(a) Grant. Council may grant permission to any individual, company or corporation to construct and operate a public utility in the streets and public grounds of the City. It may prescribe the kind and quality of service or the product to be furnished, the rate or rates to be charged therefor, and any terms and conditions conducive to the public interest; and also the manner in which the streets and public grounds shall be used and occupied. Such grant or any amendment or renewal thereof shall be for such period of time as Council may determine, but it
shall not exceed a period of 25 years.
(b) Renewals. Council may renew any grant for the construction or operation of any utility, at its expiration, upon such tetms as may be conducive to the public interest. All such grants and renewals thereof may reserve to the City the right to purchase all the property of the utility in the streets and highways and elsewhere used in, or useful for, the operation of the utility, at a price either fixed by ordinance, or to be fixed in the manner provided by the ordinance making the grant or renewal of the grant. Nothing in such ordinance shall prevent the City from acquiring the property of any such utility by condemnation proceedings or in any other lawful mode; but all such methods of acquisition shall be alternative to the power to purchase, reserved in the grant or renewal as hereinbefore provided. No ordinance making such purchase shall be valid unless it shall expressly provide therein that the price to be paid by the City for the property that may be acquired by it from such utility by purchase, condemnation or otherwise, shall exclude all value of such grant or renewal. Upon the acquisition by the City of the property of any utility by purchase, condemnation or otherwise, all grants or renewals shall at once terminate.
(c) Extension. Council may grant to any individual, company or corporation operating a public utility, the right to extend the appliances and service of such utility. All such extensions shall become a part of the aggregate property of the utility, and shall be subject to all the obligations and reserved rights applicable to the property of the utility by virtue of the ordinance providing for its construction and operation. The right to use and maintain any such extension shall expire with the original grant of the utility to which the extension was made or any renewal thereof.
(d) Consents. No consent of the owner of property abutting on any highway or public ground shall be required by Council as a condition of its authority to authorize the construction, extension, maintenance or operation of any public utility by original grant or renewal.
(e) Regulations. All rights granted for the construction and operation of public utilities in the City shall be subject to both the additional, more specific regulations found within the Code and the continuing right of Council to require such reconstruction, relocation, change or discontinuance of the appliances used by the utility in the streets, alleys, avenues, and highways of the City, as shall in the opinion of Council be necessary in the public interest. In ordering any such reconstruction, relocation, change or discontinuance Council shall provide for such alteration in the rates for service and in the terms upon which purchase is authorized to be made by the City, as shall be necessary or equitable to protect the owner of the utility against loss of property value.
(Ord. 24-18. Passed 6-13-2018.)