The purposes of this chapter are to:
A. 
Permit and manage reasonable access to the right-of-way of the City for communication purposes on a nondiscriminatory basis;
B. 
Establish clear and nondiscriminatory local guidelines, standards, and time frames for the exercise of local authority with respect to the regulation of right-of-way use;
C. 
Encourage the provision of advanced and competitive telecommunications services on the widest possible basis to the businesses, institutions, and residents of the City;
D. 
Conserve the limited physical capacity of the public rights-of-way held in public trust by the City;
E. 
Ensure that the City's current and ongoing costs of granting and regulating private accesses to and use of the public rights-of-way are fully paid by the persons seeking such access and causing such costs;
F. 
Ensure that all service providers providing facilities or services within the City comply with the ordinances, rules, and regulations of the City;
G. 
Ensure that the City can continue to fairly and responsibly protect the public health, safety, and welfare; and
H. 
Enable the City to discharge its public trust consistent with rapidly evolving federal and state regulatory policies, industry competition, and technological development.
(Ord. 2743 § 1, 2019)
For the purpose of this chapter, the following terms, phrases, words, and abbreviations shall have the meanings given herein, unless otherwise expressly stated. Words not defined herein shall be given the meaning set forth in Title 47 of the United States Code, as amended, or in Chapter 19.137 MTMC. Words not defined therein shall have their common and ordinary meaning:
A. 
"Affiliate"
means a person that (directly or indirectly) owns or controls, is owned or controlled by, or is under common ownership or control with another person.
B. 
"Base station"
means a structure or equipment at a fixed location that enables FCC-licensed or authorized communications between user equipment and a communications network. The term does not encompass a tower as defined herein or any equipment associated with a tower. "Base station" includes, without limitation:
1. 
Equipment associated with wireless communications services such as private, broadcast, and public safety services as well as unlicensed wireless services and fixed wireless services such as microwave backhaul.
2. 
Radio transceivers, antennas, coaxial or fiber-optic cable, regular and backup power supplies, and comparable equipment, regardless of technological configuration (including distributed antenna systems ("DAS") and small wireless networks).
3. 
Any structure other than a tower that, at the time the relevant application is filed with the City under this section, supports or houses equipment described in subsections (B)(1) and (2) of this section that has been reviewed and approved under the applicable zoning or siting process or under another state or local regulatory review process, even if the structure was not built for the sole or primary purpose of providing that support.
C. 
"Cable Acts"
means the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984, as amended by the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992, as amended by portions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, as hereafter amended.
D. 
"Cable operator"
means a service provider providing or offering to provide cable service within the City as that term is defined in the Cable Acts.
E. 
"Cable service"
shall have the same meaning as defined in the Cable Acts.
F. 
"City"
means the City of Mountlake Terrace, county of Snohomish, state of Washington.
G. 
"City property"
means any real property owned by the City, whether in fee or other ownership estate of interest.
H. 
"Collocation"
means mounting or installing an antenna facility on a preexisting structure, and/or modifying a structure for the purpose of mounting or installing an antenna facility on that structure. When used in the context of an eligible facilities request, "collocation" means the mounting or installation of transmission equipment on an eligible support structure for the purpose of transmitting and/or receiving radio frequency signals for communications purposes.
I. 
"Eligible facilities request"
means any request for modification of an existing tower or base station that does not substantially change the physical dimensions of such tower or base station, involving:
1. 
Collocation of new transmission equipment;
2. 
Removal of transmission equipment; or
3. 
Replacement of transmission equipment.
J. 
"Eligible support structure"
means any tower or base station as defined in this section; provided, that it is existing at the time the relevant application is filed with the City.
K. 
Existing.
A constructed tower or base station is "existing" if it has been reviewed and approved under the applicable zoning or siting process, or under another state or local regulatory review process; provided, that a tower that has not been reviewed and reviewed because it was not in a zoned area when it was built, but was lawfully constructed, is existing for the purposes of this definition.
L. 
"Excess capacity"
means the volume or capacity in any existing or future duct, conduit, manhole, handhole or other utility facility with the right-of-way that is or will be available for use for additional telecommunications facilities.
M. 
"FCC" or "Federal Communications Commission"
means the federal administrative agency, or lawful successor, authorized to regulate and oversee telecommunications carriers, services and providers on a national level.
N. 
"Franchise" or "franchise agreement"
means a master permit granted for either a restricted or unrestricted franchise.
O. 
"Grantee"
encompasses those franchisees granted certain rights and obligations as more fully described herein.
P. 
"Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission" or "WUTC"
means the state administrative agency, or lawful successor, authorized to regulate and oversee telecommunications carriers, services and providers in the state of Washington to the extent prescribed by law.
Q. 
"Overhead facilities"
means utility facilities and telecommunications facilities located above the surface of the ground, including the underground supports and foundations for such facilities.
R. 
"Master permit"
means the agreement in whatever form whereby the City may grant general permission to a service provider to enter, use, and occupy the right-of-way for the purpose of locating facilities. This definition is not intended to limit, alter, or change the extent of the existing authority of the City to require a franchise nor does it change the status of a service provider asserting an existing state-wide grant based on a predecessor telephone or telegraph company's existence at the time of the adoption of the Washington State Constitution to occupy the right-of-way. For the purposes of this chapter, a franchise, except for a cable television franchise, is a master permit. A master permit does not include cable television franchises.
S. 
"Person"
includes corporations, companies, associations, joint stock companies, firms, partnerships, limited liability companies, other entities, and individuals.
T. 
"Public right-of-way" or "right-of-way"
means land acquired or dedicated for public roads and streets but does not include:
1. 
State highways;
2. 
Land dedicated for roads, streets, and highways not opened and not improved for motor vehicle use by the public;
3. 
Structures, including poles and conduits, located within the right-of-way;
4. 
Federally granted trust lands or forest board trust lands;
5. 
Lands owned or managed by the State Parks and Recreation Commission; or
6. 
Federally granted railroad rights-of-way acquired under 43 U.S.C. 912 and related provisions of federal law that are not open for motor vehicle use.
U. 
"Public ways"
includes the surface of and space above and below any real property in City in which City has a regulatory interest, or interest as a trustee for the public, including but not limited to all public streets, highways, roads, alleys, sidewalks, tunnels, viaducts, bridges, skyways, or any other public place, area, or property under control of City, and any public or utility easements established, dedicated, or devoted for public utility purposes.
V. 
"Restricted franchise" or "restricted franchise agreement"
means a master permit granted to a service provider who constructs, installs, operates, maintains, or otherwise locates telecommunications facilities in rights-of-way for the purpose of providing telecommunications service to persons and areas outside the City.
W. 
"Service provider"
is defined in accord with RCW 35.99.010(6). "Service provider" shall include those infrastructure companies that provide telecommunications services or equipment to enable the deployment of personal wireless services.
X. 
"Small wireless facility" and "small wireless network"
(formerly "small cell facility" are defined in accord with 47 CFR 1.6002(l).
Y. 
"Structure,"
when used in Article VII of this chapter and/or in the context of small wireless facilities, means a pole, tower, base station, or other building, whether or not it has an existing antenna facility, that is used for the provision of personal wireless service (whether on its own or commingled with other types of service).
Z. 
Substantial Change.
A modification "substantially changes" the physical dimensions of an eligible support structure if it meets any of the following criteria:
1. 
For towers other than towers in the public rights-of-way, it increases the height of the tower by more than 10 percent or by the height of one additional antenna array with separation from the nearest existing antenna not to exceed 20 feet, whichever is greater; for other eligible support structures, it increases the height of the structure by more than 10 percent or more than 10 feet, whichever is greater;
2. 
For towers other than towers in the public rights-of-way, it involves adding an appurtenance to the body of the tower that would protrude from the edge of the tower more than 20 feet, or more than the width of the tower structure at the level of the appurtenance, whichever is greater; for other eligible support structures, it involves adding an appurtenance to the body of the structure that would protrude from the edge of the structure by more than six feet;
3. 
For any eligible support structure, it involves installation of more than the standard number of new equipment cabinets for the technology involved, but not to exceed four cabinets; or, for towers in the public rights-of-way and base stations, it involves installation of any new equipment cabinets on the ground if there are no preexisting ground cabinets that are more than 10 percent larger in height or overall volume than any other ground cabinets associated with the structure;
4. 
It entails any excavation or deployment outside the current site;
5. 
It would defeat the concealment elements of the eligible support structure; or
6. 
It does not comply with conditions associated with the siting approval of the construction or modification of the eligible support structure or base station equipment; provided, however, that this limitation does not apply to any modification that is noncompliant only in a manner that would not exceed the thresholds identified above.
AA. 
"State"
means the state of Washington.
BB. 
"Surplus space"
means that portion of the usable space on a utility pole which has the necessary clearance from other pole users, as required by the orders and regulations of the WUTC, the pole owner and applicable electrical codes to allow its use by a service provider for a pole attachment.
CC. 
"Telecommunications facilities"
means the plant, equipment and property including, but not limited to, cables, wires, conduits, ducts, pedestals, electronics, and other appurtenances used or to be used to transmit, receive, distribute, provide or offer wireline telecommunications service.
DD. 
"Telecommunications service"
means the transmission of information by wire, radio, optical cable, electromagnetic, or other similar means for hire, sale, or resale to the general public. For the purpose of this subsection, "information" means knowledge or intelligence represented by any form of writing, signs, signals, pictures, sounds, or any other symbols. For the purpose of this chapter, telecommunications service excludes the over-the-air transmission of broadcast television or broadcast radio signals.
EE. 
"Tower"
means any structure built for the sole or primary purpose of supporting any FCC-licensed or authorized antennas and their associated facilities, including structures that are constructed for wireless communications services including, but not limited to, private, broadcast, and public safety services, as well as unlicensed wireless services and fixed wireless services such as microwave backhaul and the associated site.
FF. 
"Underground facilities"
means utility and telecommunications facilities located under the surface of the ground, excluding the underground foundations or supports for overhead facilities.
GG. 
"Unrestricted franchise" or "unrestricted franchise agreement"
means a master permit granted to a service provider who constructs, installs, operates, maintains, or otherwise locates telecommunications facilities in rights-of-way for the purpose of providing telecommunications services to persons or areas in the City.
HH. 
"Utility facilities"
means the plant, equipment, and property including, but not limited to, the poles, pipes, mains, conduits, ducts, cables, wires, plant and equipment located under, on or above the surface of the ground within rights-of-way and used or to be used for the purpose of providing utility services or telecommunications services including telecommunications facilities.
II. 
"Wireline"
means communications using conducted electromagnetic or optical emissions by, over, or within a physically tangible means of transmission, including without limitation wire or cable, and the apparatus used for such transmission.
(Ord. 2743 § 1, 2019)
Except as otherwise provided herein, all service providers engaged in the business of the transmitting, supplying, or furnishing of telecommunications service originating, terminating, or existing with the City shall register with the City pursuant to this chapter and pay all the fees as provided herein or as may be set by resolution.
(Ord. 2743 § 1, 2019)
Except as otherwise provided herein, any service provider who desires to construct, install, operate, maintain, or otherwise locate telecommunications facilities in rights-of-way for the purpose of providing telecommunications service to persons and areas outside the City, or to persons or areas in the City, shall first obtain a restricted or unrestricted franchise granting the use of such public rights-of-way from the City pursuant to this chapter and pay all the fees as provided herein or as may be set by resolution.
(Ord. 2743 § 1, 2019)
Except as otherwise provided herein, any service provider who desires to construct, install, operate, maintain, or locate telecommunications facilities in rights-of-way for the purpose of providing cable services shall first obtain a cable franchise from the City pursuant to this chapter and pay all the fees as provided herein or as may be set by resolution and in the cable franchise.
(Ord. 2743 § 1, 2019)
Any person found violating, disobeying, omitting, neglecting, or refusing to comply with any of the provisions of this chapter shall be fined not less than $250.00 nor more than $750.00 for each offense. A separate and distinct offense shall be deemed committed each day on which a violation occurs or continues.
(Ord. 2743 § 1, 2019)
Nothing in this chapter shall be construed as limiting any judicial remedies that the City may have, at law or in equity, for enforcement of this chapter.
(Ord. 2743 § 1, 2019)