(A) For purposes of this chapter, the following words and terms shall have the meaning given below unless the context clearly indicates or requires otherwise.
(B) The terms abandoned, application, city (town) utility pole, collocation, make-ready work, micro wireless, small wireless facility, utility pole, wireless facility, wireless infrastructure provider, wireless provider, wireless services, and wireless services provider have the meanings provided at G.S. §§ 160A-400.51 et seq. or in the Federal Communications Commission Order FCC 18-133, whichever is more inclusive or exacting.
ADMINISTRATOR. The person or persons selected by the Town Manager or Town Council to carry out the provisions of this chapter and the designee(s) of that person or persons. If context requires, the Town Council may be deemed the Administrator when it is considering whether to authorize a particular encroachment.
AUTHORIZATION. Permission from the Administrator to do work in the public way or to maintain facilities in the public way and includes but is not limited to a franchise, an easement, an encroachment agreement, a permit, or other written approval. Multiple authorizations may be required for certain activities.
CAUSE TO BE OBSTRUCTED. An action(s) or omission(s) which, whether or not intended to obstruct the ordinary use of a public way, nevertheless interferes with a person's ordinary use of a public way to a degree that passage is prevented or delayed for an unreasonable period of time.
CONTRACTOR. Means and includes any of the following, licensed or unlicensed, performing work on an owner's behalf: contractor; subcontractor; or any employee or agent of a contractor, subcontractor, or owner.
EMERGENCY. A condition that poses a clear and immediate danger to life or health, or a significant loss of property, or requires immediate repair to restore service to a group of users of such service.
ENCROACH or ENCROACHMENT. Any excavation in the public way, or the placing therein, thereover or below any pipes, poles, wires, fixtures or other appliances or equipment of any kind, either on, above, or below the ground surface. It also includes such digging and placing of pipes, poles, wires, fixtures or other appliances or equipment of any kind on, above or below the ground surface in areas in which the town has a utility or access easement, unless such activity is permitted by the applicable easement.
EXCAVATE or EXCAVATION. Without limitation any cutting, digging, grading, tunneling, boring, or other alteration of the surface or subsurface material or earth in the public way.
FACILITIES. Poles, pipes, culverts, conduits, ducts, cables, wires, fiber, amplifiers, pedestals, antennae, transmission or receiving equipment, other electronic equipment, electrical conductors, manholes, appliances, signs, poles, pavement structures, irrigation systems, landscaping, signs, mailboxes and any other similar equipment, for public or private use.
INTENTIONALLY OBSTRUCT. To act or fail to act with the purpose and effect that passage is prevented or delayed.
MINOR ENCROACHMENT. An encroachment as to which all of the following requirements are met:
(a) The property owner owns the underlying fee;
(b) There is no disruption, even temporarily, of traffic flow;
(c) There is no damage to a paved or concrete surface of a public way; and
(d) There is no impact to the town's ability to construct, maintain or operate a public way or public facilities located in the public way.
OWNER. Any property owner, company owner, and/or any entity by which work within the right-of-way has been ordered, or any entity on behalf of which any work within the right-of-way is caused to be performed, or any agent thereof.
PERSON. An individual, association, firm, partnership, limited liability company, joint venture, corporation, government, utility, or other entity able to engage in the activities described in this ordinance, whether for profit or not for profit. The term does not include the town or the town's officials, employees, representatives or agents acting pursuant to their official duties on behalf of the town.
PUBLIC SIDEWALK. Any area open to public use as a pedestrian public way, whether paved or otherwise designated or recognized for use of pedestrian traffic and which is owned or maintained by the town.
PUBLIC WAY. Any area that is owned or maintained by the town and used or reserved for use as a public street, highway, right-of-way, alley, trail, greenway or other multi-modal path, sidewalk, curb, gutter, bike lane, bridge, round-about, tunnel, causeway, or shoulder. Such areas include, without limitation, drainage areas and dedicated areas without surface improvements that are adjacent to improved areas, and areas where no roads or other improvements have been constructed but which are dedicated for one or more of the above uses. The public way encompasses the surface of the ground, and the area above and below the ground.
REPEAT VIOLATOR. A person who:
(a) Violates this chapter two or more times in any 12 month period; or
(b) Violates this chapter two or more times in a period greater than 12 months but in such circumstances that an intentional violation can be inferred.
RESPONSIBLE PERSON. A person who has intentionally or negligently caused or authorized the action which violates the prohibitions of this chapter and the owner of the property from or upon which a violation extends, derives or originates.
UNREASONABLE PERIOD OF TIME. The time that a reasonable person prevented or delayed in his or her attempt to use a sidewalk for pedestrian use would consider as unreasonable.
USER. A person that proposes to place facilities in the public way, places such facilities, or owns or maintains such facilities. The term includes but is not limited to encroachment permittees and franchisees.
(Ord. passed 9-17-2019)