Adopt Ordinance Amending Chapter 30, "Street and Sidewalks" of the Code of the City of Fort Worth, Texas by Enacting a New Section 30-19, "Use of the City's Rights-of-Way for Small Cell Infrastructure" to Comply with Chapter 284 of the Texas Local Government Code Concerning the Adoption of a Design Manual, Designation of Public Parks, and Levying of Fees and Rates (ALL COUNCIL DISTRICTS)

It is recommended that the City Council adopt the attached ordinance amending Chapter 30, "Street and Sidewalks" of the Code of the City of Fort Worth, Texas by enacting a new Section 30-19, "Use of the City's Rights-of-Way for Small Cell Infrastructure" to comply with certain provisions of the new Chapter 284 of the Texas Local Government Code by: (1) Adopting a design manual for wireless network companies to regulate work in the public rights-of-way for the installation, construction, and use of wireless facilities, (2) Designating recreational public parks within the City of Fort Worth, and (3) Levying application fees and public rights-of-way use rates.

The 85th Texas legislature recently passed Senate Bill (SB) 1004 (to be codified as the new Texas Local Government Code Chapter 284) ("Chapter 284"), to be effective September 1, 2017. Chapter 284 mandates that wireless infrastructure and service providers have access to the public rights-of-way to locate their wireless facilities, including network nodes, support poles and transfer facilities.

Placing wireless facilities in a right-of-way is standard practice for many utility companies, but Chapter 284 standardizes the practice and caps the fees that the City of Fort Worth can charge for the use of the public rights-of-way, which is intended to expedite the process on reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms. Chapter 284 also limits the City's police power but allows additional restrictions on the placement and characteristics of network nodes and node support poles when they are proposed to be located in municipal parks, residential areas, historic districts, design districts, and underground districts.

Design Manual. Chapter 284 also permits the City to adopt a design manual governing the installation and construction of network nodes and new node support poles in the public rights-of-way that includes additional installation and construction details that do not conflict with Chapter 284 (Design Manual), provided that the Design Manual must be in place at the time the permit applications are first submitted on September 1, 2017. The attached Design Manual is intended to fulfill the purposes of Chapter 284 and lays out in detailed fashion the rules and regulations for installing and constructing wireless facilities in the public rights-of-way.

The intent of the Design Manual is to give assistance and guidance to network providers and staff for the timely, efficient, safe and aesthetically pleasing installation of wireless facilities in the public right-of-way. It outlines prohibited areas, most preferable locations, and least preferable locations for wireless facilities. In addition, the Design Manual lists an order of preference for wireless facilities installation on City assets, i.e. on existing utility poles, then municipal service poles, and lastly on new support poles. It provides standards and guidelines for location, separation, and how related equipment including electric meters, cabling, and signage are attached. The purpose of these standards and guidelines are to ensure that wireless facilities are placed and attached in an orderly, safe, and inconspicuous fashion so that they have a minimal impact on the visual landscape.

Fees and Rates. As stated above, Chapter 284 provides for the assessment and payment of application fees and annual public rights-of-way use rates. It is recommended that the following fees be implemented.

Application Fee	Fee Amount
Network node	$500.00 per application for up to 5 network nodes, and $250.00 for each additional network node on a single permit application; up to 30 network nodes are allowed on each application.
Node support pole	$1,000.00 per application for each pole
Transport Facility	$500.00 per application for up to 5 network nodes and $250.00 for each additional network node on a single permit application; up to 30 network nodes are allowed on each permit.

  

Annual Fee	Fee Amount
Network node	$250.00 per network node site.
Node support pole	No separate rate from the network node annual fee (each support pole should have a network node attached)
Transport Facility	$28.00 monthly for each network node site, unless an equal or greater amount is paid the city, e.g., under Chapter 283, Tex. Loc. Gov. Code or Chapter 66, Tex. Util. Code.

With regard to the application fees, Chapter 284 allows the City to charge a fee that may not exceed the lesser of (1) the actual, direct, and reasonable costs incurred in granting or processing an application, or (2) the statutory amount in the chart above.  City Staff performed an analysis of its estimated costs in granting and processing an application and determined that the statutory amount would be lower; thus, Staff is requesting that City Council adopt the statutory amounts listed above.  Because Staff's analysis shows that the City's costs far exceed the fees allowed under Chapter 284, Staff is recommending the maximum fees allowed by law to keep the City's out-of-pocket costs to a minimum.

Parks. As previously stated, Chapter 284 limits the City's police power but allows additional restrictions on the placement and characteristics of network nodes and node support poles when they are proposed to be located in municipal parks. Chapter 284's definition of Municipal Park does not align with the City's practice of designating pubic parks, so the attached ordinance is intended to designate, through City code, recreational public parks within the City of Fort Worth that are applicable to Chapter 284.