{{Infobox legislation , short_title = The Home Rule City Act , legislature = Michigan Legislature , image = , imagesize = , imagealt = , caption = , long_title = An act to provide for the incorporation of cities and for revising and amending their charters; to provide for certain powers and duties; to provide for the levy and collection of taxes by cities, borrowing of money, and issuance of bonds or other evidences of indebtedness; to validate actions taken, bonds issued, and obligations heretofore incurred; to prescribe penalties and provide remedies; and to repeal acts and parts of acts on specific dates. , citation
MCL 117.1 et seq.
, territorial_extent = , enacted_by = , date_enacted = , date_passed = , enacted_by2 = , date_enacted2 = , date_passed2 = , date_signed = , signed_by = Governor Fred M. Warner , date_commenced = September 1, 1909 , date_of_expiry = , date_repealed = , administered_by = , bill = , bill_citation = , bill_date = , introduced_by = , 1st_reading = , 2nd_reading = , 3rd_reading = , conf_committee_passed = , bill2 = , bill_citation2 = , bill_date2 = , introduced_by2 = , 1st_reading2 = , 2nd_reading2 = , 3rd_reading2 = , conf_committee_passed2 = , date_conf_committee = , white_paper = , committee_report = , amendments = , repeals = , related_legislation = , summary = , keywords = , status = The Home Rule City Act was a statute enacted by the Michigan Legislature as ''Public Act 279 of 1909''. It provides the framework by which a new

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

may become incorporated and provide for its own

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

by adopting a

city charter A city charter or town charter (generically, municipal charter) is a legal document ('' charter'') establishing a municipality such as a city or town. The concept developed in Europe during the Middle Ages. Traditionally the granting of a charte ...

, and the method by which an existing city may amend or revise its city charter.

History

Local units of government in the United States are created by the various states. Such

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-l ...

s may go by various names in the several states. It is entirely possible for a state to totally abolish any or all local units of government. In the case of

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

, the state government is specifically restricted under the state's constitution as to how it may interact with local governments and may not alter the boundaries of a local government without a vote by the affected residents. The Home Rule City Act resulted from the provisions of the 1908 state constitution, which called for

home rule Home rule is government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governance wit ...

authority to be conferred upon the various local governments in the state. The 1963 state constitution retained these same home rule provisions. Both constitutions recognized the fundamental integrity of

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

townships A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...

cities A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

, and

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

s in Michigan. Local governments could no longer be created, abolished, or consolidated without the consent of the electors who reside within the affected territory. Prior to this time, local governments had been created by a special act of the legislature which did not require any consent from those living within the affected territory. Under Michigan's Revised Statutes of 1848, there were several classes of cities, the primary distinction among which was

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

. In nearly every case, however, it was the legislature that had provided a city charter for each city that mandated how each city was to be governed and how its officers were to be chosen. Under the Home Rule City Act, each city was given the ability to make changes to its city charter on its own. The charters that had been previously granted by the legislature continued in force until such time as an affected city took this action. All cities in Michigan are now classified under one class, namely, Home Rule Cities, regardless of the source or origin of the various provisions of their respective city charters.

Revising or amending a city charter

Under the Home Rule City Act, a city can amend its city charter by a vote of the electors residing within the city. An amendment can be proposed either by the governing body of the city, typically called the

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

, or by an initiative petition signed by a certain number of registered voters. A revision of a city charter is a more comprehensive process which replaces the existing charter with a new one. The decision to revise a city charter must be approved by the voters of the city and can be proposed by the city council or by an initiative petition. A special commission is elected to conduct the work of writing a new charter and submitting it to the voters for approval. The commission is not bound to keep any provisions of the current city charter.

Provisions of the act

The Home Rule City Act specifies certain requirements that every city must contain within its city charter. At the same time, the Act provides for numerous optional charter provisions. In general, any power that is not specifically prohibited by another law for a city to exercise may be included in a city's charter.

External links

Home Rule City Act (complete text)
1909 in law Michigan statutes Local government in Michigan Local government legislation History of local government in the United States