BILL REQ. #:  H-3243.1 

Read first time 01/17/2006.   Referred to Committee on Judiciary.

     AN ACT Relating to prohibiting eminent domain for the primary purpose of economic development; and amending RCW 8.04.070, 8.08.020, 8.12.030, and 8.20.070.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1   RCW 8.04.070 and 1988 c 202 s 6 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) At the time and place appointed for hearing the petition, or to which the hearing may have been adjourned, if the court has satisfactory proof that all parties interested in the lands, real estate, premises, or other property described in the petition have been duly served with the notice, and is further satisfied by competent proof that the contemplated use for which the lands, real estate, premises, or other property are sought to be appropriated is really necessary for the public use of the state, it shall make and enter an order, to be recorded in the minutes of the court, and which order shall be final unless appellate review thereof is sought within five days after entry thereof, adjudicating that the contemplated use for which the lands, real estate, premises, or other property are sought to be appropriated is really a public use of the state.
     (2)(a) Notwithstanding subsection (1) of this section, the state shall not appropriate or acquire any land, real estate, premises, or other property for the primary purpose of economic development without the consent of the property owner.
     (b) As used in this subsection, "economic development" means any activity to increase tax revenue, tax base, employment, or economic health. "Economic development" does not include activities that result in: (i) The transfer of land to public ownership; (ii) the transfer of land to a private entity that is a common carrier, such as a utility or railroad; (iii) the transfer of property to a private entity when acquisition or appropriation is necessary to remove a threat to public health or safety; (iv) the transfer of property to a private entity when acquisition or appropriation is necessary for the removal of structures that are beyond repair or unfit for human habitation or use; (v) the transfer of property to a private entity when acquisition or appropriation is necessary for the acquisition of abandoned property; or (vi) the lease of property to a private entity that occupies an incidental area within a public project.

Sec. 2   RCW 8.08.020 and 1949 c 79 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) Any condemnation, appropriation, or disposition intended in RCW 8.08.010 through 8.08.080 shall be deemed and held to be for a county purpose and public use within the meaning of RCW 8.08.010 through 8.08.080 when it is directly or indirectly, approximately or remotely for the general benefit or welfare of the county or of the inhabitants thereof.
     (2)(a) Notwithstanding subsection (1) of this section, no condemnation, appropriation, or disposition by the county shall be for the primary purpose of economic development without the consent of the property owner.
     (b) As used in this subsection, "economic development" means any activity to increase tax revenue, tax base, employment, or economic health. "Economic development" does not include activities that result in: (i) The transfer of land to public ownership; (ii) the transfer of land to a private entity that is a common carrier, such as a utility or railroad; (iii) the transfer of property to a private entity when condemnation, appropriation, or disposition is necessary to remove a threat to public health or safety; (iv) the transfer of property to a private entity when condemnation, appropriation, or disposition is necessary for the removal of structures that are beyond repair or unfit for human habitation or use; (v) the transfer of property to a private entity when condemnation, appropriation, or disposition is necessary for the acquisition of abandoned property; or (vi) the lease of property to a private entity that occupies an incidental area within a public project.

Sec. 3   RCW 8.12.030 and 1915 c 154 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) Every city and town and each unclassified city and town within the state of Washington, is hereby authorized and empowered to condemn land and property, including state, county and school lands and property for streets, avenues, alleys, highways, bridges, approaches, culverts, drains, ditches, public squares, public markets, city and town halls, jails and other public buildings, and for the opening and widening, widening and extending, altering and straightening of any street, avenue, alley or highway, and to damage any land or other property for any such purpose or for the purpose of making changes in the grade of any street, avenue, alley or highway, or for the construction of slopes or retaining walls for cuts and fills upon real property abutting on any street, avenue, alley or highway now ordered to be, or such as shall hereafter be ordered to be opened, extended, altered, straightened or graded, or for the purpose of draining swamps, marshes, tidelands, tide flats or ponds, or filling the same, within the limits of such city, and to condemn land or property, or to damage the same, either within or without the limits of such city for public parks, drives and boulevards, hospitals, pesthouses, drains and sewers, garbage crematories and destructors and dumping grounds for the destruction, deposit or burial of dead animals, manure, dung, rubbish, and other offal, and for aqueducts, reservoirs, pumping stations and other structures for conveying into and through such city a supply of fresh water, and for the purpose of protecting such supply of fresh water from pollution, and to condemn land and other property and damage the same for such and for any other public use after just compensation having been first made or paid into court for the owner in the manner prescribed by this chapter.
     (2)(a) Notwithstanding subsection (1) of this section, no city or town shall condemn land or property for the primary purpose of economic development without the consent of the property owner.
     (b) As used in this subsection, "economic development" means any activity to increase tax revenue, tax base, employment, or economic health. "Economic development" does not include activities that result in: (i) The transfer of land to public ownership; (ii) the transfer of land to a private entity that is a common carrier, such as a utility or railroad; (iii) the transfer of property to a private entity when acquisition or appropriation is necessary to remove a threat to public health or safety; (iv) the transfer of property to a private entity when acquisition or appropriation is necessary for the removal of structures that are beyond repair or unfit for human habitation or use; (v) the transfer of property to a private entity when acquisition or appropriation is necessary for the acquisition of abandoned property; or (vi) the lease of property to a private entity that occupies an incidental area within a public project.

Sec. 4   RCW 8.20.070 and 1927 c 88 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) At the time and place appointed for hearing said petition, or to which the same may have been adjourned, if the court or judge thereof shall have satisfactory proof that all parties interested in the land, real estate, premises, or other property described in said petition, have been duly served with said notice as above prescribed, and shall be further satisfied by competent proof that the contemplated use for which the land, real estate, premises, or other property sought to be appropriated is really a public use, or is for a private use for a private way of necessity, and that the public interest requires the prosecution of such enterprise, or the private use is for a private way of necessity, and that the land, real estate, premises, or other property sought to be appropriated are required and necessary for the purposes of such enterprise, the court or judge thereof may make an order, to be recorded in the minutes of said court, directing that a jury be summoned, or called, in the manner provided by law, to ascertain the compensation which shall be made for the land, real estate, premises, or other property sought to be appropriated, unless a jury be waived as in other civil cases in courts of record, in the manner prescribed by law.
     (2)(a) Notwithstanding subsection (1) of this section, no corporation shall appropriate any land, real estate, premises, or other property for the primary purpose of economic development without the consent of the property owner.
     (b) As used in this subsection, "economic development" means any activity to increase tax revenue, tax base, employment, or economic health. "Economic development" does not include activities that result in: (i) The transfer of land to public ownership; (ii) the transfer of land to a private entity that is a common carrier, such as a utility or railroad; (iii) the transfer of property to a private entity when appropriation is necessary to remove a threat to public health or safety; (iv) the transfer of property to a private entity when appropriation is necessary for the removal of structures that are beyond repair or unfit for human habitation or use; (v) the transfer of property to a private entity when appropriation is necessary for the acquisition of abandoned property; or (vi) the lease of property to a private entity that occupies an incidental area within a public project.