All providers utilizing wireless towers or antennas shall present a report to the City or its designee notifying them of any wireless tower or antenna located in the City whose use will be discontinued and the date this use will cease. If at any time the use of said facility is discontinued for 180 days the City Manager may declare the facility abandoned (excluding any dormancy period between construction and the initial use of the facility). The facility's owner/operator will receive written notice from the City or its designee and be instructed to either reactivate the facility's use within 180 days or dismantle or remove the facility. In the case of a multi-use tower, this provision shall not become effective until all of the users cease to use the tower. However, the City may cause the abandoned portions of the systems on the multi-use tower to be removed in accordance with this section.
(a) Removal. The owner or operator shall agree to remove a nonfunctioning facility within 180 days of ceasing its use and return the site to its pre-existing condition.
(b) Notice Requirements. The City must provide the tower or antenna owner or operator ninety days notice and an opportunity to be heard before the Planning and Zoning Commission before the City can initiate removal of the facility. After such notice the City shall have the authority to initiate proceedings either to acquire the tower and any appurtenances attached thereto at the then fair market value, or, in the alternative, to order the demolition of said tower and all appurtenances.
(c) Public Hearing. The City shall provide the tower owner with the right to a public hearing before the Planning and Zoning Commission, which public hearing shall follow the ninety days notice required in subsection (b) hereof. All interested parties shall be allowed an opportunity to be heard at the public hearing.
(d) Acquisition/Removal of Tower. After a public hearing is held pursuant to subsection (c) hereof, the Planning and Zoning Commission may order the acquisition or demolition of the tower. The City shall also exercise its rights related to any bonding requirements stated in subsection (e) hereof.
(e) Bond. The owner or operator shall be required as a condition of issuance of a permit to post a cash or surety bond acceptable to the Law Director of not less than one hundred dollars ($100.00) per vertical foot from natural grade of the wireless communications facility. Said bond shall warrant that an abandoned, obsolete or destroyed wireless communications facility will be removed within 180 days of cessation of use and abandonment. If the wireless communications facility is not removed within 180 days of cessation of use or abandonment, the owner or operator shall forfeit this bond, but the obligation to remove the wireless communications facility and restore the site to its pre-existing condition shall remain. In the event that said facility is not removed within 180 days of cessation of operations at a site, the facilities may be acquired or removed by the City and the costs of removal assessed against the property or recovered by other legal means from the owner or operator. Any co-locator shall be required to additionally execute such bond, as principal, to insure that the bond will be in place during the period of time that the co-locator occupies the tower.
(Ord. 2014-27. Passed 8-5-14.)