191613

The City of Portland ordains:

Section 1.  The Council finds:

1. The Bureau of Planning & Sustainability (BPS) manages the access, fee collection, and agreements pertaining to access to and use of the rights-of-way on behalf of the City.
2. The City has typically granted individually negotiated franchise agreements to each utility using the City’s rights-of-way to provide utility services, with each franchise agreement setting forth the terms of use and compensation to be paid for such use.
3. The City has determined that it can more effectively, efficiently, fairly, and uniformly manage the City’s rights-of-way and provide consistent standards for utility access to and use of the rights-of-way through licenses, rather than franchise agreements.
4. On June 7, 2023, BPS staff brought an ordinance to add Title 12 to the Portland City Code to the Council for a first reading. On June 14, 2023, Commissioner Rubio recommended to Council that the ordinance be withdrawn from consideration in order to provide BPS staff an opportunity to revise the proposed ordinance to address concerns raised by stakeholders.
5. The ordnance was withdrawn and sent back to BPS staff for further engagement with the companies who operate their assets in the right-of-way (ROW).
6. On September 1, 2023, BPS held a workshop with the majority of the companies who operate assets in the ROW to get consensus on next steps on moving forward with a ROW and to address parties concerns and issues raised during the June 7, 2023, Council hearing.
7. Based on discussions at the workshop, BPS staff agreed with parties on another round of stakeholder comments and edits to PCC Title 12. Staff also agreed to meet with specific stakeholder industry groups to make changes and edits that address their operational needs.
8. BPS staff worked with key stakeholder groups from the core utilities (NW Natural, PGE, and Pacific Power), landline telephone providers (LUMEN and Ziply), pipeline companies (WPSA and an interstate pipeline provider), and commercial fiber provider (Tata Communications) to make edits that addressed specific issues raised by industry stakeholders. This process ran from September through November.
9. On December 1, 2023, BPS staff provided ROW users a draft of the ROW Code that incorporated the stakeholder requested edits. BPS also included some minor administrative edits to add clarity and transparency. Stakeholders were given until December 15, 2023, to provide final comments.
10. BPS staff additional comments from nine stakeholders during the final review period, and staff accepted a portion of the requested edits.
11. The Ordinance will add a new Portland City Code Chapter 12.15 that will regulate access for utilities operating in the City’s rights-of-way and assist the City in exercising its authority to secure compensation to the City and its residents for utility use of the rights-of-way.
12. The Ordinance adopts a new Portland City Code Title 12 as shown in Exhibit A into City Code.
13. The Ordinance also adopts the right-of-way fee schedule shown in Exhibit B and adds a new franchise negotiation fee to compensate for costs incurred by the City if a party requests a franchise agreement based on special circumstances and the City deems a franchise agreement to be appropriate.  The fee would compensate the City for the costs associated with negotiating the agreement.
14. Exhibits A and B will become effective on April 1, 2024, to coincide with the start of the next calendar quarter to accommodate invoicing and payments to the City from licensees who register under this Chapter.

NOW, THEREFORE, the Council directs:

1. Add Code Title 12, Utility Operators, as shown in Exhibit A, effective April 1, 2024.
2. Adopt Annual Rights-of-Way Fee Schedule as attached in Exhibit B effective April 1, 2024.
3. Exhibit B, Annual Rights-of-Way Fees is binding City policy.