(A) Declaration of findings and intent.
(1) The city finds that the public streets, alleys, easements, and other rights-of-way within the city:
(a) Are critical to the travel and transport of persons and property in the course and conduct of normal business and social life of the city;
(b) Are intended for public uses and must be managed and controlled consistent with that intent;
(c) Can be partially occupied by the facilities of utilities and other public service entities delivering utilities and public services rendered for profit to the enhancement of the health, welfare, and general economic wellbeing of the city and its citizens;
(d) Are a unique and physically-limited resource requiring proper management to maximize the efficiency and to minimize the costs to the taxpayers of the foregoing uses, and to minimize the inconvenience to, and negative effects upon, the public from such facilities’ construction, placement, relocation, and maintenance in the rights-of-way; and
(e) Are an asset of the city that taxpayers spent tax money to repair, maintain, and improve.
(2) The city finds that the right to occupy portions of the rights-of-way for limited times for the business of providing telecommunications services or open video services is a valuable economic right to use a unique public resource that has been acquired, and is maintained at great expense, to the city and its taxpayers, and the economic benefit of such rights should be shared with all the taxpayers of the city.
(3) The city finds that while telecommunications facilities are, in part, an extension of interstate commerce, their operations also involve rights-of-way, municipal franchising, and vital business and community services which are of local concern.
(4) The city finds that it is in the best interests of its citizens to promote the rapid development of telecommunications facilities responsive to community and public interest, to assure that telecommunications companies provide adequate, economical, and efficient service to their subscribers, and to assure availability for municipal services, educational, and community services.
(5) The city finds that it is in the interests of the public to franchise or license, and to establish standards for franchising or licensing, operators, infrastructure providers, resellers, and system lessees in a manner that:
(a) Compensates the city for the fair market value of the property used and for ongoing costs associated with the use of such property;
(b) Encourages competition by establishing terms and conditions under which providers may use valuable public property to serve the public;
(c) Fully protects the public and the city from any harm that may flow from such private commercial use of rights-of-way;
(d) Protects the regulatory authority of the city, in a manner consistent with federal and state law;
(e) Otherwise protects the public interests in the development and use of the city infrastructure; and
(f) Protects the public’s investment in improvements in the rights-of-way.
(6) The city adopts this telecommunications chapter pursuant to its power to manage the rights-of-way and receive reasonable, nondiscriminatory compensation for the use of rights-of-way by telecommunications providers, as expressly set forth by §§ 253 and 653 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (hereinafter the “Act;” Pub. Law No. 104-104 and being 47 U.S.C. §§ 253 and 573) and Utah Constitution Art. XI.
(B) Scope of chapter. This chapter shall provide the basic local regulatory scheme for providers of telecommunications services, including providers of only the physical plant necessary to operate a communications system, unless otherwise expressly excluded. This chapter shall apply to all related providers, whether operating with, or without, a franchise or license. Providers maintaining a presence in the right-of-way, or other public property, pursuant to an ordinance granted by the city prior to the effective date of this chapter, or maintaining a presence without such consent, shall comply with the provisions of this chapter.
(C) Excluded activity.
(1) This chapter shall not apply to cable television operators otherwise regulated by prior city ordinance(s) and the progeny thereof (hereinafter, the “Cable Television Ordinance”).
(2) Providers excused by other law that prohibits the city from requiring a franchise or license shall not be required to obtain a franchise or license, but all of the requirements impost by this chapter through the exercise of the city’s police power and not preempted by other law shall be applicable.
(Prior Code, § 13.09.010) (Ord. 10-98, passed 5-20-1998)