Section 40-05-01 - Powers of all municipalitiesThe governing body of a municipality shall have the power:
1. Ordinances. To enact or adopt all such ordinances, resolutions, and regulations, not repugnant to the constitution and laws of this state, as may be proper and necessary to carry into effect the powers granted to such municipality or as the general welfare of the municipality may require, and to repeal, alter, or amend the same. The governing body of a municipality may adopt by ordinance the conditions, provisions, and terms of a building code, a fire prevention code, a plumbing code, an electrical code, a sanitary code, vehicle traffic code, or any other standard code which contains rules and regulations printed as a code in book or pamphlet form by reference to such code or portions thereof alone without setting forth in said ordinance the conditions, provisions, limitations, and terms of such code. When all or part of any such code has been incorporated by reference into any ordinance, it has the same force and effect as though it had been spread at large in such ordinance without further or additional posting or publication. A copy of such standard code or portion thereof shall be filed for use and examination by the public in the office of the city auditor of such municipality prior to adoption. The adoption of any such standard code by reference shall be construed to incorporate such amendments thereto as may be made therein from time to time, and such copy of such standard code so filed shall at all times be kept current in the office of the city auditor of such municipality. The adoption of any such code or codes heretofore by any municipality is hereby validated. Fines, penalties, and forfeitures for the violation thereof may be provided within the limits specified in this chapter notwithstanding that such offense may be punishable also as a public offense under the laws of this state.2. Finances and property. To control the finances, to make payment of its debts and expenses, to contract debts and borrow money, to establish charges for any city or other services, and to control the property of the corporation.3. Appropriation. To appropriate money for corporate purposes only, and to provide for the payment of debts and expenses of the corporation.4. Tax levy. To levy and collect taxes on real and personal property for general and special purposes.5. Borrowing money. To borrow money on the credit of the corporation for corporation purposes and to issue bonds therefor as limited and provided by title 21.6. Refunding obligations. To issue bonds in place of or to supply means to meet maturing bonds, or for the consolidation or funding of bonds or any floating indebtedness of the municipality in the manner provided in title 21.7. Certificates of indebtedness. To borrow money in anticipation of revenues to be derived from taxes already levied as provided and limited in title 21.8. Streets, sidewalks, and public grounds. To lay out, establish, open, alter, repair, clean, widen, vacate, grade, pave, park, or otherwise improve and regulate the use of streets, alleys, avenues, sidewalks, crossings, and public grounds, and to acquire, construct, maintain, and operate parking lots and facilities for motor vehicles; to regulate or prevent any practice having a tendency to annoy persons frequenting the same; and to prevent and regulate obstructions and encroachments upon the same.9. Powers relating to parks - Planting grass and trees - Powers respecting parks. To regulate the planting of trees and grass on boulevards, berms, parks, parkways, and public grounds, and to exercise the same powers as are granted to a board of park commissioners respecting the parks of the municipality, if any, until the municipality has been organized into a park district.10. Lighting of public places. To provide for the lighting of streets, alleys, avenues, parks, and public grounds.11. Lights to inhabitants of city. To provide for the furnishing of lights to the inhabitants of the city.12. Gas and water mains - Sewers - Electric light and gas plants. To regulate the laying of gas or water mains and pipes, and the building, laying, or repairing of sewers, tunnels, and drains, and the erecting of gas and electric light plants. Any company or association of persons organized for the purpose of manufacturing illuminating gas or electricity to supply municipalities and the inhabitants thereof shall have authority, subject to existing rights, with the consent of the governing body of the municipality, to erect gas or electric light works and lay down pipes and string wires or poles in streets or alleys subject to such regulations as the municipality may prescribe by ordinance.13. Structures under sidewalks - Snow and obstructions. To regulate the use of all structures under sidewalks and to require the owner or occupant of any premises to keep the sidewalks in front of or along such premises free from snow or other obstruction.14. Streets - Cleanliness of and injury to. To regulate and prevent the throwing or depositing of ashes, offal, dirt, garbage, or any offensive matter in, and to prevent injury to, any street, avenue, alley, or public ground.15. Curbs and gutters. To provide for and regulate curbs and gutters.16. Advertising and obstructions in public places. To regulate and prevent the use of streets, sidewalks, and public grounds for signs, signposts, awnings, telegraph and telephone poles, posting handbills and advertisements, the exhibition or carrying of banners, placards, advertisements, or handbills, and the flying of flags, banners, or signs across the streets or from houses.17. Traffic and sales in public places. To regulate traffic and sales upon the streets, sidewalks, and public places.18. Speed of vehicles and locomotives. To regulate the speed of vehicles and locomotives within the corporate limits of the corporation, except that the speed limit for vehicles on those streets designated as part of any state highway shall be determined by mutual agreement with the director of the department of transportation.19. Numbering lots. To regulate the numbering of houses and lots.20. Naming streets. To name and change the name of any street, avenue, alley, or other public place.21. Railroad companies - Ditches and rights of way. To require railroad companies to make, keep open, and repair ditches, drains, sewers, and culverts along and under their tracks so that filthy and stagnant pools of water cannot stand on their grounds or right of way and so that the natural or artificial drainage of adjacent property shall not be impeded. To require railroad companies to fence their respective railroads or any portion of the same and construct cattle guards and public roads and keep the same in repair within the limits of the corporation.22. Extending ways and pipes over railroad property. To extend by condemnation, subject to chapter 32-15, or otherwise any street, alley, or highway over, under, or across, or to construct or lay any sewer, water pipe, or main under or through, any railroad track, right of way, or land of any railroad company within the corporate limits.23. Culverts, drains, and cesspools. To construct and keep in repair culverts, drains, sewers, catch basins, manholes, cesspools, vaults, cisterns, areas, and pumps within the corporate limits.24. Licenses. To fix the amount, terms, and manner of issuing and revoking licenses.25. Plumbers and plumbing business. To adopt, by ordinance, if it has a system of waterworks or sewerage, rules and regulations governing plumbing, drainage, and ventilation of plumbing within the limits of the municipality. The standards provided for in such ordinance, however, shall not be lower than the minimum standards provided for in any state plumbing code adopted pursuant to chapter 43-18, but may be higher than such standards. It may prescribe rules and regulations for all materials, constructions, alteration and inspection of pipes, tanks, and fixtures by which water is supplied to the citizens of the municipality, or by which waste or sewage is carried, and may provide that such pipes, tanks, and fixtures shall not be placed in any building in the municipality except in accordance with plans which are approved under the provisions of said ordinance, and that no plumbing shall be done except by plumbers registered and licensed under state law and under the ordinance, except by a property owner on that person's own premises which are occupied as that person's home or place of residence. The ordinance may provide that all work done by an owner upon that person's own premises must comply with the provisions of the state plumbing code or a local ordinance, whichever shall prescribe the highest standards. Before the municipality may require a plumber to be licensed by the municipality, it shall provide standards for plumbing in a municipality equal to or in excess of those provided by the state plumbing code. A municipality may adopt the state plumbing code as a whole as an ordinance of the municipality by reference without the necessity of publishing the text therefor.26. Transient business and amusements. To license, tax, regulate, remove, suppress, and prohibit fortune-tellers, astrologers, and all persons practicing palmistry, clairvoyancy, mesmerism, and spiritualism, hawkers, peddlers, pawnbrokers, theatricals and other exhibitions, shows and amusements, ticket scalpers, and employment agencies, and to revoke the license at pleasure, except that the provision in this subsection with reference to hawkers and peddlers shall not apply to persons selling or offering for sale the products raised or grown on land within this state.27. Draymen, taxi drivers, porters, and others pursuing like occupations. To license, tax, regulate, and prescribe the rates charged by draymen, parcel delivery men, busdrivers, taxi drivers, porters, expressmen, watermen, and others pursuing like occupations, and the operation of taxicabs. Provided, all motor vehicles used in ridesharing arrangements, as defined in section 8-02-07, are not taxicabs.28. Runners for stages and other things or persons. To license, regulate, tax, and restrain runners for stages, buses, cars, public houses, or other things or persons.29. Alcoholic beverages. To regulate the use and to regulate and license the sale of alcoholic beverages subject to the provisions contained in title 5.30. Bowling alleys, pool, billiards, theaters, and motion picture theaters. To license, regulate, and tax bowling alleys, theaters, motion picture theaters, and pool or billiard tables, or any other tables or implements kept or used for similar purposes in any public place.31. Markets, market houses, and slaughterhouses. To establish, purchase, erect, lease, rent, manage, maintain, regulate, and provide for the use of markets and market houses, municipal slaughterhouses, or abattoirs.32. Dairy, meat, and food products - Inspection and regulation of sale. To provide for the inspection of milk, cream, and butter sold within the limits of the municipality, and of any dairy or dairy herd kept for the production of such milk, cream, and butter. To prescribe the terms upon which sales of such milk, cream, and butter may be made and to fix penalties for violations. To prescribe regulations for the slaughtering of animals to be sold as meat. To prescribe generally sanitary and regulatory provisions as applied to food products sold within the limits of the municipality and to prohibit the sale of impure and diseased milk or other food products.33. Public peace in municipality. To provide for keeping and preserving the peace and quietude of the municipality, prevent disorderly conduct, prohibit public intoxication, and prevent and suppress riots, affrays, disturbances, and disorderly assemblies in any place.34. Fire limits. To prescribe fire limits within which wooden buildings shall not be erected, placed, or repaired without permission; provide that when a building within such limits has been damaged by fire, decay, or otherwise to the extent of fifty percent of its valuation, it shall be torn down and removed; prescribe the manner of ascertaining such damage; provide for the removal of any structure or building erected contrary to the prescribed rules; declare each day's continuance of such building or structure a separate offense and to prescribe the penalties therefor; and define fireproof material.35. Fire hazards. To prevent and provide for remedying any dangerous construction or condition of any building, enclosure, or manufactory, or any equipment used therein; regulate and prevent the carrying on of manufactories creating a fire hazard; prevent a deposit or keeping of ashes or refuse in unsafe places; and require all buildings and places to be put and kept in a safe condition.36. Waterworks system. To purchase, acquire by eminent domain in accordance with chapter 32-15, erect, lease, rent, manage, and maintain any system of waterworks, well reservoirs, pipes, machinery, buildings, and all other property comprising a waterworks system, such as hydrants, supply of water, fire stations, fire signals, fire engines, or fire apparatus that may be of use in the prevention and extinguishment of fires, and to fix and regulate the rates, use, and sale of water.37. Fire equipment - Use beyond municipal limits. To use its fire department to attend to fires and render assistance to other municipalities within or without this state, or to private property, including farm buildings located outside the city limits, and the fire department, its members, and apparatus, when engaged outside the limits of the municipality, shall be deemed to be engaged in the performance of a public duty as fully as if serving within the limits of the municipality.38. Storage of combustible material - Use of fireworks and open flame lights. To regulate and prohibit the storage of combustible or explosive material, the use of open flame lights, the building of bonfires, and the use or sale of firecrackers and fireworks.39. Lumberyards. To regulate or prohibit the keeping of any lumberyard and the keeping or selling of any lumber or other combustible material within the fire limits.40. Steam boilers. To provide for the inspection of steam boilers.41. Jails. To establish, maintain, and regulate a jail and, with the consent of the board of county commissioners, to use the county jail for the confinement of persons charged with or convicted of the violation of any ordinance.42. Cruelty to animals. To prohibit and punish cruelty to animals.43. Vagrants and prostitutes. To restrain and punish vagrants, mendicants, and prostitutes.44. Nuisances. To declare what shall constitute a nuisance and to prevent, abate, and remove the same.45. Health regulations. To make regulations necessary or expedient for the promotion of health or for the suppression of disease.46. Cemeteries. To establish, maintain, and regulate cemeteries within or without the municipality, acquire land therefor by purchase or otherwise, and cause cemeteries to be removed, and to prohibit the establishment thereof within, or within one mile [1.61 kilometers] of, the corporate limits.47. Animals and poultry. To regulate or prohibit the running at large of animals and poultry, provide for the establishment and maintenance of public pounds for the impounding of any animals or poultry running at large or tethered in any street in violation of municipal ordinances, establish procedures for the impounding and discharging of animals and poultry impounded, make the expenses and fines imposed a lien upon such stock or poultry, and provide for the sale of the stock or poultry to satisfy such lien.48. Packinghouses and other offensive businesses. To control the location and regulate the management and construction of packinghouses, renderies, bone and soap factories, slaughterhouses, livery stables, and blacksmith shops, and to prohibit any offensive or unwholesome business within, or within one mile [1.61 kilometers] of, the corporate limits.49. Unwholesome or nauseous places. To compel the owner of any cellar, stable, pigsty, privy, sewer, or other unwholesome or nauseous thing or place to cleanse, abate, or remove the same, and to regulate the location thereof.50. Public buildings. To construct, operate, and maintain all public buildings necessary for the use of the municipality.51. Auctioneers, brokers, lumberyards, and public scales. To license, tax, and regulate auctioneers, brokers, lumberyards, and public scales.52. Supplies. To provide that supplies needed for the use of the city be furnished by contract let to the lowest responsible bidder, except the city may contract for cooperative purchases pursuant to a joint-powers agreement under chapter 54-40.3. This section does not apply to construction of public improvement as defined in chapter 48-01.2.53. Secondhand and junk stores. To license, tax, and regulate secondhand and junk stores and to forbid and punish the purchase and receipt by them from minors of any articles without the written consent of their parents or guardians.54. Insure public property. To insure the public property of the municipality.55. Real and personal property. To acquire by lease, purchase, gift, condemnation, or other lawful means and to hold in its corporate name for use and control as provided by law, both real and personal property and easements and rights of way within or without the corporate limits or outside this state for all purposes authorized by law or necessary to the exercise of any power granted.56. Transfer property. To convey, sell, dispose of, or lease personal and real property of the municipality as provided by this title.57. Franchises. To grant franchises or privileges to persons, associations, corporations, or limited liability companies, any such franchise, except when given to a railroad company, to extend for a period of not to exceed twenty years, and to regulate the use of the same, franchises granted pursuant to the provisions of this title not to be exclusive or irrevocable but subject to the regulatory powers of the governing body.58. Airports. To acquire, establish, construct, expand, own, lease, control, equip, improve, maintain, operate, regulate, and police airports and landing fields within or without the geographic limits of the municipality as provided in title 2.59. Public works project. To accept aid from, cooperate and contract with, and to comply with and meet the requirements of any federal or state agency for the establishment, construction, and maintenance of public works, including dams and reservoirs for municipal water supply, for water conservation, flood control, prevention of stream pollution, or sewage disposal. In furtherance thereof to acquire by purchase, lease, gift, or condemnation the necessary lands, rights of way, and easements for such projects, and to transfer and convey to the state or federal government, or any agency thereof, such lands, rights of way, and easements in consideration of the establishment and construction of, and the public benefits which will be derived from any such project. To enter into an agreement with any such government, agency, or municipality within or without this state, to hold such government, agency, or municipality harmless from any and all liability or claim of liability arising from the establishment, construction, and maintenance of such works, and to indemnify such government, agency, or municipality for any such liability sustained by it and to pay all costs of defending against any such claim. In furtherance thereof to acquire by purchase, lease, gift, or, subject to chapter 32-15, condemnation, the necessary lands, rights of way, and easements for such projects, and to transfer and convey to such government, agency, or municipality, such lands, rights of way, and easements in consideration of the establishment and construction of, and the public benefits which will be derived from any such project, or to pay the cost of the acquisition of such lands, rights of way, and easements by such government, agency, or municipality. All actions herein authorized may be taken by resolution duly adopted by the governing body of the municipality. Any and all actions and proceedings heretofore taken by any municipality which are within the authority granted by this subsection are hereby legalized and validated.60. Special improvement assessments - Satisfaction. To make assessments as limited by the laws of this state for local improvements on property adjoining or benefited thereby, to collect the same in the manner provided by law, and to satisfy the tax lien on lands subject to special assessments.61. Public water supply. To prevent the pollution of or injury to any water supply belonging to the municipality or any public water supply within, or within one mile [1.61 kilometers] of, the limits of the municipality.62. Band. To levy a tax as provided in this title for the purpose of providing a fund for the maintenance or employment of a band for municipal purposes.63. Radio reception. To regulate the installation and operation of motors and other electrical or mechanical devices so as to prevent interference with radio reception.64. Municipal plants. To sell, convey, and dispose of the plant or equipment of any public utility owned by the municipality and to contract for the leasing or operation of such plant, equipment, or utility by others, and to grant to the lessee or operator under such a contract the right to purchase such plant, equipment, or utility upon such terms and conditions as may be expressed in the contract, after authorization as provided by this title.65. Public dances. To license, tax, and regulate public dances or public dancehalls.66. Light and power plants and gas transmission or distribution systems. To purchase, acquire by eminent domain in accordance with chapter 32-15, erect, lease, rent, manage, and maintain electric light and power plants, gasworks, steam heating plants and appurtenances for distribution, and to regulate and fix the rates to its patrons and to jointly, with other municipalities, acquire by eminent domain, erect, construct, lease, rent, manage, and maintain any artificial or natural gas transmission or distribution lines or plants.67. Flood control projects. To acquire, construct, maintain, operate, finance, and control flood control projects, both within and adjacent to such municipality, and for such purpose to acquire the necessary real property and easements therefor by purchase and eminent domain, in accordance with chapter 32-15, and to adopt such ordinances as may reasonably be required to regulate the same.68. Public restrooms. To acquire, construct, maintain, operate, finance, and control public restrooms and facilities within such municipality, and for such purpose to acquire the necessary real property therefor by purchase and eminent domain, in accordance with chapter 32-15, and to adopt such ordinances as may reasonably be required to regulate the same.69. Employee pension system. To adopt, by ordinance, a city employee pension system that may provide all rules and regulations governing its operation and discontinuance, provided other pension systems allowed by statute are not in effect, excepting firefighters relief associations and federal social security, or in order to consolidate existing pension plans. In addition to all other rules and regulations deemed necessary and proper by the governing body, it may provide as to matters pertaining to membership, tax levies in an amount not exceeding the total levies authorized by chapters 40-45 and 40-46, membership fees and assessments, management, investments, acceptance of money and property, retirement conditions and payment amount, continuance of system and discontinuance procedures, discontinuance payments, entrance into contracts with an insurance firm or firms for coverage of the employee pension system.70. Television towers. To construct and maintain relay and booster towers for the improved reception of educational and entertainment television programs.71. Contracts. To contract and be contracted with.72. Community development block grant program. To loan or grant money to and secure a mortgage from individuals, associations, corporations, or limited liability companies and to purchase ownership shares or membership interests in corporations, limited liability companies, or other business associations as provided through the procedures established by the state's community development block grant program established pursuant to the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 [ Pub. L. 93-383; 88 Stat. 633; 42 U.S.C. 5301 et seq.]. This power applies to all community development block grant transactions of the governing body, including any transactions prior to July 1, 1987. A city is not lending its funds or extending its credit to any individual, association, or organization under this subsection and no general liability on the part of the city is incurred.73. Encouragement of arts. To, consistent with section 54-54-01, appropriate and disburse city moneys and to accept and disburse moneys received from federal, state, county, city, or private sources for the establishment, maintenance, or encouragement of arts within the city. The authority of a city under this subsection is supplemental to the authority provided in chapter 40-38.1.74. To expend city funds for the purpose of participating in an organization of city governments under section 40-01-23.75. To participate and enact or adopt ordinances necessary for participation in the nation's historic preservation program as a certified local government, as provided for under 36 CFR 61.5.76. Lease of waterworks or sewage systems. To lease, for a term not to exceed ninety-nine years, the plant or equipment of any waterworks, mains, or water distribution system and any property related thereto pursuant to subsection 5 of section 40-33-01 or to lease, for a term not to exceed ninety-nine years, any sewage system and all related property for the collection, treatment, purification, and disposal in a sanitary manner of sewage pursuant to section 40-34-19.77. Appointed board budgets. To require that financial records, including all revenues, expenditures, fund balances, and complete budgets, be submitted to the governing body of the municipality at a time and in a format requested by that governing body by all boards, authorities, committees, and commissions with members appointed by the governing body before the governing body's approval of the budget and tax levy.78. To expend city funds as a donation for a capital improvement project to a nonprofit health care facility within the city.Amended by S.L. 2023 , ch. 110( SB 2370 ), § 3, eff. 8/1/2023.Amended by S.L. 2015 , ch. 88( SB 2056 ), § 17, eff. 1/1/2016.Amended by S.L. 2015 , ch. 89( HB 1376 ), § 2, eff. 8/1/2015.