The following definitions apply in this chapter:
ABANDONED FACILITY: | A facility no longer in service or physically disconnected from a portion of the operating facility, or from any other facility, that is in use or still carries service. A facility is not abandoned unless declared so by the right of way user. |
APPLICANT: | Any person requesting permission to excavate, obstruct, or otherwise place facilities in a right of way. |
CITY: | The city of Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota. For purposes of section 7-3-23 of this chapter, “city” means its elected officials, officers, employees and agents. |
COLLOCATE OR COLLOCATION: | To install, mount, maintain, modify, operate, or replace a small wireless facility on, under, within, or adjacent to an existing wireless support structure or utility pole that is owned privately, or by the City or other governmental unit. |
COMMISSION: | The State of Minnesota public utilities commission. |
CONGESTED RIGHT OF WAY: | A crowded condition in the subsurface of the public right of way that occurs when the maximum lateral spacing between existing underground facilities does not allow for construction of new underground facilities without using hand digging to expose the existing lateral facilities in conformance with Minnesota statutes section 216D.04, subdivision 3, over a continuous length in excess of five hundred feet (500'). |
CONSTRUCTION PERFORMANCE BOND: | Any of the following forms of security provided at permittee’s option: |
A. Individual project bond, including a license and permit bond. | |
B. Cash deposit. | |
C. Security of a form listed or approved under Minnesota statutes section 15.73, subdivision 2. | |
D. Letter of credit, in a form acceptable to the city. | |
E. Self-insurance, in a form acceptable to the city. | |
F. A blanket bond for projects within the city, or other form of construction bond, for a time specified and in a form acceptable to the city. | |
DEGRADATION: | A decrease in the useful life of the right of way caused by excavation in or disturbance of the right of way, resulting in the need to reconstruct such right of way earlier than would be required if the excavation or disturbance did not occur. |
DEGRADATION COST: | Subject to Minnesota rules 7819.1100, means the cost to achieve a level of restoration as determined by the city at the time the permit is issued, not to exceed the maximum restoration shown in plates 1 to 13 set forth in Minnesota rules parts 7819.9900 to 7819.9950. |
DEGRADATION FEE: | The estimated fee established at the time of permitting by the city to recover costs associated with the decrease in the useful life of the right of way caused by the excavation, and which equals the degradation cost. |
DELAY PENALTY: | The penalty imposed as a result of unreasonable delays in right of way excavation, obstruction, patching, or restoration as established by permit. |
DEPARTMENT: | The City’s Department of Public Works. |
DEPARTMENT INSPECTOR: | Any person authorized by the city to carry out inspections related to the provisions of this chapter. |
DIRECTOR: | The director of the department of public works of the city or her or his designee. |
EMERGENCY: | A condition that: |
A. Poses a danger to life or health, or of a significant loss of property; or | |
B. Requires immediate repair or replacement of facilities in order to restore service to a customer. | |
EQUIPMENT: | Any tangible asset used to install, repair, or maintain facilities in any right of way. |
EXCAVATE: | To dig into or in any way remove or physically disturb or penetrate any part of a right of way. |
FACILITY OR FACILITIES: | Tangible asset in the public right of way required to provide utility service. |
HIGH DENSITY CORRIDOR: | A designated portion of the public right of way within which telecommunications right of way users having multiple and competing facilities may be required to build and install facilities in a common conduit system or other common structure. |
HOLE: | An excavation in the right of way, with the excavation having a length less than the width of the pavement or adjacent pavement. |
LOCAL REPRESENTATIVE: | A local person or persons, or designee of such person or persons, authorized by a registrant to accept service and to make decisions for that registrant regarding all matters within the scope of this chapter. |
MANAGEMENT COSTS: | The actual costs the city incurs in managing its rights of way, including such costs, if incurred, as those associated with registering applicants; issuing, processing, and verifying right of way or small wireless facility permit applications; inspecting job sites and restoration projects; maintaining, supporting, protecting, or moving user facilities during right of way work; determining the adequacy of right of way restoration; restoring work inadequately performed after providing notice and the opportunity to correct the work; mapping of as built location of facilities located in the right of way; revoking right of way or small wireless facility permits; and performing all other tasks required by this chapter, including other costs the city may incur in managing matters described in this chapter. Management costs do not include payment by a telecommunications right of way user for the use of the right of way, unreasonable fees of a third-party contractor used by the City including fees tied to or based on customer counts, access lines, or revenues generated by the right of way or for the city; the fees and costs of litigation relating to the interpretation of; Minnesota statutes sections 237.162 or 237.163 or any ordinance enacted under those sections, or the city fees and costs related to appeals taken pursuant to section 7-3-25 of this chapter. |
OBSTRUCT: | To place any tangible object in a right of way so as to hinder free and open passage over that or any part of the right of way, or so as to hinder maintenance of any City asset. |
OBSTRUCTION PERMIT: | The permit which, pursuant to this chapter, must be obtained before a person may obstruct a right of way, allowing the holder to hinder free and open passage over the specified portion of that right of way, for the duration specified therein, including a blanket permit for a period of time and for types of work specified by the director, if deemed appropriate in their discretion. |
OBSTRUCTION PERMIT FEE: | Money paid to the city by a permittee to cover the costs as provided in section 7-3-7-3 of this chapter. |
PATCH OR PATCHING: | A method of pavement replacement that is temporary in nature. A patch consists of: |
A. The compaction of the subbase and aggregate base; and | |
B. The replacement, in kind, of the existing pavement for a minimum of two feet (2') beyond the edges of the excavation in all directions. | |
PAVEMENT: | Any type of improved surface that is within the public right of way and that is paved or otherwise constructed with paver blocks, bituminous, concrete, aggregate, or gravel. |
PERMIT: | Has the meaning given “right of way permit” in this chapter. |
PERMITTEE: | Any person to whom a permit to excavate or obstruct a right of way has been granted by the city under this chapter. |
PERSON: | An individual or entity subject to the laws and rules of this state, however organized, whether public or private, whether domestic or foreign, whether for profit or nonprofit, and whether natural, corporate, or political. |
PUBLIC RIGHT OF WAY OR RIGHT OF WAY: | Has the meaning given thereto in Minnesota statutes section 237.162, subdivision 3. |
REGISTRANT: | Any person who: |
A. Has or seeks to have its equipment or facilities located in any right of way; or | |
B. In any way occupies or uses, or seeks to occupy or use, the right of way or place its facilities or equipment in the right of way. | |
RESTORE OR RESTORATION: | The process by which an excavated right of way and surrounding area, including pavement and foundation, is returned to the same condition and life expectancy that existed before excavation. |
RESTORATION COST: | The amount of money paid to the City by a permittee to achieve the level of restoration according to plates 1 to 13 of Minnesota Public Utilities Commission rules. |
RIGHT OF WAY PERMIT: | Either the utility permit or the obstruction permit, or both, depending on the context, required by this chapter. |
RIGHT OF WAY USER: | A. A telecommunications right of way user as defined by Minnesota statutes section 237.162, subdivision 4; or |
B. A person owning or controlling a facility in the right of way that is used or intended to be used for providing utility service, and who has a right, under law, franchise, or ordinance, to use the public right of way. | |
SERVICE LATERAL: | An underground facility that is used to transmit, distribute, or furnish gas, electricity, communications, or water from a common source to an end use customer. A service lateral is also an underground facility that is used in the removal of wastewater from a customer’s premises. |
SERVICE OR UTILITY SERVICE: | Means and includes: |
A. Those services provided by a public utility, as defined in Minnesota statutes section 216B.02, subdivisions 4 and 6; | |
B. Services of a telecommunications right of way user, including transporting of voice or data information; | |
C. Services of a cable communications system as defined in Minnesota statutes chapter 238; | |
D. Natural gas or electric energy or telecommunications services provided by the city; | |
E. Services provided by a cooperative electric association organized under Minnesota statutes chapter 308A; and | |
F. Water and sewer, including service laterals, steam, cooling or heating services. | |
SMALL WIRELESS FACILITY: | A wireless facility that meets both of the following qualifications: |
A. Each antenna is located inside an enclosure of no more than six (6) cubic feet in volume or could fit within such an enclosure; and | |
B. All other wireless equipment associated with the small wireless facility provided such equipment is, in aggregate, no more than twenty-eight (28) cubic feet in volume, not including electric meters, concealment elements, telecommunications demarcation boxes, battery backup power systems, grounding equipment, power transfer switches, cutoff switches, cable, conduit, vertical cable runs for the connection of power and other services, and any equipment concealed from public view within or behind an existing structure or concealment. | |
SUPPLEMENTARY APPLICATION: | An application made to excavate or obstruct more of the right of way than allowed in, or to extend, a permit that has already been issued. |
TELECOMMUNICATIONS RIGHT OF WAY USER: | A person owning or controlling a facility in the right of way, or seeking to own or control a facility in the right of way that is used or is intended to be used for providing wireless service, or transporting telecommunication or other voice or data information. For purposes of this chapter, a cable communication system, defined and regulated under Minnesota statutes chapter 238, and telecommunications activities related to providing natural gas or electric energy services, a public utility as defined in Minnesota statutes section 216B.02, a municipality, a municipal gas or power agency organized under Minnesota statutes chapters 453 and 453A, or a cooperative electric association organized under Minnesota statutes chapter 308A, are not telecommunications right of way users for purposes of this chapter except to the extent such entity is offering wireless service. |
TEMPORARY SURFACE: | The compaction of subbase and aggregate base and replacement, in kind, of the existing pavement only to the edges of the excavation. |
TRENCH: | An excavation in the right of way, with the excavation having a length equal to or greater than the width of the pavement or adjacent pavement. |
UTILITY PERMIT: | The permit which, pursuant to this chapter, must be obtained before a person may excavate in a right of way. A utility permit allows the holder to excavate that part of the right of way described in such permit. |
UTILITY PERMIT FEE: | Money paid to the city by an applicant to cover the costs as provided in section 7-3-7-3 of this chapter. |
UTILITY POLE: | A pole that is used in whole or in part to facilitate telecommunications or electric service. |
WIRELESS FACILITY: | Equipment at a fixed location that enables the provision of wireless services between user equipment and a wireless service network, including equipment associated with wireless service, a radio transceiver, antenna, coaxial or fiber-optic cable, regular and backup power supplies, and a small wireless facility, but not including wireless support structures, wireline backhaul facilities, or cables between utility poles or wireless support structures, or not otherwise immediately adjacent to and directly associated with a specific antenna. |
WIRELESS SERVICE: | Any service using licensed or unlicensed wireless spectrum, including the use of Wi-Fi, whether at a fixed location or by means of a mobile device, that is provided using wireless facilities. Wireless service does not include services regulated under Title VI of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, including cable service. |
WIRELESS SUPPORT STRUCTURE: | A new or existing structure in a right-of-way designed to support or capable of supporting small wireless facilities, as reasonably determined by the city. (Ord. 1174, 4-28-2008; amd. Ord. 1424, - -2022) |