(A) Permit required.
(1) A person may not occupy, use, or engage in any work related to a facility in a public street without first obtaining a permit from the Department. If other law limits the County Commissioners’ ability to require a permit, this division (A) shall be construed to require a request and all other requirements of this subchapter shall apply to the request.
(2) The issuance of a permit does not relieve the applicant from obtaining any other legal authority that may be necessary to occupy or use the public street or from complying with a franchise, license, or other such agreement.
(B) Permit applications.
(1) An application for a permit shall be submitted in the format and manner specified by the Department.
(2) The Director may approve, conditionally approve, or deny an application for a permit.
(3) If an application is approved, the Director shall issue a permit to the applicant.
(4) If an application is conditionally approved, the Director may condition the permit with specified requirements that preserve and maintain the public health, safety, welfare, and convenience.
(5) If an application is denied, the Director shall advise the applicant by a written, electronic, or facsimile communication of the basis for the denial. The applicant shall have the right to appeal the denial of a permit to the County Commissioners within ten days of the date of the denial. The request for appeal shall be made in writing and received on or before the tenth day. A date and time will be set for an appeal hearing and will be held before the County Commissioners or a Board of Appeals appointed by the County Commissioners.
(6) When the county, in its capacity as a utility, engages in any work that includes an excavation in the paved portion of a public street, the county shall keep a record of the date, location, purpose, and size of the excavation.
(C) Maintenance permits.
(1) The Director may issue a maintenance permit on an annual basis to a utility instead of issuing individual permits for work in the public streets covered by the maintenance permit.
(2) A maintenance permit covers:
(a) Emergency work in the paved or unpaved area of the public streets that is necessary for the preservation of life, health, or property or for the restoration of interrupted service; and
(b) The nonemergency work, excluding excavations in or under the paved public streets, that is specified in the permit, which may include:
1. Work that makes no material change to the footprint of the facility or to the surface or subsurface of a public street but disturbs or impedes traffic on a local road;
2. Abandoning facilities;
3. Replacing overhead poles;
4. New individual services to a residence or building from existing facilities that are on the same side of the public streets, so long as the work related to the service does not exceed 300 feet; and
5. Directional boring under sidewalks and driveway aprons.
(D) Duration and validity; non-transferability.
(1) A permit other than a maintenance permit shall expire 90 days after issuance, but the Department may extend the expiration date for good cause.
(2) A permit is not transferrable.
(E) Permit to excavate in recently paved public streets. The Director may not issue a permit to excavate in a public street that was reconstructed, repaved, or resurfaced in the preceding two-year period, unless the Director finds good cause for issuance, such as (without limitation) an emergency or a finding that the excavation facilitates the deployment of new technology.
(F) Permit to be available at site. A permit or a copy of the permit shall be available for review upon request (at the work site or via a website accessible to the Department) for the duration of the work allowed by the permit.
(G) Notification and diligent prosecution. For work authorized by a permit, a permittee shall notify the Department each day that work is performed and shall prosecute the work diligently to its conclusion.
(2004 Code, § 92-2) (Ord. 08-11, passed 12-18-2008)