(a) The purpose of these design guidelines is to:
(1) Provide standards for the construction, installation, modification, operation, and removal of facilities and wireless support structures in the City's right-of-ways to protect the health, safety, and general welfare of the citizens of the City;
(2) Preserve the character of the City, including the City's neighborhoods, downtown, and historic districts, and protect property values;
(3) Strike a balance between preserving the character of the City and enabling wireless telecommunications providers to deploy small cell facilities and wireless support structures so that residents, businesses, and visitors benefit from efficient wireless service availability through careful location, design, siting, landscaping, and camouflaging to blend these facilities into the environment;
(4) Give guidance to wireless telecommunications providers to assist such companies in the timely, efficient, safe, and aesthetically-pleasing installation of facilities and wireless support structures; and
(5) To exercise the City's home rule authority and, to the extent legally permitted, not to conflict with or preempt applicable state and Federal laws.
(b) For the purpose of this chapter, and the interpretation and enforcement thereof, the following words and phrases shall have the following meanings, unless the context of the sentence in which they are used shall indicate otherwise:
(1) "Applicant" means any person or entity who submits an application pursuant to these design guidelines and Chapter 1030 of the City's Codified Ordinances.
(2) "Application'' means all necessary documentation submitted by an applicant to obtain a small cell use permit from the City to collocate a small cell facility and/or to construct, maintain, modify, operate, or replace a wireless support structure.
(3) ''Accessory equipment" means equipment used in conjunction with a small cell facility and generally at the same location as the small cell facility, including but not limited to, electric meters, concealment elements, telecommunications demarcation boxes, grounding equipment, power transfer switches, cut-off switches, and vertical cable runs.
(4) "Antenna" means required towers and locations to include, but not limited to:
A. Tall sites: lattice towers, monopoles, tall building roof mounts, steeples, bell towers, water towers;
B. Medium sites: monopoles, roof mounts, stadium lighting, flag poles, and other required infill structures;
C. Small sites: street light poles, building mounts, utility poles, mast antennas, roof mounts, flagpoles, and other unique sites (micro cells, nano cells, distributed antenna systems, microcell networks).
(5) "City" means the City of Maple Heights.
(6) "Collocation" or "collocate" means to install, mount, maintain, modify, operate, or replace wireless facilities on a wireless support structure.
(7) "Design guidelines" means the standards applicable to small cell equipment and wireless support structures in the right-of-ways established in this chapter and promulgated by the Chief Building Official, in accordance with H.B. 478 and R.C. Chapter 4939, to describe:
A. Written design guidelines with objective, technologically feasible criteria that reasonably match the aesthetics and character of the City and City Historic District(s) including location, appearance, and concealment;
B. Space reserved in the City public way or right-of-way or on a wireless support structure or pole if owned by the City;
C. Restrictions for support structures and collocated antennas up to 40 feet, or 35 feet or less as required by City zoning laws;
D. Reasonable requirements for financial surety to ensure removal of abandoned or unused facilities or damage to City property caused by operator or agent;
E. Process for withholding, denying, or delaying City consent based on an operator's failure to possess financial, technical and managerial resources to protect the City's health, safety and welfare;
F. Priorities for access to or occupancy of the City right-of-way or public way when the right-of-way or public way cannot accommodate all users, so that priorities are not unduly discriminatory and are competitively neutral;
G. Documentation of existing and planned facilities, topography, living organisms/tree canopy, structures, utilities, buildings, and infrastructures in place at time of permits.
(8) "Facilities" means small cell facilities, accessory equipment, and wireless support structures.
(9) "Facilities operator" means the person or entity responsible for the installation, operation, maintenance, replacement, and modification of facilities. Facilities operator includes:
A. Operators;
B. Applicants who applied for consent to collocate a small cell facility or to construct, maintain, modify, operate, or replace a new wireless support structure pursuant to R.C. § 4939.031(E) and who have obtained a small cell use permit; and
C. Applicants who applied for consent to collocate a small cell facility or to construct, maintain, modify, operate, or replace a new wireless support structure pursuant to R.C. § 4939.033 and who have obtained a small cell use permit.
(10) "Historic district" means a building, property, or site, or group of buildings, properties, or sites that are any of the following:
A. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places or formally determined eligible for listing by the Keeper of the National Register; the individual who has been delegated the authority by the Federal agency to list properties and determine their eligibility for the National Register, in accordance with section VI.D. 1 .a.i-v of the nationwide programmatic agreement codified at 47 C.F.R. part 1, Appendix C;
B. A registered historic district as defined in R.C. § 149.311;
C. An area identified and recognized by the City as a historic area/district.
(11) "Operator" means a wireless service provider, cable operator, or video service provider that operates a small cell facility and provides wireless information services as defined in the "Telecommunications Act of 1996," 110 Stat. 59, 47 U.S.C. 153(20), and that are fixed in nature or use unlicensed spectrum.
(12) "Public way" or "right-of-way" means the surface of, and the space within, through, on, across, above, or below, any public street, public road, public highway, public freeway, public lane, public path, public alley, public court, public sidewalk, public boulevard, public parkway, public drive, public easement, and any other land dedicated or otherwise designated for a comparable public use, which is owned or controlled by the City or other public entity or political subdivision.
(13) "Small cell equipment" means a small cell facility and all accessory equipment.
(14) "Small cell facility" means a wireless facility that meets both of the following requirements:
A. Each antenna is located inside an enclosure of not more than six cubic feet in volume or, in the case of an antenna with exposed elements, the antenna and all of its exposed elements can fit within an enclosure of not more than six cubic feet in volume; and
B. All other wireless equipment associated with the facility is cumulatively not more than 28 cubic feet in volume. The calculation of equipment volume shall not include electric meters, concealment elements, telecommunications demarcation boxes, grounding equipment, power transfer switches, cut-off switches, and vertical cable runs for the connection of power and other services.
(15) "Small cell use permit" means the permit granted by the City authorizing an applicant to collocate a small cell facility or to construct, maintain, modify, operate, or replace a wireless support structure in the right-of-way.
(16) "Substantial modification" means a change to existing facilities, measured from the facilities as originally permitted (including any modifications that were reviewed and approved by the City prior to the enactment of the Federal Spectrum Act on February 22, 2012) that includes:
A. Increasing the height of the wireless support structure by more than ten percent or more than ten feet, whichever is greater;
B. Adding an appurtenance to the body of the wireless support structure that would protrude from the edge of the structure by more than six feet;
C. Installing more than the standard number of new equipment cabinets for the technology involved, not to exceed four cabinets;
D. Installation of any new equipment cabinets in the ground if there are no pre-existing ground cabinets associated with the structure, or the installation of ground cabinets that are more than ten percent larger in height overall volume than other ground cabinets associated with the structure; and/or
E. Any excavation or deployment outside the current site.
F. Removal of any concealment elements from the site.
(17) "Underground area" means an area in the right-of-way where existing electric utilities, cable facilities, telecommunications facilities and other facilities, other than structures and facilities owned by the City or a transit authority, are located underground.
(18) "Wireless support structure" means a pole, such as a monopole, either guyed or self-supporting, street light pole, traffic signal pole, a 15-foot or taller sign pole, or utility pole capable of supporting small cell facilities. As used in this chapter, "wireless support structure" excludes all of the following:
A. A utility pole or other facility owned or operated by a municipal electric utility; and
B. A utility pole or other facility used to supply traction power to public transit systems, including railways, trams, streetcars, and trolleybuses.
(Ord. 2018-50. Passed 8-1-18.)