READ FIRST TIME 02/23/09.   

     AN ACT Relating to local improvement district financing of railroad crossing protection devices; and amending RCW 35.43.040.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 35.43.040 and 1997 c 452 s 16 are each amended to read as follows:
     Whenever the public interest or convenience may require, the legislative authority of any city or town may order the whole or any part of any local improvement including but not restricted to those, or any combination thereof, listed below to be constructed, reconstructed, repaired, or renewed and landscaping including but not restricted to the planting, setting out, cultivating, maintaining, and renewing of shade or ornamental trees and shrubbery thereon; may order any and all work to be done necessary for completion thereof; and may levy and collect special assessments on property specially benefited thereby to pay the whole or any part of the expense thereof, viz:
     (1) Alleys, avenues, boulevards, lanes, park drives, parkways, parking facilities, public places, public squares, public streets, their grading, regrading, planking, replanking, paving, repaving, macadamizing, remacadamizing, graveling, regraveling, piling, repiling, capping, recapping, or other improvement; if the management and control of park drives, parkways, and boulevards is vested in a board of park commissioners, the plans and specifications for their improvement must be approved by the board of park commissioners before their adoption;
     (2) Auxiliary water systems;
     (3) Auditoriums, field houses, gymnasiums, swimming pools, or other recreational, playground, museum, cultural, or arts facilities or structures;
     (4) Bridges, culverts, and trestles and approaches thereto;
     (5) Bulkheads and retaining walls;
     (6) Dikes and embankments;
     (7) Drains, sewers, and sewer appurtenances which as to trunk sewers shall include as nearly as possible all the territory which can be drained through the trunk sewer and subsewers connected thereto;
     (8) Escalators or moving sidewalks together with the expense of operation and maintenance;
     (9) Parks and playgrounds;
     (10) Sidewalks, curbing, and crosswalks;
     (11) Street lighting systems together with the expense of furnishing electrical energy, maintenance, and operation;
     (12) Underground utilities transmission lines;
     (13) Water mains, hydrants, and appurtenances which as to trunk water mains shall include as nearly as possible all the territory in the zone or district to which water may be distributed from the trunk water mains through lateral service and distribution mains and services;
     (14) Fences, culverts, syphons, or coverings or any other feasible safeguards along, in place of, or over open canals or ditches to protect the public from the hazards thereof;
     (15) Roadbeds, trackage, signalization, storage facilities for rolling stock, overhead and underground wiring, and any other stationary equipment reasonably necessary for the operation of an electrified public streetcar line;
     (16) Systems of surface, underground, or overhead railways, tramways, buses, or any other means of local transportation except taxis, and including passenger, terminal, station parking, and related facilities and properties, and such other facilities as may be necessary for passenger and vehicular access to and from such terminal, station, parking, and related facilities and properties, together with all lands, rights-of-way, property, equipment, and accessories necessary for such systems and facilities;
     (17) Convention center facilities or structures in cities incorporated before January 1, 1982, with a population over sixty thousand located in a county with a population over one million, other than the city of Seattle. Assessments for purposes of convention center facilities or structures may be levied only to the extent necessary to cover a funding shortfall that occurs when funds received from special excise taxes imposed pursuant to chapter 67.28 RCW are insufficient to fund the annual debt service for such facilities or structures, and may not be levied on property exclusively maintained as single-family or multifamily permanent residences whether they are rented, leased, or owner occupied; ((and))
     (18) Programs of aquatic plant control, lake or river restoration, or water quality enhancement. Such programs shall identify all the area of any lake or river which will be improved and shall include the adjacent waterfront property specially benefited by such programs of improvements. Assessments may be levied only on waterfront property including any waterfront property owned by the department of natural resources or any other state agency. Notice of an assessment on a private leasehold in public property shall comply with provisions of chapter 79.44 RCW. Programs under this subsection shall extend for a term of not more than five years; and
     (19) Railroad crossing protection devices, including maintenance and repair. Assessments for purposes of railroad crossing protection devices may not be levied on property owned or maintained by a railroad, railroad company, street railroad, or street railroad company, as defined in RCW 81.04.010, or a regional transit authority as defined in RCW 81.112.020.