The City Council makes the following findings and adopts the following statement of purposes:
1. The City’s street and alley rights-of-way are owned or held by the City primarily for the purpose of pedestrian and vehicular passage and for the City’s provision of essential public safety services, including police, fire, and emergency medical response services; and public health services, including sanitary sewer, water, and storm drainage services.
2. Pedestrian and vehicular passage and the public safety and public health services mentioned in subsection 1 of this section should in all cases be considered and treated as the dominant and preeminent uses of public rights-of-way.
3. All other uses of public rights-of-way, including use for the provision of utility services, private communication services, and private utility services, must in all cases be subordinate to the use of the rights-of-way for pedestrian and vehicular passage and for the provision of the public safety and public health services mentioned in subsection 1 of this section.
4. In order to provide for the health, safety, and well-being of its citizens, as well as to ensure the structural integrity of its streets and the use of the rights-of-way, the City strives to keep its rights-of-way in a state of good repair and free from unnecessary encumbrances. Although the general population bears the financial burden for the upkeep of the rights-of-way, a primary cause for the early and excessive deterioration of its rights-of-way is their frequent excavation by persons whose equipment is located therein.
5. Right-of-way obstructions disrupt the flow of vehicular and pedestrian traffic and are a source of frustration for merchants, business owners, and the general population who either incur travel delays due to such obstructions or who must change travel plans to avoid such obstructions. Persons whose equipment is located within the right-of-way are a primary cause of these frequent obstructions.
6. The City recognizes that it holds the rights-of-way within its geographical boundaries as an asset in trust for its citizens. The City and other public entities have invested millions of dollars in public funds to acquire, build, and maintain the right-of-way. It also recognizes that some persons, by placing their equipment in the right-of-way and charging the citizens of the City for goods and services delivered thereby, are using for private gain this property held by the City for the public good. Although such services are often necessary or convenient for the citizens, such persons receive revenue and/or profit through their use of public property.
7. The City Council finds that it is in the public interest to provide for the payment of right-of-way permit fees by all persons using and occupying the right-of-way for the purpose of operating their businesses. This provides equity by requiring all non-City users of the right-of-way to pay compensation to the City so that it may recoup the costs imposed on the City attributable to such use.