(a) The purpose and intent of this chapter is to:
(1) Manage occupancy or use of the public right-of-way.
(2) Encourage the provision of advanced, competitive telecommunications services on the widest possible basis to the businesses, institutions and residents of the City.
(3) Permit and manage reasonable access to the public right-of-way of the City for telecommunications service purposes on a competitively neutral basis.
(4) Conserve the limited physical capacity of the public right-of-way held in trust by the City for the benefit of the public.
(5) Assure that the City receives cost recovery for the occupancy and use of the public right-of-way in accordance with law.
(6) Assure that all service providers with facilities in the public right-of-way comply with the ordinances, rules and regulations of the City.
(7) Assure that the City fairly and responsibly protects the public health, safety and welfare.
(8) Enable the City to discharge its public trust consistent with rapidly evolving Federal and State regulatory policies, industry competition and technological development.
(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) "Accessory equipment" means any equipment used in conjunction with a wireless facility or wireless support structure or small cell facility. "Accessory equipment" includes utility or transmission equipment, power storage, generation or control equipment, cables, wiring, and equipment cabinets.
(2) "Affiliate" means a person that (directly or indirectly) owns or controls, is owned or controlled by, or is under common ownership or control with another person.
(3) "Antenna" means a system of electrical conductors that transmit or receive electromagnetic waves or radio frequency signals. Such waves shall include, but not be limited to, radio, television, cellular, paging, personal telecommunications service, internet, and microwave telecommunications.
(4) "Capital improvement" means an addition made to enhance the value or extend the useful life of an existing system or facilities, including construction, reconstruction, installation, rehabilitation, renovation, improvement, enlargement and extension of facilities, but not including ordinary or routine maintenance.
(5) "City" means the City of North Royalton, Ohio.
(6) "City property" means and includes all real property owned by the City, other than public streets and public easements, and all property held in a proprietary capacity by the City, which are not subject to public right-of-way consent and requirements of this chapter.
(7) "Collocation" or "collocate" means to install, mount, maintain, modify, operate, or replace a wireless facility on a wireless support structure.
(8) "Construct", "constructing", "construction", etc. means installing, repairing, replacing or removing any facility, regardless of the methods employed.
(9) "Emergency" means an unforeseen occurrence or condition calling for immediate action.
(10) "Engineer" means the Engineer of the City or Engineer's designee.
(11) "Excavate", "excavating" or "excavation" means cutting, sawing, breaking, drilling into, boring under, or otherwise altering any public street or sidewalk pavement, and/or digging, drilling into or boring under any unpaved portion of the public right-of-way, including any other work or activity which disturbs the existing surface or subsurface structure, composition, or soil compaction, for the purpose of carrying on any construction activity.
(12) "Facilities" or "facility" means the plant, equipment and property, including but not limited to accessory equipment, antenna, cables, fibers, wires, pipes, conduits, ducts, pedestals, antennae, electronics, poles, pipes, mains, plant, equipment and other appurtenances located under, on or above the surface of the ground in the public right-of-way of the City for a small cell facility.
(13) "Lane obstruction" means the blocking or diverting of vehicular and/or pedestrian traffic from a street or sidewalk for the purpose of constructing, excavating, installing, repairing, maintaining, operating, replacing or removing any facility, including (A) the lifting or removing of manhole or handhole covers, and (B) the opening or accessing of at-grade or pole-mounted cabinets, pedestals, transformers, power supplies, amplifiers, splice enclosures, traps or other facilities.
(14) "Micro wireless facility" means a small cell facility that is not more than twenty-four inches in length, fifteen inches in width, and twelve inches in height and that does not have an exterior antenna more than eleven inches in length suspended on cable strung between wireless support structures.
(15) "Monopole" means a support structure constructed of a single, self-supporting hollow metal tube securely anchored to a foundation.
(16) "Occupancy", "occupy" or "use" means, with respect to the public right-of-way, to place a tangible thing in the public right-of-way for any purpose, including, but not limited to, constructing, repairing, positioning, maintaining or operating lines, poles, pipes, conduits, ducts, equipment or other structures, appurtenances or facilities.
(17) "Overhead facilities" means utility poles and wires, cables and other such equipment running between and on such poles, including the underground supports and foundations for such facilities.
(18) "Person" means and includes corporations, companies, associations, joint stock companies or associations, firms, partnerships, limited liability companies, trusts, public utility, any other entity, and individuals and includes their lessors, trustees and receivers; but specifically excludes the City itself.
(19) "Private service provider" means any person who, pursuant to the consent to occupy or use the public right- of-way pursuant to Section 883.02, directly or indirectly owns, controls, operates or manages a small cell facility and wireless support structure within the City's public right-of-way used or to be used for the purpose of transmitting, receiving, distributing or providing telecommunications or wireless services.
(20) "Public 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.
(21) "Public street" means the paved and unpaved portion of any street, road, boulevard, drives, highway, freeway, parkway, lane court, alley or other public right-of-way in which the City has an interest in law or equity and which has been acquired, established, dedicated or devoted to street purposes.
(22) "Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO)" means the State Administrative agency, or successor, authorized to regulate and oversee certain public or private service providers and services in the State of Ohio.
(23) "Reconstruct", "reconstruction", etc. means substantial physical change to all or a portion of an existing facility or system involving construction in public streets, utility easements, or public right-of-way.
(24) "Routine maintenance" means repair, upkeep, replacement or restoration of existing facilities located in the public right-of-way that requires no more than one working day to complete, is not an emergency and does not include excavation of the public right-of-way.
(25) "Service provider" means any private service provider.
(26) "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 that has exposed elements, the antenna and all of its exposed elements could fit within an enclosure of not more than six cubic feet in volume.
B. All other wireless equipment associated with the facility is cumulatively not more than twenty-eight 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.
(27) "State" means the State of Ohio.
(28) "Utility pole" means a structure that is designed for, or used for the purpose of, carrying lines, cables, or wires for electric or telecommunications services.
(29) "Wireless facility" means equipment at a fixed location that enables wireless communications between user equipment and a communications network, including all of the following:
A. Equipment associated with wireless communications.
B. Radio transceivers, antennas, coaxial or fiber-optic cable, regular and backup power supplies, and comparable equipment, regardless of technological configuration.
C. The term includes small cell facilities.
D. The term does not include any of the following:
1. The structure or improvements on, under, or within which the equipment is collocated;
2. Coaxial or fiber-optic cable that is between wireless support structures or utility poles or that is otherwise not immediately adjacent to or directly associated with a particular antenna.
(30) "Wireless service" means any services using licensed or unlicensed wireless spectrum, whether at a fixed location or mobile, provided using wireless facilities.
(31) "Wireless support structure" means a pole, such as a monopole, either guyed or self-supporting, street light pole, traffic signal pole, a fifteen foot or taller sign pole, or utility pole capable of supporting a small cell facility. 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.
B. A utility pole or other facility used to supply traction power to public transit systems, including railways, trams, streetcars, and trolleybuses.
(Ord. 18-94. Passed 9-4-18.)