Michigan § 120.14 - Port districts; powers.

Each port district shall have power to lay out, construct, condemn, purchase, acquire, improve, enlarge, extend, maintain, conduct and operate, seawall jetties, piers, wharves, docks, boat landings, warehouses, storehouses, elevators, grain bins, cold storage plants, terminal icing plants, bunkers, oil tanks, ferries, canals, locks, bridges, seaways, tramways, cableways, conveyors, modern appliances for the economical handling, storing and transporting of freight and handling of passengers traffic and other harbor improvements, and rail and water transfer and terminal facilities, (the foregoing being sometimes hereinafter referred to as "public improvements") and in connection with the operation of the port district to perform all customary services including the receiving, delivering, handling, weighing, measuring and reconditioning of all commodities received, and the advertisement of the business of the port district. No such public improvement shall be acquired without first obtaining the approval thereof by a 2/3 vote of the members present and voting of the board or boards of supervisors of the county or counties in which the port district is situated. In addition to the foregoing powers each port commission shall have the following powers:

Subject to the paramount authority of the federal government and the state or any municipality thereof, to regulate the construction of structures in navigable waters including the establishment of harbor lines, pierhead lines and bulkhead lines.

To require within the area designated as the port area by the comprehensive port plan the repair, rebuilding, or in the alternative the removal, by the owners, of private marine facilities when said private marine facilities are determined by the port commission to constitute a hazard to navigation. The determination of the port commission shall be made in the manner and in accordance with the standards prescribed in the building and safety code of the municipality wherein said private facility is located.

The powers granted in subsections (b) and (c) above shall be exercised by the port commission in accordance with such rules and regulations as shall be adopted by a majority vote of the port commission and approved by a majority vote of the members elect of the board of supervisors. If within 180 days after submission to said board such board fails to disapprove such rules and regulations, it shall be thereupon presumed that such board has approved the same. Appeals from determinations of the port commission shall be had in the same manner as appeals on "contested cases" as provided in Act No. 197 of the Public Acts of 1952, as amended, being sections 24.101 to 24.110 of the Compiled Laws of 1948.

To represent the port district before all federal, state and local agencies.

To cooperate with other public agencies and with industry and business in port improvement matters.

To lay out, construct, condemn, purchase, acquire, operate, lease, sell and convey planned industrial districts within the confines of the area designated as the port area by the comprehensive port plan and adjacent to existing port facilities and improvements.