THE BONDAGE OF CITIES - The Community Environmental Legal ...

4/36 MUNICIPAL LIBERTY.course much broader than this discussion.We have not attemptedto deal with municipal regulation of local servicesa topic of enormous girth. The lowest forms of power thatmight fall within the lines of local consent and right of grantare what may be called the right of designation (which isreally a regulative power) and the right of consultation. Anexample of the first is the local right to designate locations forrailway tracks or telegraph posts without the right to refuseall locations. (See below.) An example of the second is theright of selectmen to grantor revoke licenses fortelephone or electric light poles and wires, subject totelegraph,to the Superior Court, as in New Hampshire.The highest form of authority is a sweeping statute,appealor betterstill a constitutional provision, giving complete and exclusivepowers of grant and revocation, purchase, erection,ownership and operation to every municipality, subject to theinitiative and referendum, and possibly, in some cases, to theconsent of a majority of the property owners chiefly affected.The principle of the initiative in respect to these franchises isrecognizedin the general legislation of three states (Wisconsin,Michigan and Nebraska), and the referendum in eleven(Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota,Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Washingtonand Wisconsin). In most cases these principles are only partiallyapplied, as follows:Colorado, gas, electric light and water.Florida, gas, electric light.Iowa, gas, water, electric light and power, telegraph, telephoneand street railways.Massachusetts, gas and electric works.Michigan, gas, electric or other light.Minnesota, gas, electric light, street railway, water, telephone,heat and power.Pennsylvania, 3d class cities, gas, electric light, water.South Carolina, gas, electric light, water.Washington, gas, electric or other means of light, heat*power, water, cable, electric osr other railways.Wisconsin, gas, electric light, water.