(A) The city reserves the right to utilize the rights-of-way as the city deems appropriate. Where excavations are made which impact private property/owner improvements that have encroached upon the public way, the permitee shall be responsible, as directed by the city, to ensure that such improvements are returned, replaced, and/or restored to a condition that is comparable to the condition that existed prior to the commencement of the work.
(1) The determination of what is considered a "comparable condition" will be at the sole discretion of the city.
(2) The city shall not be responsible for private improvements constructed in or encroaching on the public way.
(B) At any time a permittee disturbs the yard, residence, or the real or personal property of a private property owner or the city, such permittee shall ensure that such property is returned, replaced, and/or restored to a condition that is comparable to the condition that existed prior to the commencement of the work.
(C) The costs associated with the disturbance and the return, replacement, and/or restoration shall be borne by the permittee. Further, a permittee shall reimburse the property owner or the city for any actual damage caused by the permittee, their subcontractor, or their independent contractor, in connection with the disturbance of such property.
(D) Nothing in this section shall require the permittee to pay a subscriber or private property owner when that subscriber or private property owner requests that the permittee remove, replace, or relocate improvements associated with the service provided by the permittee to the property owner, and when the permittee exercises due care in the performance of that service, or when the subscriber or private property owner provided false information to the permittee on which the permittee relied to their detriment.
(E) Examples of acts specifically included in this section, but not necessarily limited to, are the following:
(1) Removal of sod, lawn, shrubbery, flowers, trees, driveways, or fences;
(2) Installing, trenching, repairing, replacing, removal, or locating equipment, cables, or other appurtenances of the permittee;
(3) Installation or removal of equipment or other appurtenances of the permittee's system within a private property owner's property or residence which requires drilling, excavating, plastering, or the like on the part of the permittee;
(4) Temporarily relocating or moving a piece of personal property or a fixture of a private property owner (such as a motor vehicle, fence, air conditioning or heating unit, or the like) in order to perform some sort of construction, maintenance, or repair by the permittee; or
(5) Permanently removing a permittee's equipment or other appurtenances due to the revocation, termination, or non-renewal of the franchise (if applicable).
(F) The requirements imposed upon the permittee extend to any subcontractor or independent contractor that the permittee might employee to perform the tasks pursuant to the permit.
(G) The requirements of this section shall not apply to the removal by a permittee of a permanent structure placed by a property owner in a public way, unless such property owner has received prior written permission from the city granting the property owner the right to install a permanent structure on a public way, and such written permission has been recorded in the office of the County Recorder.
(Ord. 06-2024, passed 3-6-2024)