(1) Generally. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms, phrases, words, and abbreviations and derivations shall have the meanings given herein, unless otherwise expressly stated. When not inconsistent with the context, words used in the present tense include the future tense; words in the plural number include the singular number; and words in the singular number include the plural number; and the masculine gender includes the feminine gender. “And” and “or” may be read conjunctively or disjunctively. The words “shall” and “will” are mandatory, and “may” is permissive. Unless otherwise expressly stated, words not defined in this chapter shall be given the meaning set forth in Title 47 of the United States Code, and, if not defined therein, their common and ordinary meaning. References to governmental entities (whether persons or entities) refer to those entities or their successors in authority. If specific provisions of law referred to herein are renumbered, then the reference shall be read to refer to the renumbered provision. References to laws, ordinances or regulations shall be interpreted broadly to cover government actions, however nominated, and include laws, ordinances and regulations now in force or hereinafter enacted or amended.
(2) Definitions.
Abandonment shall mean the permanent cessation of all uses of a communications facility; provided that this term shall not include cessation of all use of a facility within a physical structure where the physical structure continues to be used. For example, cessation of all use of a cable within a conduit, where the conduit continues to be used, shall not be Abandonment of a facility in public rights-of-way.
Antenna means any transmitting or receiving device mounted on, within, or incorporated into a building or structure, and used in communications that radiate or capture electromagnetic waves, digital signals, analog signals, radio frequencies (excluding radar signals), light, wireless telecommunications signals or other communication signals. For the purposes of this chapter, the term Antenna does not include any device designed for over-the-air reception of radio or television broadcast signals, or a multi-channel, multi-point distribution service.
Applicable Codes means uniform building, fire, electrical, plumbing, or mechanical codes adopted by a recognized national code organization and the Florida Building Code and the Florida Fire Prevention Code, and or local amendments to those codes enacted to address building, accessibility and fire code standards and threats of destruction of property or injury to persons, or local codes or ordinances adopted to implement this subsection. The term includes objective design standards adopted by ordinance that may require a small wireless facility to meet reasonable location context, color, stealth, and concealment requirements. The term also includes objective design standards adopted by ordinance that may require a new utility pole that replaces an existing utility pole to be of substantially similar design, material, and color, or that may require reasonable spacing requirements concerning the location of ground-mounted equipment.
Applicant means the person registering and applying to locate wireless facilities in the right-of-way of the city, and includes the applicant’s successors-in-interest and anyone owning and maintaining the wireless facilities.
Application means a request submitted by an application to an authority for a permit to place or collocate wireless facilities.
Authority means a county or municipality having jurisdiction and control of the public rights-of-way of any public road.
City shall mean City of Boynton Beach, Florida. Where appropriate, the word City may refer to the City Commission or the relevant city officer or board considering an application under this chapter.
City-owned Facility or City-owned Structure means any facility, structure or infrastructure to which the city holds title, easement, or a leasehold interest, including, but not limited to, communications facilities, utility poles, towers, buildings, and communications infrastructure, regardless of whether located within or outside the public rights-of-way.
City-owned Real Property means real property to which the city holds title, easement, or a leasehold interest, but does not include the public rights-of-way.
Cluttered shall mean placement in a confused, disordered, disorganized, jumbled or crowded state, which can occur when too much is located in too small of an area, given the reasonable location context.
Collocation means to install, mount, maintain modify, operate, or replace one or more wireless facilities on, under, within, or adjacent to a wireless support structure or utility pole. The term does not include the installation of a new utility pole or wireless support structure in the public rights-of-way.
Communications Services shall mean the transmission, conveyance or routing of voice, data, audio, video, or any other information or signals to a point, or between or among points, by or through any electronic, radio, satellite, cable, optical, microwave, or other medium or method now in existence or hereafter devised, regardless of the protocol used for such transmission or conveyance.
Communications Services Provider shall mean any person, including a municipality or county, providing communications services through the placement or maintenance of a communications facility in public rights-of-way. Communications Services Provider shall also include any person, including a municipality or county, that places or maintains a communications facility in public rights-of-way, but does not provide communications services.
Communications Facility(ies) or Facility or System(s) shall mean any permanent or temporary physical plant, equipment or property, including, but not limited to, cables, wires, conduits, ducts, fiber optics, poles, antennae, converters, splice boxes, cabinets, hand holes, manholes, vaults, drains, surface location markers, appurtenances, and other equipment or pathway placed or maintained or to be placed or maintained in the public rights-of-way of the city and used or capable of being used to transmit, convey, route, receive, distribute, provide or offer communications services. The term includes wireless facilities.
Concealed means an ancillary structure, equipment compound, or communications facility or area (collectively “physical improvements”) that is not readily identifiable as such, and is designed to be aesthetically compatible with existing and proposed building(s) and uses on and adjacent to the proposed location of such physical improvements.
FCC shall mean the Federal Communications Commission.
In Public Rights-of-way or in the Public Rights-of-way shall mean in, on, over, under or across the public rights-of-way.
Maintain shall mean to exercise physical control over a wireless facility in the public rights-of-way, including ownership or the right to maintain and repair. A person providing service only through resale or only through use of a third party's unbundled network elements is not Maintaining the wireless facilities through which such service is provided. The transmission and receipt of radio frequency signals through the airspace of the public rights-of-way does not constitute Maintaining facilities in the public rights-of-way.
Micro Wireless Facility means a small wireless facility having dimensions no larger than twenty-four (24) inches in length, fifteen (15) inches in width, and twelve (12) inches in height, and an exterior antenna, if any, no longer than eleven (11) inches.
Ordinance shall mean this ordinance.
Pass-through Provider means any person who, upon registering with the city, places or maintains a communications facility in the city’s rights-of-way and that does not remit communications service taxes as imposed by the city pursuant to F.S. Ch. 202.
Permit means the public rights-of-way permit that must be obtained before a person may construct in the public rights-of-way, and shall include, but not be limited to, the city’s public rights-of-way engineering and construction permits issued by the City Engineer or his or her designee.
Person shall include any individual, child, firm, association, joint venture, partnership, estate, trust, business trust, syndicate, fiduciary, corporation, organization or legal entity of any kind, successor, assignee, transferee, personal representative, all other groups or combinations, and shall include the city to the extent the city acts as a communications services provider
Place or Maintain or Placement or Maintenance or Placing or Maintaining shall mean to erect, construct, install, maintain, grade, excavate, place, repair, extend, replace, expand, remove, occupy, locate or relocate. A communications services provider that owns or exercises physical control over communications facilities in public rights-of-way, such as the physical control to maintain and repair, is Placing or Maintaining the facilities. A party providing service only through resale or only through use of a third party’s unbundled network elements is not Placing or Maintaining the communications facilities through which such service is provided. The transmission and receipt of radio frequency signals through the airspace of the public rights-of-way does not constitute Placing or Maintaining facilities in the public rights-of-way.
Pole Attachment means any attachment of a wireless facility by a wireless provider to an existing utility pole or structure utilized for electric, telephone, cable television, street lights, or other lighting, and other utilities.
Public Rights-of-way shall mean a public right-of-way, public utility easement, public highway, street, lane, bridge, sidewalk, road, waterway, tunnel, alley, or similar property, regardless of which governmental entity has jurisdiction over such, for which the city is the authority that has jurisdiction and control and may lawfully grant access to such property pursuant to applicable law, and includes the surface, the air space over the surface, and the area below the surface, to the extent the city holds a property interest therein. Public Rights-of-way shall not include private property. Public Rights-of-way shall not include any real or personal city property except as described above, and shall not include city buildings, fixtures, poles, conduits, facilities or other structures or improvements, regardless of whether they are situated in the public rights-of-way. No reference herein, or in any permit, to public rights-of-way shall be deemed to be a representation or guarantee by the city that its interest or other right to control the use of such property is sufficient to permit its use for such purposes, and a registrant shall be deemed to gain only those rights to use as are properly in the city and as the city may have the undisputed right and power to give.
Registrant shall mean a communications services provider or other person that has registered with the city in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.
Registration or Register shall mean the process described in this chapter whereby a communications services provider provides certain information to the city.
Small Wireless Facility or Small Wireless Facilities means a wireless facility that meets the following qualifications:
1. Each antenna associated with the facility is located inside an enclosure of no more than six (6) cubic feet in volume or, in the case of antennas that have exposed elements, each antenna and all of its exposed elements could fit within an enclosure of no more than six (6) cubic feet in volume: and
2. All other wireless equipment associated with the facility is cumulatively no more than twenty-eight (28) cubic feet in volume. The following types of associated ancillary equipment are not included in the calculation of equipment volume: electric meters, concealment elements, telecommunications demarcation boxes, ground-based enclosures, grounding equipment power transfer switches, cutoff switches, vertical cable runs for the connection of power and other services, and utility poles or other support structures.
Stealth Design means a method of camouflaging any antenna, wireless facilities, or other ancillary supporting communications facility, including, but not limited to, supporting electrical, optical, or mechanical, or other equipment which enhances compatibility with adjacent land uses and which is visually and aurally unobtrusive. Stealth Design may include a repurposed structure.
Utility Pole means a pole or similar structure that is used, in whole or in part, to provide communications services or for electric distribution, street lights or other lighting, cable television, traffic control, signage, or a similar function. The term includes the vertical support structure for traffic lights, but does not include a horizontal structure to which signal lights or other traffic control devices are attached, and does not include a pole or similar structure fifteen (15) feet or less in height, unless an authority grants a waiver for such.
Wireless Facility or Wireless Facilities means equipment at a fixed location which enables wireless communications between user equipment and a communications network, including radio transceivers, antennas, distributed antenna systems (“DAS”), wires, coaxial or fiber-optic cable or other cables, regular and backup power supplies, and comparable equipment, regardless of technological configuration, and equipment associated with wireless communications. The term includes small wireless facilities and micro wireless facilities. The term does not include:
1. The structure or improvements on, under, within, or adjacent to the structure on which the equipment is collocated;
2. Wireline backhaul facilities: or
3. Coaxial or fiber-optic cable that is between wireless structures or utility poles or that is otherwise not immediately adjacent to or directly associated with a particular antenna.
Wireless Infrastructure Provider means a person who has been certificated to provide telecommunications service in the state, and who builds or installs wireless communication transmission equipment, wireless facilities, or wireless support structures, but is not a wireless services provider.
Wireless Provider means a wireless infrastructure provider or a wireless services provider.
Wireless Services means any services provided using licensed or unlicensed spectrum, whether at a fixed location or mobile, using wireless facilities.
Wireless Services Provider means a person who provides wireless services.
Wireless Support Structure means a freestanding structure, such as a monopole, a guyed or self-supporting tower, or another existing or proposed structure designed to support or capable of supporting wireless facilities. The term does not include a utility pole.
(Ord. No. 01-29, § 5, 7-3-01; Ord. No. 18-005, § 2, 5-1-18)