Right of way ordinance hashed out

Marietta City Council's streets and transportation committee meeting Tuesday resulted in a hot debate over a proposed 41-page ordinance designed to help Marietta manage and maintain municipal rights of way.

"This is the kind of thing that makes me crazy," said Councilman Jon Grimm, R-3rd Ward.

"There are things we need to address in our rights of way, but the way to address it is not in 41 pages of legalese," he said. "We certainly don't want the maintenance of rights of way to be a burden on our citizens, but I think this is overkill."

David Haney, manager of City Telecommunications Consultants Ltd. of Columbus, reviewed the proposed legislation with committee members. The city has paid the firm approximately $14,000 to develop the ordinance over a period of more than two years.

The measure, most of which Haney said mirrors the city of Upper Arlington's right of way ordinance, is designed to give the city better control over rights of way occupants like electric, phone and natural gas utility companies.

In addition the ordinance helps identify the city's costs to maintain rights of way, allowing fees to be recovered from companies working in the rights of way.

"If you approve this document, we will send it to the utility companies and they will have 30 days to respond," Haney told the committee members. "And once you pass this, you will have to come up with a fee schedule that the utility companies can review before it becomes effective."

But some council members as well as utility company representatives who were present during Tuesday's meeting objected to such an extensive ordinance.

"My goal is not to make things complex, but to support economic growth," said Councilman Andy Thompson, R-at large. "And I'm not sure this document simplifies our relationship with utility companies."

Paul Prater, manager of community affairs for American Electric Power, noted that his company and other utilities had not seen the latest version of the ordinance.

"You have to ask what are the problems you're wanting to address within your rights of way and are you bringing more into this than is needed?" he said. "We know (passage of the ordinance) will cost us, but we don't know how much. It would be more reasonable to know the economic impact before proceeding with this ordinance."

B.J. Smith, director of external affairs with AT&T Ohio in Zanesville, noted that her company did not object to paying a fee to work in rights of way, "but we do object to an ordinance that is anti-business and against some pretty good employers in this region."

Tracy Stevens, external affairs manager with Dominion East Ohio, said the city had recently increased permit fees for utilities working in the municipal rights of way from $20 to $130.

"But we have received no documentation that justifies the permit fee increase," she said.

Stevens also objected to the 41-page ordinance.

"There are all kinds of ways, with language that's not so onerous, to accomplish what you want," she said.

Streets committee Chairman David White, R-1st Ward, said the committee would consider objections to the ordinance and discuss the issue with city law director Roland Riggs III before proceeding with the proposed legislation.

Member Comments

View Comments: | 1-9 | Post a comment

concernedpatriot
06-11-09 4:49 AM »Report Abuse	Sorry I hit "post" too soon. Voted 2007 and this idiotic 41 page $14,000.00 ordinance was started about 2 years ago. I am mainly talking about the mayor.
concernedpatriot
06-11-09 4:45 AM »Report Abuse	Thank you "LineJudge", I understand that.
LineJudge
06-10-09 9:03 PM »Report Abuse	concerned, all but two of the "village idiots" who voted to commission this action were voted out in 2007
concernedpatriot
06-10-09 3:35 PM »Report Abuse	And to think Orchardfarmer, you didn't charge the "village idiots" $341 per page to come up with that. Common sense RULES! Contrarian, what does "ACORN" have to do with any of this?
Contrarian
06-10-09 12:09 PM »Report Abuse	Concernedpatriot: Don't worry...ACORN will help you!
peppie
06-10-09 11:02 AM »Report Abuse	Right of way is similar to imminent domain. They will and can do whatever they want with the property.
Orchardfarmer
06-10-09 9:50 AM »Report Abuse	Here's my ordinance: 1) Talk to the city engineer before you work in the right-of-ways. 2) Get his agreement on a plan. You pay the city $100 per hour for his time. 3) If you damage anything, you pay for it. 4) If you don't follow this ordinance, you pay a fine of $10,000. --- Do you really need anything else?
concernedpatriot
06-10-09 9:40 AM »Report Abuse	Because that is not the way our city does business. Our mayor and most of city council just want to spend money on needless crap and pet projects. When are you people going to wiseup and vote these idiots out of office? I have been trying for years but I can't do it alone.
BuckeyeGal
06-10-09 9:17 AM »Report Abuse	With the open-records laws in Ohio, and city ordinances falling under these laws, why didn't we go to a city similar to Marietta, like they went to Upper Arlington, get a copy of the ordinance and save ourselves $14,000 in copying fees.

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