2007-48 AMENDING CITY CODE - CHAPTER 41.1 - CONSTRUCTION STANDARDS OF FACILITIES, PUBLIC RIGHTS-OF-WAY

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� , Engineering & Infrastructure Memora dum NO. 2007-29 May 31, 2007 TO: Honorable Mayor Osborne and City Council FROM: Steve Garm ity Manager C Richard G. M y, P.E., Director of Engineering 8� n ra�Stru ure Wendy Morth a d, Corporation Counsel SUBJECT: City Code Amendment Establishing Standards for he Construction of Facilities on the Public Rights-of-Way SUMMARY RECOMMENDATION: It is recommended by staff that the City Council adopt the attached C ty Code Amendment establishing standards for the construction of facilities on the public ri hts-of-way. This ordinance governs the installation of all utility infrastructure that is not specificall covered under a current franchise agreement. BACKGROUND: 1. Work on this ordinance started with the goal of regulating placem nt of AT&T video boxes. In the process, staff learned the City does not currently have an ordi ance that regulates the construction, operations and maintenance of facilities on the publi right-of-way for any utilities such as gas, electric, cable television, pipelines or possible future utilities. At present, regulations that exist are contained in agreements that may exist ith each of the utilities. The proposed ordinance will provide regulation for all existing and po sible future utilities. 2. The City has agreements with several privately owned utility com anies that grants them the use of the publicly owned right-of-way in exchange for money or ther consideration. Right-of- way use agreements dating back to the 1960's and earlier are fr quently called "franchise" agreements because they give the utility company exclusive use f the right-of-way for a specific purpose. In particular, Illinois Power Company and its su cessor, AmerenlP-IP, has been given the exclusive right or"franchise"to distribute electrica power in Decatur. 3. The ordinance will supplement, but not replace valid utility agree ents. Pre-existing agreements or licenses will govern and control the installation, op rations and maintenance of utility infrastructure as strictly described in the agreement. Install tion, operation and i maintenance of infrastructure resulting from changed technology ot in common usage or not reasonably contemplated at the time of the agreement is intende to be governed by the requirements of this ordinance. 4. A summary of current or recent utility agreements is presented in Table 1. '�I