Opinion ID: 2600008
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The legal challenge

Text: ¶ 17 Thirty-four residents of Belmont (plaintiffs) filed suit in Benton County Superior Court, claiming that some of the add lands petitions were invalid and, as a result, the petition effort failed to meet the RCW 87.03.560 requirement that one-half of the Belmont land body's acreage be represented by the petition signers. Plaintiffs also brought facial and as-applied state constitutional challenges. They sought an order declaring that both proceedingsthe add lands process and the LID formationhad violated their right to due process under article I, section 3 of the Washington Constitution. They sought a declaration that RCW 87.03.560 and .485, two of the statutes followed by CID, were unconstitutional. The basis for plaintiffs' facial attack on RCW 87.03.560, although not explicit, was that it violated article I, section 3. They also argued that as applied to them, CID's implementation of RCW 87.03.560 violated due process because the notice of the board's add lands hearing was inadequate, and the procedures for validating petitions were too lax. As for RCW 87.03.485, the plaintiffs claimed the implied-consent provision allowed an unequal election and therefore violated article I, section 19 of the Washington Constitution. Finally, plaintiffs claimed that the notice of the LID formation hearing was constitutionally deficient. ¶ 18 The trial court granted CID's motion for summary judgment and dismissed the case. Plaintiffs appealed. The Court of Appeals, Division Three, certified the case to this court pursuant to RCW 2.06.030, and we accepted certification.