(A) Permit required.
(1) No person shall construct (as defined in this chapter) any facility on, over, above, along, upon, under, across or within any county right-of-way which:
(a) Changes the location of the facility;
(b) Adds a new facility;
(c) Disrupts the right-of-way (as defined in this chapter); or
(d) Materially increases the amount of area or space occupied by the facility on, over, above, along, under across or within the right-of-way, without first filing an application with the County Engineer and obtaining a permit from the county therefor, except as otherwise provided in this chapter.
(2) No permit shall be required for installation and maintenance of service connections to customers premises where there will be no disruption of the right-of-way.
(B) Permit application. All applications for permits pursuant to this chapter shall be filed on a form provided by the county and shall be filed in such number of duplicate copies as the county may designate. The applicant may designate those portions of its application materials that it reasonably believes contain proprietary or confidential information as “proprietary” or “confidential”, as and to the extent permitted by the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, by clearly marking each page of such materials accordingly. The county shall take reasonable care to protect said information, though will not be held liable to the applicant or any other party for any damages of any nature whatsoever arising from its release. The county makes no representation, warranty, or guaranty that the information will remain confidential under the FOIA, and the county makes not promise or commitment that it will expend legal fees or other resources associated with a court action or other administrative proceeding that may arise out of a FOIA request denial for such information, or otherwise.
(C) Minimum general application requirements. The application shall be made by the utility or its duly authorized representative and shall contain, at a minimum, the following:
(1) The utility’s name and address and telephone and telecopy numbers;
(2) The applicant’s name and address, if different than the utility, its telephone, telecopy numbers, e-mail address and its interest in the work;
(3) The names, addresses and telephone and telecopy numbers and e-mail addresses of all professional consultants, if any, advising the applicant with respect to the application;
(4) The names, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses of all on-site emergency contacts for the duration of the proposed work;
(5) A general description of the proposed work and the purposes and intent of the facility and the uses to which the facility will be put. The scope and detail of such description shall be appropriate to the nature and character of the work to be performed, with special emphasis on those matters likely to be affected or impacted by the work proposed;
(6) Drawings, plans and specifications showing the work proposed. The County Engineer may require the certification of an engineer that such drawings, plans and specifications comply with applicable codes, rules and regulations;
(7) Evidence of insurance as required in § 115.07 of this chapter;
(8) Evidence of posting of the security fund as required in § 115.09 of this chapter;
(9) Any request for a variance from one or more provisions of this chapter (see § 115.20); and
(10) Such additional information as may be reasonably required by the county.
(D) Supplemental application requirements, for specific types of utilities. In addition to the requirements of division (C) of this section, the permit application shall include the following items, as applicable to the specific utility that is the subject of the permit application:
(1) In the case of the installation of a new electric power, communications, telecommunications, cable television service, video service or natural gas distribution system, evidence that any certificate of public convenience and necessity or other regulatory authorization that the applicant is required by law to obtain or that the applicant has elected to obtain, has been issued by the ICC or other jurisdictional authority;
(2) In the case of natural gas systems, state the proposed pipe size, design, construction class and operating pressures;
(3) In the case of water lines, indicate that all requirements of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, Division of Public Water Supplies, have been satisfied;
(4) In the case of sewer line installations, indicate that the land and water pollution requirements of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, Division of Water Pollution Control, has been satisfied; or
(5) In the case of petroleum products pipelines, state the type or types of petroleum products, pipe size, maximum working pressure and the design standard to be followed.
(E) Applicant’s duty to update information. Throughout the entire permit application review period and the construction period authorized by the permit, any amendments to information contained in a permit application shall be submitted by the utility in writing to the county within 30 days after the change necessitating the amendment, excepting on-site emergency contacts, which shall be updated immediately.
(F) Application fees. Unless otherwise provided by franchise, license or similar agreement, all applications for permits pursuant to this chapter shall be accompanied by a fee not to exceed $1,000. The fee will be determined by the County Engineer and will be based on the anticipated administrative costs to the county. No application fee is required to be paid by any electricity utility that is paying the municipal electricity infrastructure maintenance fee pursuant to the Electricity Infrastructure Maintenance Fee Act.
(Ord. 2013-03, passed 3-20-2013; Ord. 2024-04, passed 5-15-2024) Penalty, see § 115.99