Amend Utilities Code to make telecommunication providers fiscally accountable for relocation of resources to any public infrastructure within a municipality.

Currently, the Utilities Code (Section 54.203) grants municipalities the authority to require a telecommunications provider to bear the expense of relocation if the purpose is to accommodate street widening or straightening. However, because “street widening and straightening” are often misinterpreted by telecommunication providers, the City of Laredo would like to amend the code to require telecommunications providers to bear the expense of any public infrastructure thus helping to end confusion between the two entities.

Utilities Code 54.203 reads as follows:

§ 54.203. SERVICE IN ANNEXED OR INCORPORATED AREA.

• (a) If an area is or will be included within a municipality as the result of annexation, incorporation, or another reason, each telecommunications utility that holds or is entitled to hold a certificate under this title to provide service, or operate a facility in the area before the inclusion, has the right to continue to provide the service or operate the facility and extend service in the utility’s certificated area within the annexed or incorporated area under the rights granted by the certificate and this title.
• (b) Notwithstanding any other law, a certificated telecommunications utility has the right to:
  • (1) Continue and extend service within the utility’s certificated area;
  • (2) Use roads, streets, highways, alleys, and public property to furnish retail utility service.
• (c) The governing body of a municipality may require a certificated telecommunications utility to relocate the utility’s facility at the utility’s expense to permit the widening or straightening of a street public infrastructure by:
  • (1) Giving the utility 30 days’ notice; and
  • (2) Specifying the new location for the facility along the right-of-way of the street.
• (d) This section does not limit the power of a city, town, or village to incorporate or of a municipality to extend its boundaries by annexation.

The City of Laredo would like to amend 54.203 (c) to change “widening or straightening of a street” to “any public infrastructure.”