163.05 APPLICATION REVIEW TIMEFRAMES AND PROCESS.
(a) Permit Application Review Timeframes.
(1) Collocation of Small Cell Facilities on Existing Wireless Support Structures. The City shall grant or deny its consent for requests to collocate, or to replace or modify a small cell facility on or associated with an existing wireless support structure not later than ninety days after the date of filing by a person of a completed application.
(2) New Wireless Support Structure and Associated Small Cell Facilities. The City shall grant or deny its consent for requests to construct, modify, or replace a wireless support structure associated with a small cell facility within the right-of-way not later than one hundred twenty days after the date of filing by a person of a complete application.
(3) Wireless Support Structure and/or Small Cell Facilities Removal. The City shall grant or deny its consent for requests to remove wireless support structures associated with small cell facilities from the right-of-way not later than sixty days after the date of filing by a person of a complete application.
(4) Eligible Facilities Request. The City shall approve Eligible Facilities Requests not later than sixty days after the date of filing by a person a completed application. Eligible Facilities Requests are further explained in the Design Guidelines.
(b) Failure to Grant or Deny Within Prescribed Timeframes. If the City fails to approve or deny a request for consent under this Section, provided the time period is not tolled under 163.05(d) or extended with the written consent of the applicant and the Director of Public Works, the request shall be deemed granted upon the requesting entity providing notice to the City that the time period for acting on the request has lapsed.
(c) Application Denials.
(1) The City shall not unreasonably withhold or deny consent for small cell facilities and wireless support structures within the right-of-way.
(2) If a request for consent is denied, the City shall provide in writing its reasons for denying the request, supported by substantial, competent evidence, and such information as the applicant may reasonably request to obtain consent. The denial of consent shall not unreasonably discriminate against the person requesting the consent.
(3) Except in the case of a public utility subject to the jurisdiction and recognized on the rolls of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio or of a cable operator possessing a valid franchise awarded pursuant to the "Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984," 98 Stat. 2779, 47 U.S.C.A. 541, the City, for good cause shown, may withhold, deny, or delay its consent to any person based upon the person's failure to possess the financial, technical, and managerial resources necessary to protect the public health, safety, and welfare.
(d) Tolling of Timeframes.
(1) The time periods required in Section 163.05(a) may be tolled only:
A. By mutual agreement between the person requesting consent and the City;
B. In cases where the City determines that the application is incomplete; or
C. If the number of requests received by the City for consent for either small cell facilities or wireless support structures is likely to result in difficulty processing applications within the time limits set forth in Section 163.05(a) due to the lack of resources of the City, then the City may toll the time limits as follows:
(i) For up to twenty-one days for the first fifteen such requests received by the City above fifteen applications for either small cell facilities or wireless support structures received within any consecutive thirty-day period;
(ii) For every additional fifteen requests that the City receives above the first fifteen requests, the City may toll the time period for those requests for up to fifteen additional days above the twenty-one initial tolling period.
(2) In no instance shall the City toll the time period for any small cell facility or wireless support structure request by more than ninety consecutive days. Upon request, the City shall provide an operator written notice of the time limit for a small cell facility or wireless support structure request.
(3) To toll the time period for incompleteness, the City shall provide written notice to the person requesting consent not later than thirty days after receiving the request, clearly and specifically delineating all missing documents or information. The missing documents or information shall be reasonably related to determining whether the request meets the requirements of this Chapter. Any notice of incompleteness requiring other information or documentation, including information of the type described in Section 4939.0313 of the Ohio Revised Code or documentation intended to illustrate the need for the request or to justify the business decision for the request, in accordance with state and federal law, does not toll the time period.
(4) The time period for granting or denying consent resumes when the entity makes a supplemental submission in response to the City's notice of incompleteness.
(5) If a supplemental submission is inadequate, the City shall notify the entity not later than ten days after receiving the supplemental submission that the supplemental submission did not provide the information identified in the original notice that delineated missing documents or information. The time period may be tolled in the case of second or subsequent notices under the procedures in this Section. Second or subsequent notices of incompleteness may not specify missing documents or information that was not delineated in the original notice of incompleteness.
(e) Consolidated Application for Multiple Small Cell Facilities And/or Wireless Support Structures. An applicant seeking to construct, modify, collocate, or replace more than one small cell facility or more than one wireless support structure may file, at the applicant's discretion, a consolidated application for up to thirty small cell facility requests or up to thirty wireless support structure requests in a single application and receive a single permit for the construction, modification, collocation, or replacement of the small cell facilities or wireless support structures subject to the following:
(1) A single application may be filed for multiple small cell facilities or multiple wireless support structures only if they are of substantially the same type.
(2) The City may separately address small cell facility collocations or wireless support structures for which incomplete information has been received or which are denied.
(3) In the case of a consolidated application, the fees provided for in this Chapter shall be cumulative.
(4) In the case of a consolidated application, each small cell facility or wireless support structure proposed to be constructed, modified, collocated on, or replaced shall constitute a separate request for consent for purposes of tolling the response deadline as authorized under Section 4939.036 of the Ohio Revised Code. A request by a single operator for a new or replacement support structure and associated small cell facility constitutes one request.
(f) Timeframe for Completion of Work Authorized by Permit.
(1) The work authorized by a Right-of-Way Permit-Small Cell granted for collocations of small cell facilities on existing wireless support structures, new wireless support structures, and/or associated small cell facilities shall be completed by the operator or its agent within one hundred eighty days after issuance of the permit, unless:
A. The City and the operator agree to extend this period; or
B. A delay is caused by make-ready work for a City-owned wireless support structure or decorative and/or ornamental pole by the lack of commercial power or backhaul availability at the site, provided that:
(i) The operator has made a timely request within sixty days after the issuance of the permit for commercial power or backhaul services; and
(ii) The additional time to complete installation does not exceed three hundred sixty days after issuance of the permit.
(2) If the work authorized by a Right-of-Way Permit-Small Cell granted for collocations of small cell facilities on existing wireless support structures, new wireless support structures, and/or associated small cell facilities is not completed by the operator or its agent within one hundred eighty days after issuance of the permit, and the conditions in divisions (1) A. and B. of this Section are not met, then permit shall be void.
(g) Small Cell and Wireless Support Structure Activities Not Requiring Consent.
(1) City consent shall not be required for either of the following activities conducted in the right-of-way:
A. Routine maintenance of wireless facilities;
B. The replacement of wireless facilities with wireless facilities that are consistent with the City's current design requirements and guidelines and that are either:
(i) Substantially similar to the existing wireless facilities; or
(ii) The same size or smaller than the existing wireless facilities.
(2) Although consent is not required for the activities in division (1) above, a General Public Property Permit pursuant to Section 153.02 of the Codified Ordinances is required in order to provide notice to the City of work planned in the right-of-way. No deposit is required for the activities described in division (1) above.
(Ord. 18-56. Enacted 7-23-18.)