                     GENERAL PROVISIONS

Sec.   1-1.    How Code designated and cited.
Sec.   1-2.    Definitions and rules of construction.
Sec.   1-3.    Catchlines of sections; history notes; references.
Sec.   1-4.    Effect of repeal of ordinances.
Sec.   1-5.    Amendments to Code; effect of new ordinances; amendatory
               language.
Sec.   1-6.    Supplementation of Code.
Sec.   1-7.    General penalty; continuing violations.
Sec.   1-8.    Severability.
Sec.   1-9.    Provisions deemed continuation of existing ordinances.
Sec.   1-10.   Code does not affect prior offenses or rights.
Sec.   1-11.   Certain ordinances not affected by Code.




                                CDl:1
                                            GENERAL PROVISIONS                                          § 1-2



Sec. 1-1. How Code designated and cited.                included. If the last day of any period or a fixed or
                                                        final day is a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday,
  The ordinances embraced in this and the fol-
                                                        the period or day is extended to included the next
lowing chapters shall constitute and be desig-
                                                        day that is not a Saturday, Sunday, or legal
nated the "Code of Ordinances, City of Muskegon,
                                                        holiday.
Michigan" and may be so cited. Such ordinances
may also be cited as the "Muskegon City Code."             Conjunctions. In a provision involving two or
(Code 1975, § 1-1; Code 2002, § 1-1)                    more items, conditions, provisions or events, which
  State law reference-Authority to codify ordinances,   items, conditions, provisions or events are con-
MCL 117.5b.                                             nected by the conjunction "and," "or" or "either
                                                         ... or," the conjunction shall be interpreted as
Sec. 1-2. Definitions and rules of construc-            follows:
          tion.
                                                            (1)   The term "and" indicates that all the
   The following definitions and rules of construc-               connected terms, conditions, provisions or
tion shall apply to this Code and to all ordinances               events apply.
and resolutions unless the context requires oth-
erwise:                                                     (2)   The term "or" indicates that the con-
                                                                  nected terms, conditions, provisions or
   Generally. When provisions conflict, the spe-                  events apply singly or in any combination.
cific shall prevail over the general. All provisions
shall be liberally construed so that the intent of          (3)   The term "either . . . or" indicates that
the council may be effectuated. Words and phrases                 the connected terms, conditions, provi-
shall be construed according to the common and                    sions or events apply singly but not in
approved usage of the language, but technical                     combination.
words, technical phrases and words and phrases            County. The term "county" means Muskegon
that have acquired peculiar and appropriate mean-       County, Michigan.
ings in law shall be construed according to such
meanings.                                                  Crime. The term "crime" means an act or
                                                        omission forbidden by law that is not designated
  Agencies, officers. Any reference to any local,       as a civil infraction and that is punishable upon
state or federal agency or officer shall include any    conviction by any one or more of the following:
successor agency or officer.
                                                            (1)   Imprisonment.
  Charter. The term "Charter" means the Char-
ter of the City of Muskegon, Michigan.                      (2)   Fine not designated a civil fine.
 City. The term "city" means the City of                    (3)   Other penal discipline.
Muskegon, Michigan.
                                                           Delegation of authority. A provision that autho-
  City commission and commission. The terms             rizes or requires a city officer or city employee to
"city commission" and "commission" mean the             perform an act or make a decision authorizes such
city commission of the City of Muskegon.                officer or employee to act or make a decision
                                                        through subordinates.
   Civil infraction. The term "civil infraction"
means an act or omission prohibited by law which            Gender. Words of one gender include the other
is not a crime and for which civil sanctions may be     genders.
ordered.
                                                          Health department and department of public
  Code. The term "Code" means the Code of               health. The terms "health department" and "de-
Ordinances, City of Muskegon, Michigan, as des-         partment of public health" mean the county health
ignated in section 1-1.                                 department.
  Computation of time. In computing a period of           Health officer. The term "health officer" means
days, the first day is excluded and the last day is     the director of the county health department.


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§ 1-2                                      MUSKEGON CITY CODE



   Highway. The term "highway" includes any               Person. The term "person" means any individ-
street, alley, highway, avenue, or public place or     ual, partnership, corporation, association, club,
square, bridge, viaduct, tunnel, underpass, over-      joint venture, estate, trust, limited liability com-
pass or causeway, dedicated or devoted to public       pany, governmental unit, and any other group or
use.                                                   combination acting as a unit, and the individuals
                                                       constituting such group or unit.
   Includes and including. The terms "includes"
and "including" are terms of enlargement and not          Personal property. The term "personal prop-
of limitation or exclusive enumeration, and the        erty" means any property other than real prop-
use of the terms does not create a presumption         erty.
that components not expressed are excluded.
                                                          Preceding and following. The terms "preced-
   Joint authority. A grant of authority to three or   ing" and "following" mean next before and next
more persons as a public body confers the author-      after, respectively.
ity on a majority of the number of members as            Premises. The term "premises," as applied to
fixed by statute or ordinance.                         real property, includes lands and structures.
  May. The term "may" is to be construed as              Property. The term "property" means real and
being permissive and not mandatory.                    personal property.
   May not. The term "may not" states a prohibi-          Public Acts. References to Public Acts are ref-
tion.                                                  erences to the Public Acts of Michigan. (For ex-
  MCL. The abbreviation "MCL" means the Mich-          ample, a reference to Public Act No. 279 of 1909 is
igan Compiled Laws, as amended or revised, and         a reference to Act No. 279 of the Public Acts of
any successor statute.                                 Michigan of 1909). Any reference to a Public Act,
                                                       whether by Act number or by short title, is a
  Month. The term "month" means a calendar             reference to the act as amended.
month.
                                                         Real property, real estate, land. The term "real
  Must. The word "must" is to be construed as          property" includes lands, tenements and heredit-
being mandatory.                                       aments.
  Number. The singular includes the plural and            Roadway. The term "roadway" means that por-
the plural includes the singular.                      tion of a street improved, designed or ordinarily
                                                       used for vehicular traffic.
   Oath, affirmation, sworn, affirmed. The term
"oath" includes an affirmation in all cases where        Shall. The term "shall" is to be construed as
an affirmation may be substituted for an oath. In      being mandatory.
similar cases, the term "sworn" includes the term
"affirmed."
                                                          Sidewalk. The term "sidewalk" means any por-
                                                       tion of the street between the curb, or the lateral
   Officers, departments, etc. References to offi-     line of the roadway, and the adjacent property
cers, departments, board, commissions or employ-       line, intended for the use of pedestrians.
ees are to city officers, city departments, city
                                                          Signature and subscription. The terms "signa-
boards, city commissions and city employees.
                                                       ture" and "subscription" include a mark when the
   Owner. The term "owner," as applied to prop-        person cannot write.
erty, includes any part owner, joint owner, tenant
                                                         State. The term "state" means the State of
in common, tenant in partnership, joint tenant or
                                                       Michigan.
tenant by the entirety of the whole or part of such
property. With respect to special assessments,            Street. The term "street" means any street,
however, the owner shall be considered to be the       alley, highway, avenue, or public place or square,
person appearing on the assessment roll for the        bridge, viaduct, tunnel, underpass, overpass or
purpose of giving notice and billing.                  causeway, dedicated or devoted to public use.


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                                                GENERAL PROVISIONS                                              § 1-6



   Swear. The term "swear" includes the term                   (b) The repeal or amendment of an ordinance
"affirm".                                                   does not affect any punishment or penalty in-
                                                            curred before the repeal took effect, nor does such
   Tenses. The present tense includes the past and          repeal or amendment affect any rights, privileges,
future tenses. The future tense includes the pres-          suit, prosecution or proceeding pending at the
ent tense.                                                  time of the amendment or repeal.
   Week. The term "week" means seven consecu-               (Code 2002, § 1-4)
                                                              State law reference-Effect of repeal of state statutes,
tive days.                                                  MCL8.4.
   Written. The term "written" includes any rep-
resentation of words, letters, symbols or figures .
                                                            Sec. 1-5. Amendments to Code; effect of new
                                                                      ordinances; amendatory language.
  Year. The term "year" means 12 consecutive                   (a) All ordinances adopted subsequent to this
months.                                                     Code that amend, repeal or in any way affect this
(Code 1975, § 1-3; Code 2002, § 1-2)                        Code may be numbered in accordance with the
   State law reference-Definitions and rules of construc-
tion applicable to state statutes, MCL 8.3 et seq.          numbering system of the Code and printed for
                                                            inclusion in the Code. Portions of this Code re-
                                                            pealed by subsequent ordinances may be excluded
Sec. 1-3. Catchlines of sections; history notes;
                                                            from this Code by omission from reprinted pages
          references.
                                                            affected thereby.
   (a) The catchlines of the several sections of               (b) Amendments to provisions of this Code
this Code printed in boldface type are intended as          may be made with the following language: "Sec-
mere catchwords to indicate the contents of the             tion (chapter, article, division or subdivision, as
section and are not titles of such sections, or of          appropriate) of the Code of Ordinances, City of
any part of the section, nor unless expressly so            Muskegon, Michigan, is hereby amended to read
provided shall they be so deemed when any such              as follows: .. .. "
section, including the catchline, is amended or
reenacted.                                                     (c) If a new section, subdivision, division, arti-
                                                            cle or chapter is to be added to the Code, the
   (b) The history or source notes appearing in             following language may be used: "Section (chap-
parenthesis after sections in this Code have no             ter, article, division or subdivision, as appropri-
legal effect and only indicate legislative history.         ate) of the Code of Ordinances, City of Muskegon,
State law references that appear in this Code               Michigan, is hereby created to read as fol-
after sections or subsections or that otherwise             lows: . ... "
appear in footnote form are provided for the
convenience of the user of the Code and have no                (d) All provisions desired to be repealed should
legal effect.                                               be repealed specially by section, subdivision, di-
                                                            vision, article or chapter number, as appropriate,
   (c) Unless specified otherwise, all references to        or by setting out the repealed provisions in full in
chapters or sections are to chapters or sections of         the repealing ordinance.
this Code.                                                  (Code 1975, § 1-7; Code 2002, § 1-5)
(Code 1975, § 1-2; Code 2002, § 1-3)
   State law reference-Catchlines in state statutes, MCL    Sec. 1-6. Supplementation of Code.
8.4b.
                                                               (a) Supplements to this Code shall be prepared
Sec. 1-4. Effect of repeal of ordinances.                   and printed whenever authorized or directed by
                                                            the city. A supplement to this Code shall include
   (a) Unless specifically provided otherwise, the          all substantive permanent and general parts of
repeal of a repealing ordinance does not revive             ordinances adopted during the period covered by
the ordinance originally repealed nor impair the            the supplement and all changes made thereby in
effect of any saving provision in it.                       the Code. The pages of the supplement shall be so


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§ 1-6                                        MUSKEGON CITY CODE



numbered that they will fit properly into the Code       Sec. 1-7. General penalty; continuing viola-
and will, where necessary, replace pages that                      tions.
have become obsolete or partially obsolete. The
new pages shall be so prepared that when they              (a) In this section the term "violation of this
have been inserted, the Code will be current             Code" means any of the following:
through the date of the adoption of the latest               (1)   Doing an act that is prohibited or made or
ordinance included in the supplement.                              declared unlawful, an offense, or a viola-
                                                                   tion by ordinance or by rule or regulation
   (b) In preparing a supplement to this Code, all                 authorized by ordinance.
portions of the Code that have been repealed shall
be excluded from the Code by the omission thereof            (2)   Failure to perform an act that is required
from reprinted pages.                                              to be performed by ordinance or by rule or
                                                                   regulation authorized by ordinance.
  (c) When preparing a supplement to this Code,
                                                             (3)   Failure to perform an act, if the failure is
the person authorized to prepare the supplement
                                                                   prohibited or is made or declared unlaw-
may make formal, nonsubstantive changes in
                                                                   ful, an offense, or a violation by ordinance
ordinances included in the supplement, insofar as
                                                                   or by rule or regulation authorized by
necessary to do so in order to embody them into a
                                                                   ordinance.
unified code. For example, the person may:
                                                           (b) Any provision of this Code that is made or
   (1)   Arrange the material into appropriate or-
                                                         declared to be a misdemeanor, civil infraction or
         ganizational units.
                                                         municipal civil infraction is a violation of this
   (2)   Supply appropriate catchlines, headings         Code.
         and titles for chapters, articles, divisions,      (c) In this section the term "violation of this
         subdivisions and sections to be included        Code" does not include the failure of a city officer
         in the Code and make changes in any             or city employee to perform an official duty unless
         such catchlines, headings and titles or in      it is specifically provided that the failure to per-
         any such catchlines, headings and titles        form the duty is to be punished as provided in this
         already in the Code.                            section.
   (3)   Assign appropriate numbers to chapters,            (d) Except as specifically provided otherwise
         articles, divisions, subdivisions and sec-      by state law or city ordinance, all violations of this
         tions to be added to the Code.                  Code are misdemeanors. Except as otherwise pro-
   (4)   Where necessary to accommodate new              vided by law or ordinance, a person convicted of a
         material, change existing numbers as-           violation of this Code that is a misdemeanor shall
         signed to chapters, articles, divisions, sub-   be punished by a fine not to exceed $500.00 and
         divisions or sections.                          costs of prosecution, or by imprisonment for a
                                                         period of not more than 90 days, or by both such
   (5)   Change the words "this ordinance" or sim-       fine and imprisonment. However, unless other-
         ilar words to "this chapter," "this article,"   wise provided by law, a person convicted of a
         "this division," "this subdivision," "this      violation of this Code which substantially corre-
         section" or "sections _____ to                  sponds to a violation of state law that is a misde-
         _ _ _ _ " (inserting section numbers to         meanor for which the maximum period of impris-
         indicate the sections of the Code that          onment is 93 days shall be punished by a fine not
         embody the substantive sections of the          to exceed $500.00 and costs of prosecution or by
         ordinance incorporated in the Code).            imprisonment for a period of not more than 93
                                                         days, or by both such fine and imprisonment.
   (6) Make other nonsubstantive changes nec-
       essary to preserve the original meaning of          (e) The commission of any violation of this
       the ordinances inserted in the Code.              Code that is declared to be a civil infraction shall
(Code 1975, § 1-8; Code 2002, § 1-6)                     subject the violator to a civil penalty as provided


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                                             GENERAL PROVISIONS                                               § 1-10



by state law for municipal civil infractions or          relief. The imposition of a penalty does not pre-
trailway municipal infractions, whichever is ap-         vent injunctive relief or civil or quasi-judicial
plicable, and as determined by city ordinance.           enforcement.
                                                         (Code 1975, § 1-6; Code 2002, § 1-7)
  (1)   The sanction for a municipal civil infrac-         State law reference-Penalty for ordinance violations,
        tion or trailway civil infraction shall be a     MCL 117.4i(k), 117.41.
        civil fine in the amount determined by
        ordinance, plus any costs, damages, ex-
        penses and other sanctions, as authorized        Sec. 1-8. Severability.
        by state law.
  (2)   Unless otherwise specifically provided for          If any provision of this Code or its application
        a particular civil infraction, the civil fine    to any person or circumstances is held invalid or
        for a violation shall be not less than           unconstitutional, the invalidity or unconstitution-
        $50.00, plus costs and other sanctions, for      ality does not affect other provisions or applica-
        each infraction.                                 tion of this Code that can be given effect without
                                                         the invalid or unconstitutional provision or appli-
  (3)   Increased civil fines may be imposed for
                                                         cation, and to this end the provisions of this Code
        repeat offenses. In this subsection, the
                                                         are severable.
        term "repeat offense" means a second or
                                                         (Code 1975, § 1-9; Code 2002, § 1-8)
        any subsequent municipal civil infraction           State law reference-Severability of state statutes, MCL
        violation of the same requirement or pro-        8.5.
        vision committed by the same person
        within any 24-month period and for which
        the person has admitted responsibility or        Sec. 1-9. Provisions deemed continuation of
        is determined responsible. Unless specif-                  existing ordinances.
        ically provided for a particular civil infrac-
        tion violation, the increased fine for a
                                                           The provisions of this Code insofar as they are
        repeat offense shall be as follows:
                                                         substantially the same as legislation previously
        a.   For the first repeat offense, a fine of     adopted by the city relating to the same subject
             not less than $250.00, plus costs.          matter shall be construed as restatements and
        b.   For a second repeat offense, or any         continuations thereof and not as new enactments.
             subsequent repeat offense, a fine of        (Code 2002, § 1-9)
             not less than $500.00, plus costs.             State law reference-Similar provisions as to state stat-
                                                         utes, MCL 8.3u.
  (4)   The civil infraction fine schedule in sec-
        tion 46-204 is hereby adopted by refer-
        ence.                                            Sec. 1-10. Code does not affect prior of-
                                                                    fenses or rights.
  (f) Except as otherwise provided by law or
ordinance, with respect to violations of this Code
that are continuous with respect to time, each day          (a) Nothing in this Code or the ordinance adopt-
that the violation continues is a separate offense.      ing this Code affects any offense or act committed
As to other violations, each violation constitutes a     or done, any penalty or forfeiture incurred, or any
separate offense unless provided otherwise.              contract or right established before the effective
                                                         date of this Code.
   (g) The imposition of a penalty does not pre-
vent suspension or revocation of a license, permit
or franchise or other administrative sanctions.             (b) The adoption of this Code does not autho-
                                                         rize any use or the continuation of any use of a
  (h) Violations of this Code that are continuous        structure or premises in violation of any city
with respect to time are a public nuisance and           ordinance on the effective date of this Code.
may be abated by injunctive or other equitable           (Code 1975, § 1-5; Code 2002, § 1-10)


                                                     CDl:7
§ 1-11                                      MUSKEGON CITY CODE



Sec. 1-11. Certain ordinances not affected                  (17) That is special, although permanent in
           by Code.                                             effect.
   (a) Nothing in this Code or the ordinance adopt-         (18) The purpose of which has been accom-
ing this Code affects the validity of any ordinance              plished.
or portion of any ordinance:                               (b) The ordinances or portions of ordinances
   (1)   Annexing property into the city or describ-    designated in subsection (a) of this section con-
         ing the corporate limits.                      tinue in full force and effect to the same extent as
                                                        if published at length in this Code.
   (2)   Deannexing property or excluding prop-         (Code 1975, § 1-4; Code 2002, § 1-11)
         erty from the city.
   (3)   Promising or guaranteeing the payment
         of money or authorizing the issuance of
         bonds or other instruments of indebted-
         ness.
   (4)   Authorizing or approving any contract,
         deed, or agreement.
   (5)   Granting any right or franchise.
   (6)   Making or approving any appropriation
         or budget.
   (7)   Providing for the duties of city officers or
         employees not codified in this Code.
   (8)   Providing for salaries or other employee
         benefits.
   (9)   Adopting or amending a comprehensive
         plan.
   (10) Levying or imposing any special assess-
         ment.
   (11) Dedicating, establishing, naming, locat-
        ing, relocating, opening, paving, widen-
        ing, repairing or vacating any street, side-
        walk or alley.
   (12) Establishing the grade of any street or
         sidewalk.
   (13) Dedicating, accepting or vacating any plat
         or subdivision.
   (14) Not codified in this Code that levies, im-
         poses or otherwise relates to taxes, exemp-
         tions from taxes and fees in lieu of taxes.
   (15) Pertaining to zoning, including, but not
         limited to, the basic zoning ordinance and
         ordinances rezoning property.
   (16) That is temporary, although general in
         effect.


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