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RESEARCH TOOLS › MRSC INQUIRIES › Franchises
MRSC Inquiries - Franchises
Reviewed 06/02

MRSC Inquiries

Franchises

Contents:

Cable Television

  1. Request for sample policies for use of Public, Educational and Government Access (PEG) channels.

    See webpage on PEG channels

Water

  1. May a city require a water-sewer district, with whom it is negotiating a franchise, to pay a franchise fee?

    Yes, according to the court of appeals in Lakewood v. Pierce County, 106 Wn. App. 63, 78-79 (2001). In that decision, the court of appeals held that the city may, in the context of a negotiated franchise agreement regarding the county sewer system within the city, charge the county a franchise fee that does not exceed the "administrative costs related to the County's right to operate its regional sewer lines beneath Lakewood's streets." Such administrative costs could include "'the city's full costs and full impacts of the county's sewer system on city property,' including the 'additional oversight and associated costs incurred from county maintenance and repair of county owned facilities within city right-of-ways' and office and field-related costs." Id. The holding of this case would also apply to a franchise agreement between a city and a water-sewer district.