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safety, preserve the health, promote the prosperity, and improve the morals, order, comfort, and convenience" of the
<br />municipality and its residents.19'
<br />The police power is based upon the fundamental premise of the supremacy of community rights over individual
<br />rights. Municipalities have exercised their police powers over a wide range of community activities including, but not
<br />limited to, nuisances, promoting public order and tranquility, businesses, trades, professions, occupations,
<br />intoxicating beverages, public amusements and recreations, public health, cemeteries, internments, animals, air
<br />pollution, zoning, buildings, housing, weights and measures, foods, drugs, dairy products, peddlers, hawking, signs,
<br />billboards, personal liberties and rights, fire protection, streets, vehicles, buses, and railways.
<br />This section will cover only some of the more common uses of the police power, including preserving the peace;
<br />protecting the public health and safety; regulating streets, parks and public places; regulating business and business
<br />practices; regulating zoning and building standards; and a few miscellaneous exercises of the police power.
<br />PRESERVING THE PEACE
<br />Municipalities enforce ordinances in municipal courts.19' The General Assembly has expressly granted municipality's
<br />this authority and a statutory framework to guide municipal courts in the exercise of their jurisdiction .197
<br />Municipal police powers include specific authorization to:
<br />• prevent fighting, quarreling, dog fights, cock fights, and all disorderly conduct;
<br />• prevent and suppress riots, affrays, noises, disturbances, and disorderly assemblies in any public or
<br />private place;
<br />• suppress bawdy and disorderly houses and houses of ill fame or assignation within the municipality and within
<br />three miles beyond unless the three-mile extension enters another municipal jurisdiction;
<br />• suppress gaming and gambling houses, lotteries, and fraudulent devices and practices for the purpose of
<br />gaining or obtaining money or property;
<br />• restrain and punish loiterers, mendicants, and prostitutes;
<br />• prohibit and punish for cruelty to animals; and
<br />• regulate and prohibit animals from running at large or from being kept within municipal limits.198
<br />PROTECTING THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND SAFETY
<br />Specific grants of power that may be used to protect the public health and safety include the powers to abate
<br />nuisances; regulate businesses, building, and zoning; and compel connection to water and sewer systems.
<br />The governing body is authorized "[tjo do all acts and make all regulations which may be necessary or expedient for
<br />the promotion of health or the suppression of disease."199 The governing body is also granted broad authority to
<br />regulate businesses,200 and to regulate the placement and construction of buildings within the municipality.201
<br />To protect the public health, the governing body may require connection to the municipal sewer system. If the owner
<br />of the property is financially unable to make the required connection, the governing body may make the connection
<br />and require repayment from the owner.202 The governing body also may condemn public and private water wells and
<br />regulate water use in the interests of public health.201
<br />The state and the federal government regulate many aspects of public health protection from environmental hazards.
<br />The local governing body often is responsible for assuring compliance with these requirements. For example, local
<br />governments are subject to state and federal environmental regulations concerning drinking water quality and water -
<br />treatment plant operation, wastewater plant discharges and operation, sewage sludge disposal, solid and hazardous
<br />waste disposal (including incineration), and the application of pesticides. These environmental requirements are
<br />195 C.R.S. § 31-15-103.
<br />196 C.R.S. § 13-10-104.
<br />197 C.R.S. §§ 13-10-101 et seq.
<br />198 See generally C.R.S § 31-15-401.
<br />199 C.R.S. § 31-15-401(1)(b).
<br />200 See C.R.S.§ 31-15-501.
<br />201 See C.R.S.§ 31-15-601.
<br />202 C.R.S. § 31-15-709(1)(b); §§ 31-35-601 et seq.
<br />203 C.R.S. § 31-15-708(1)(c).
<br />Heather Balser / City of Louisville
<br />OrdeCopyright
<br />by / r er Date: to/s vzol9 COLORADO MUNCIPAL GOVERNMENT.'AN INTRODUCTION
<br />Copyright by C
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