2023 Revised Code of Washington › Title 35 - Cities and Towns › Chapter 35.22 - First-Class Cities. › 35.22.280 - Specific powers enumerated.

RCW 35.22.280
Specific powers enumerated.
Any city of the first class shall have power:
(1) To provide for general and special elections, for questions to be voted upon, and for the election of officers;
(2) To provide for levying and collecting taxes on real and personal property for its corporate uses and purposes, and to provide for the payment of the debts and expenses of the corporation;
(3) To control the finances and property of the corporation, and to acquire, by purchase or otherwise, such lands and other property as may be necessary for any part of the corporate uses provided for by its charter, and to dispose of any such property as the interests of the corporation may, from time to time, require;
(4) To borrow money for corporate purposes on the credit of the corporation, and to issue negotiable bonds therefor, on such conditions and in such manner as shall be prescribed in its charter; but no city shall, in any manner or for any purpose, become indebted to an amount in the aggregate to exceed the limitation of indebtedness prescribed by chapter 39.36 RCW as now or hereafter amended;
(5) To issue bonds in place of or to supply means to meet maturing bonds or other indebtedness, or for the consolidation or funding of the same;
(6) To purchase or appropriate private property within or without its corporate limits, for its corporate uses, upon making just compensation to the owners thereof, and to institute and maintain such proceedings as may be authorized by the general laws of the state for the appropriation of private property for public use;
(7) To lay out, establish, open, alter, widen, extend, grade, pave, plank, establish grades, or otherwise improve streets, alleys, avenues, sidewalks, wharves, parks, and other public grounds, and to regulate and control the use thereof, and to vacate the same, and to authorize or prohibit the use of electricity at, in, or upon any of said streets, or for other purposes, and to prescribe the terms and conditions upon which the same may be so used, and to regulate the use thereof;
(8) To change the grade of any street, highway, or alley within its corporate limits, and to provide for the payment of damages to any abutting owner or owners who shall have built or made other improvements upon such street, highway, or alley at any point opposite to the point where such change shall be made with reference to the grade of such street, highway, or alley as the same existed prior to such change;
(9) To authorize or prohibit the locating and constructing of any railroad or street railroad in any street, alley, or public place in such city, and to prescribe the terms and conditions upon which any such railroad or street railroad shall be located or constructed; to provide for the alteration, change of grade, or removal thereof; to regulate the moving and operation of railroad and street railroad trains, cars, and locomotives within the corporate limits of said city; and to provide by ordinance for the protection of all persons and property against injury in the use of such railroads or street railroads;
(10) To provide for making local improvements, and to levy and collect special assessments on property benefited thereby, and for paying for the same or any portion thereof;
(11) To acquire, by purchase or otherwise, lands for public parks within or without the limits of such city, and to improve the same. When the language of any instrument by which any property is so acquired limits the use of said property to park purposes and contains a reservation of interest in favor of the grantor or any other person, and where it is found that the property so acquired is not needed for park purposes and that an exchange thereof for other property to be dedicated for park purposes is in the public interest, the city may, with the consent of the grantor or such other person, his or her heirs, successors, or assigns, exchange such property for other property to be dedicated for park purposes, and may make, execute, and deliver proper conveyances to effect the exchange. In any case where, owing to death or lapse of time, there is neither donor, heir, successor, or assignee to give consent, this consent may be executed by the city and filed for record with an affidavit setting forth all efforts made to locate people entitled to give such consent together with the facts which establish that no consent by such persons is attainable. Title to property so conveyed by the city shall vest in the grantee free and clear of any trust in favor of the public arising out of any prior dedication for park purposes, but the right of the public shall be transferred and preserved with like force and effect to the property received by the city in such exchange;
(12) To construct and keep in repair bridges, viaducts, and tunnels, and to regulate the use thereof;
(13) To determine what work shall be done or improvements made at the expense, in whole or in part, of the owners of the adjoining contiguous, or proximate property, or others specially benefited thereby; and to provide for the manner of making and collecting assessments therefor;
(14) To provide for erecting, purchasing, or otherwise acquiring waterworks, within or without the corporate limits of said city, to supply said city and its inhabitants with water, or authorize the construction of same by others when deemed for the best interests of such city and its inhabitants, and to regulate and control the use and price of the water so supplied;
(15) To provide for lighting the streets and all public places, and for furnishing the inhabitants thereof with gas or other lights, and to erect, or otherwise acquire, and to maintain the same, or to authorize the erection and maintenance of such works as may be necessary and convenient therefor, and to regulate and control the use thereof;
(16) To establish and regulate markets, and to provide for the weighing, measuring, and inspection of all articles of food and drink offered for sale thereat, or at any other place within its limits, by proper penalties, and to enforce the keeping of proper legal weights and measures by all vendors in such city, and to provide for the inspection thereof. Whenever the words "public markets" are used in this chapter, and the public market is managed in whole or in part by a public corporation created by a city, the words shall be construed to include all real or personal property located in a district or area designated by a city as a public market and traditionally devoted to providing farmers, crafts vendors and other merchants with retail space to market their wares to the public. Property located in such a district or area need not be exclusively or primarily used for such traditional public market retail activities and may include property used for other public purposes including, but not limited to, the provision of human services and low-income or moderate-income housing;
(17) To erect and establish hospitals and pesthouses, and to control and regulate the same;
(18) To provide for establishing and maintaining reform schools for juvenile offenders;
(19) To provide for the establishment and maintenance of public libraries, and to appropriate, annually, such percent of all moneys collected for fines, penalties, and licenses as shall be prescribed by its charter, for the support of a city library, which shall, under such regulations as shall be prescribed by ordinance, be open for use by the public;
(20) To regulate the burial of the dead, and to establish and regulate cemeteries within or without the corporate limits, and to acquire land therefor by purchase or otherwise; to cause cemeteries to be removed beyond the limits of the corporation, and to prohibit their establishment within two miles of the boundaries thereof;
(21) To direct the location and construction of all buildings in which any trade or occupation offensive to the senses or deleterious to public health or safety shall be carried on, and to regulate the management thereof; and to prohibit the erection or maintenance of such buildings or structures, or the carrying on of such trade or occupation within the limits of such corporation, or within the distance of two miles beyond the boundaries thereof;
(22) To provide for the prevention and extinguishment of fires and to regulate or prohibit the transportation, keeping, or storage of all combustible or explosive materials within its corporate limits, and to regulate and restrain the use of fireworks;
(23) To establish fire limits and to make all such regulations for the erection and maintenance of buildings or other structures within its corporate limits as the safety of persons or property may require, and to cause all such buildings and places as may from any cause be in a dangerous state to be put in safe condition;
(24) To regulate the manner in which stone, brick, and other buildings, party walls, and partition fences shall be constructed and maintained;
(25) To deepen, widen, dock, cover, wall, alter, or change the channels of waterways and courses, and to provide for the construction and maintenance of all such works as may be required for the accommodation of commerce, including canals, slips, public landing places, wharves, docks, and levees, and to control and regulate the use thereof;
(26) To control, regulate, or prohibit the anchorage, moorage, and landing of all watercrafts and their cargoes within the jurisdiction of the corporation;
(27) To fix the rates of wharfage and dockage, and to provide for the collection thereof, and to provide for the imposition and collection of such harbor fees as may be consistent with the laws of the United States;
(28) To license, regulate, control, or restrain wharf boats, tugs, and other boats used about the harbor or within such jurisdiction;
(29) To require the owners of public halls or other buildings to provide suitable means of exit; to provide for the prevention and abatement of nuisances, for the cleaning and purification of watercourses and canals, for the drainage and filling up of ponds on private property within its limits, when the same shall be offensive to the senses or dangerous to health; to regulate and control, and to prevent and punish, the defilement or pollution of all streams running through or into its corporate limits, and for the distance of five miles beyond its corporate limits, and on any stream or lake from which the water supply of said city is taken, for a distance of five miles beyond its source of supply; to provide for the cleaning of areas, vaults, and other places within its corporate limits which may be so kept as to become offensive to the senses or dangerous to health, and to make all such quarantine or other regulations as may be necessary for the preservation of the public health, and to remove all persons afflicted with any infectious or contagious disease to some suitable place to be provided for that purpose;
(30) To declare what shall be a nuisance, and to abate the same, and to impose fines upon parties who may create, continue, or suffer nuisances to exist;
(31) To regulate the selling or giving away of intoxicating, malt, vinous, mixed, or fermented liquors as authorized by the general laws of the state: PROVIDED, That no license shall be granted to any person or persons who shall not first comply with the general laws of the state in force at the time the same is granted;
(32) To grant licenses for any lawful purpose, and to fix by ordinance the amount to be paid therefor, and to provide for revoking the same. However, no license shall be granted to continue for longer than one year from the date thereof. A city may not require a business to be licensed based solely upon registration under or compliance with the streamlined sales and use tax agreement;
(33) To regulate the carrying on within its corporate limits of all occupations which are of such a nature as to affect the public health or the good order of said city, or to disturb the public peace, and which are not prohibited by law, and to provide for the punishment of all persons violating such regulations, and of all persons who knowingly permit the same to be violated in any building or upon any premises owned or controlled by them;
(34) To restrain and provide for the punishment of vagrants, mendicants, prostitutes, and other disorderly persons;
(35) To provide for the punishment of all disorderly conduct, and of all practices dangerous to public health or safety, and to make all regulations necessary for the preservation of public morality, health, peace, and good order within its limits, and to provide for the arrest, trial, and punishment of all persons charged with violating any of the ordinances of said city. The punishment shall not exceed a fine of five thousand dollars or imprisonment in the city jail for three hundred sixty-four days, or both such fine and imprisonment. The punishment for any criminal ordinance shall be the same as the punishment provided in state law for the same crime. Such cities alternatively may provide that violations of ordinances constitute a civil violation subject to monetary penalties, but no act which is a state crime may be made a civil violation;
(36) To project or extend its streets over and across any tidelands within its corporate limits, and along or across the harbor areas of such city, in such manner as will best promote the interests of commerce;
(37) To provide in their respective charters for a method to propose and adopt amendments thereto.
[ 2011 c 96 § 25; 2009 c 549 § 2046; 2008 c 129 § 1; 1993 c 83 § 4; 1990 c 189 § 3; 1986 c 278 § 3; 1984 c 258 § 802; 1977 ex.s. c 316 § 20; 1971 ex.s. c 16 § 1; 1965 ex.s. c 116 § 2; 1965 c 7 § 35.22.280. Prior: 1890 p 218 § 5; RRS § 8966.]
NOTES:
Findings—Intent—2011 c 96: See note following RCW 9A.20.021.
Effective date—1993 c 83: See note following RCW 35.21.163.
Severability—1986 c 278: See note following RCW 36.01.010.
Court Improvement Act of 1984—Effective dates—Severability—Short title—1984 c 258: See notes following RCW 3.30.010.
Severability—1977 ex.s. c 316: See note following RCW 70.48.020.