113.01 Purpose and Rule of Interpretation | 113.09 City Construction and Paving |
113.02 Franchise, License or Lease Required | 113.10 Design Notice to City |
113.03 Fees | 113.11 Above-Ground Cables, Wires, Conduits and Poles |
113.04 Limit on Term | 113.12 Assignment |
113.05 Placement of Facilities | 113.13 Forfeiture |
113.06 Indemnification and Bond | 113.14 Application |
113.07 Regulation by the City | 113.15 Home Rule |
113.08 Construction and Excavation | 113.16 New Technologies |
The Council finds it is necessary for the City to establish uniform rules and controls to ensure public safety and provide efficient delivery of services by the City and others wishing to utilize streets and other public property for the delivery of utility or other services, in order to protect public and private investment, ensure orderly use of public property and ensure the health, safety and welfare of the population, to provide for the regulation and administration of the public streets and other public property and secure the rights of the City to a return on its investment in public property. This chapter is to be interpreted in light of these findings for the benefit of the public and users of the streets and other public property.
No person or other entity shall excavate or obstruct the public right-of-way or other public property for the delivery of utility or related services without first obtaining a franchise, license or lease from the City. The City shall not enter into or issue any franchise, license or lease that grants exclusive rights. An application for a license or lease shall be filed with the City Clerk on a form provided by the City and shall include as a minimum the following information: the name, address and telephone number of the applicant; the name, address and telephone number of a person whom the City may notify or contact at any time concerning the license or lease; an engineering site plan showing the proposed location of the facilities including any manholes, the size, type and proposed depth of any conduit or other enclosures; and any additional information the City may require. No license or lease required by this section shall be granted by the Council if the proposed use of public right-of-way or property would endanger public safety or not conform to standard engineering practices concerning placement or separation distances from other facilities in said right-of-way or public property.
1. Definitions. The following terms are defined for use in this section:
A. “Management costs” means the reasonable cost the City actually incurs in managing public rights-of-way.
B. “Public right-of-way” means the area on or below a public roadway, highway, street, bridge, cartway, bicycle lane, or public sidewalk in which the City has an interest, including other dedicated rights-of-way for travel purposes and utility easements. A public right-of-way does not include the airways above a public right-of-way in regard to cellular or other non-wired telecommunications or broadcasts service or utility poles owned by a local government or municipal utility.
C. “Public Utility” means a person owning or operating a facility used for furnishing natural gas by pipe distribution system, electricity, communication services not including cable television systems, or water by pipe distribution system, to the public for compensation.
2. The City shall not recover any fee from a public utility for the uses of its right-of-way, other than a fee for its management costs. The City may recover from a public utility those management costs caused by the public utility’s activity in the public right-of-way. A fee or other obligation under this section shall be imposed on a competitively neutral basis. When the City’s management costs cannot be attributed to only one entity, those costs shall be allocated among all users of the public rights-of-way, including the City itself. The allocation shall reflect proportionately the costs incurred by the City as a result of the various types of uses of the public right-of-way.
3. This section does not prohibit the collection of a franchise fee. If the City collects a franchise fee from an entity pursuant to Section 364.2(4) of the Code of Iowa, under an existing or future franchise, the City shall not also collect a management fee from that entity under this section.
4. In addition to the payment of the management costs, the franchisee, licensee, or lessee shall pay for all City costs when there is an excavation of a right-of-way. These costs shall include all City construction costs, costs for street degradation and replacement, obstructing and routing of pedestrian and vehicle traffic and $5.00 per square foot or fraction thereof for any concrete or asphalt cut.
5. All or part of these costs may be waived if work is done in conjunction with City construction.
The facilities, fixtures and equipment of the distribution, transmission or sale of any utility services, or services provided under franchise, license or lease or easement, shall be placed and maintained so as not to unnecessarily or unreasonably interfere with the travel on the streets, highways, avenues, alleys, bridges and public places in the City, nor shall such facilities, fixtures and equipment interfere with the proper use of the same, including, but not limited to, ordinary drainage, or the functioning of the sewers, underground pipe or other property of the City. In the event that facilities, fixtures and equipment of any person or other entity located within a public right-of-way must be relocated because of paving, road construction or road reconstruction, sewer construction or sewer reconstruction, or the construction or reconstruction of public drainage systems or similar public works or the construction or reconstruction of the facilities of any City-owned utility, such relocation, at the written request of the City, shall be completed by the owner of such facilities at the owner’s cost. The City shall upon request of any person or other entity holding a franchise, license or lease, review any plans for the construction of facilities, fixtures and equipment within the public right-of-way and advise the person or other entity of any conflict such construction may have with planned or anticipated public improvements, but failure of the City to so advise such person or other entity will not relieve the owner of such facilities of its obligations under this chapter. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the City Public Works Director may require placement of equipment or facilities belonging to any holder of a franchise, license or lease be limited to locations designated by the Public Works Director if such limitation is deemed by the Public Works Director to be necessary to protect the integrity or use of present and future users of the public right-of-way or other public property.
The holder of any franchise, license or lease shall indemnify and hold the City harmless at all times during the term of the franchise, license or lease from and against all claims for injury or damage to any person or property, including payments under workers’ compensation laws, caused by the construction, erection, operation or maintenance of its facilities, fixtures or equipment, or the negligence of its contractors or its employees. In case of any suit or action at law being commenced against the City, upon any claim for damage arising out of any loss, injury or damage claimed to have been caused by any installation, improvement, obstruction or excavation made or left in, under or upon such street, sidewalk, alley or public place by the holder of a franchise, license or lease, its agents, contractors or employees, upon being notified in writing by the City of such action or proceeding, the holder of said franchise, license or lease shall appear and make proper defense thereto at the expense of the holder of the franchise, license or lease; and if any judgment or decree shall in any such case be rendered against the City therein, the holder of said franchise, license or lease shall assume, pay and satisfy such judgment or decree, with the cost thereof. Immediately upon issuance of the franchise, license or lease, the holder of the franchise, license or lease shall purchase general liability insurance. The amount of insurance shall be a minimum of $1,000,000 with a maximum deductible of $5,000. The holder of the franchise, license or lease shall file with the Clerk a certificate of insurance which clearly discloses on its face coverage in conformity with these requirements. Upon request of the City, the holder of the franchise, license or lease shall submit a certified copy of the policy.
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