[HISTORY: Adopted by the City Council of the City of Camden 4-9-1987 by Ord. No. MC-2289 as Ch. 412 of the 1987 Code. Amendments noted where applicable.]
A. 
All corporations, firms and persons to whom permission has been or may be granted for running or laying underground conduits, tubes or pipes for electrical conductors or cables or wires shall conform to the requirements and regulations of this chapter.
B. 
All corporations, firms and persons to whom permission has been or may hereafter be granted for the erection of poles, fixtures, cables, wires and conductors in or over the streets or housetops in the City shall conform to the requirements and regulations of this chapter.
[Amended 12-8-2020 by Ord. No. MC-5313]
No street in the City shall be broken or occupied by any corporation, firm or person for the purpose of laying down conduits, tubes or pipes for electrical conductors, cables or wires, unless authority for such purpose, by ordinance, is first obtained. For communications facilities, as defined in City Code § 601-2, this authority shall come in the form of a license, franchise, or consent (collectively and individually referred to as "right-of-way use agreement") approved by ordinance or resolution of the City Council.
A. 
Right-of-way use agreement. The City Council may adopt an agreement template authorizing use and occupancy of the rights-of-way with communications facilities, as defined in City Code § 601-2. The agreement shall satisfy the requirements of § 600-2. The City Engineer, in consultation with other pertinent City officials as needed, is authorized, with the agreement of the City Attorney, and subject to any necessary action that may be required under state law, to execute an agreement with any person in substantially the form approved. Modifications that limit the scope of the grant are not considered substantial. No agreement shall relieve any person from the obligation to obtain all necessary permits and approvals including permits required under §§ 600-4 and 601-3, and pay all applicable fees, required by applicable state, local, and federal law. No contract or permit given by the City under this chapter or Chapter 601 shall be interpreted to grant a person, an exclusive franchise, license, consent, permit, or final approval for access and use of the street. Where a person seeks to provide video services, they must separately obtain a franchise as provided under state and local laws governing the provision of video services.
(1) 
Application for agreement. A person seeking to use and occupy any street in the City with a communications facility, shall submit an application to the Zoning Officer, on forms adopted by the Division of Planning and Zoning. The applicable forms will be on file with the Division of Planning and Zoning and may be amended or replaced at any time. In the absence of such form, submit a letter clearly requesting an agreement for use and occupancy of the streets, identifying, at a minimum, the name, address, and status of the applicant (i.e., corporation, general partnership, limited partnership, etc.); a copy of any authorization, if required by state law, necessary for the provider to act as a public utility according to the statutes of the State of New Jersey regulating public utilities; a detailed description of the proposed use of the streets, the type of services intended to be provided, and (if available) detailed maps and technical drawings of proposed installations. If the template ROW use agreement then in effect is acceptable to the applicant, it shall so indicate in its application. Otherwise, the applicant shall include with its application a specific list of requested changes, with detailed explanations for each. If applicant claims that an application must be acted on within a specified period of time, it shall identify the period of time and the statute or regulation upon which the claim is based. Without limitation, in addition to any grounds the City may specify in its review of the application, if, by the date the City is required to act on an application, as that date may be extended, an agreement has not been signed by all parties, the application shall be deemed denied without prejudice for applicant's failure to timely enter into an agreement with the City.
(2) 
Recurring fee(s). A person seeking a franchise license, or consent to use the streets for a communications facility must pay an application fee and other applicable fees as established by the City as follows:
(a) 
$270 annual fee per small cell facility, including any possible ROW access fee for infrastructure not owned by the City in the ROW; and
(b) 
$540 annual fee per small cell facility, including any possible ROW access fee for municipal infrastructure in the ROW.
(3) 
Processing application for agreement. Applications will be processed in accordance with applicable law and may be rejected if incomplete. Where an applicant is not willing to enter into the template ROW use agreement, the City Engineer may deny the application, or recommend an alternative agreement to the City when applicant has shown good cause to the City Director of Planning and Development ("P&D Director") for modifying the ROW use agreement. However, the applicant may be required to pay additional fees reflecting the costs to the City, consistent with the provisions of § 600-2A(2).
During the construction or laying of said underground conduits, tubes, pipes, conductors, cables and wires, no street shall be opened or the paving broken into for a greater distance than 500 feet at any one time, and the opening or trench shall not be of greater width than two feet. No such five-hundred-foot section shall be kept open for a longer period than five days, and, as the work progresses, the paving shall be promptly relaid and the street put in good condition.
A. 
Prior to making an opening in any street for the laying of conduits, tubes or pipes for electrical conductors, cables or wires, the corporation, firm or person desiring to lay the same shall make application, in writing, to the Department of Public Works and shall file plans and specifications with said Department showing the location and route and length of the proposed conduits, pipes or tubes and shall file duplicates of such application and plans and specifications with the City Engineer.
B. 
If the City Engineer approves the proposed route or routes and plans and specifications and finds that they otherwise comply with the provisions of this chapter, he shall issue a certificate to that effect.
C. 
Upon issuance of the certificate referred to in Subsection B of this section, the Department of Public Works shall have the authority to issue a permit for the proposed opening of the street.
Payment of a fee of $0.05 per foot of conduit proposed to be laid shall be made by the applicant at the time of issuance of the permit.
[Amended 4-9-1987 by Ord. No. MC-2289; 12-10-2019 by Ord. No. MC-5232]
The work of laying underground conduits, tubes, pipes, electrical conductors, cables and wires shall be under the direction and to the satisfaction of the Director of Public Works and the City Engineer, and all streets shall be repaired immediately after the filling of the trench to the satisfaction of the Director of Public Works.
All corporations, firms or persons occupying any street with underground conduits, tubes, pipes, cables, electrical conductors or wires shall be liable for all damages to gas and water mains, services, sewers, connections to sewers and also for any damages caused by the opening of trenches or condition of the streets resulting from the laying of the conduits, pipes, electrical conductors, cables or wires, or making connections for which the City would otherwise be liable, and the bond required under § § 600-11 of this chapter shall contain a provision specifying the liability described in this section.
[Amended 4-9-1987 by Ord. No. MC-2289]
When the City of Camden may desire to use or occupy any of the wires or conductors in any of the conduits, tubes, pipes or cables for police or fire alarm or municipal purposes, the corporation, firm or person to whom privileges have heretofore or shall hereafter be granted for laying underground tubes, pipes, electrical conductors, cables or wires shall furnish the Divisions of Fire and Police with at least one and not more than three conductors or wires, upon 30 days' notice to any such corporation, firm or person, free of any cost to the City.
All corporations, firms or persons having telegraph, telephone or electric lighting wires, electrical conductors or cables on telegraph poles or on any other poles or fixtures or over housetops or in any way suspended above ground or placed underground shall, in writing, on or before the first Monday of January in each year, certify under oath to the City Clerk the actual number of wires, location and the miles of wire and electrical conductors, whether suspended singly or in cables, tubes, pipes or conduits, above ground or underground, owned or controlled by them in the City.
No person, firm or corporation shall erect or lay any conduits, tubes, pipes, cables, electrical conductors or wires before first giving a bond with good and sufficient surety, satisfactory to the City, in the sum of $50,000, conditioned upon the proper relaying and paving of all openings made by it or them and thereafter keeping in repair the paving of said openings and conditioned upon making return of all conduits, tubes and pipes, including all the electrical conduits and wires contained in such conduits or tubes or pipes of cables or conductors, and further conditioned upon compliance with this chapter and all other applicable ordinances of the City. The bond shall be approved as to form and sufficiency by the City counsel and filed with the City Clerk, and a certificate of such approval and filing shall be furnished to the Director of Public Works before he shall issue a permit for the opening of any street.
If any underground conduit company or individual shall, at any time, dispose of any of the franchises granted by any ordinance of the Council or consolidate with any other company, the company so selling or consolidating shall forfeit all rights and privileges granted by such ordinance.
[Amended 12-8-2020 by Ord. No. MC-5313]
No corporation, firm or person shall break ground for the purpose of erecting any post or pole within any street in the City without first obtaining a permit for the erection of such post or pole from the City Clerk, as hereinafter provided in §§ 600-15 through 600-19. If the post or pole is being installed to support a wireless facility, then the corporation, firm, or person must meet the requirements of City Code Chapter 601, which regulates wireless facilities in the public right-of-way.
The application for a permit to erect such poles shall be made in writing to the City Clerk. The application shall state the proposed location of each pole.
[Amended 8-13-1981 by Ord. No. MC-1766]
The permit shall not be issued by the City Clerk unless and until the application shall have been approved by the Division of Engineering and a permit fee of $1 for each pole to be erected shall have been paid to the City Clerk.
In the case of any poles erected after March 27, 1913, the City shall have the right to a reasonable use thereof for municipal purposes; provided, however, that the City shall have no right to the use of telephone poles erected and used to connect subscribers' stations with stations with underground telephone cables.
[1]
Editor's Note: See also § 600-17.
In the case of poles erected after March 27, 1913, other than telephone poles for distribution purposes, the corporation, firm or person erecting such poles shall remove the same as soon as such person constructs an underground conduit system along the same street or highway within the City block or square. Upon failure to remove said poles and after 10 days' notice given by the City, the City may cause such removal at the expense of the person erecting said poles.
[Amended 4-9-1987 by Ord. No. MC-2289]
No provision or regulation in this chapter governing the erection and use of poles, including the acceptance of a permit for erection of the poles, shall be construed, in any way, to alter the rights and liabilities of the Delaware & Atlantic Telegraph & Telephone Company, its heirs, successors or assigns, and of the City of Camden under the agreement between them of June 30, 1909, except as such alteration is authorized and provided by said agreement.
[Added 4-9-1987 by Ord. No. MC-2289; amended 10-12-2006 by Ord. No. MC-4234]
Unless otherwise provided in the chapter, penalties against persons violating the provisions of this chapter shall be imposed in accordance with the provisions of § 1-15.