Santa Cruz Municipal Code Art. XV Franchises

1503 GRANTING OF FRANCHISES.

The City Council is empowered to grant by ordinance a franchise to any person, firm or corporation empowered by law to furnish the City and its inhabitants with transportation, communication, terminal facilities, water, light, heat, power, refrigeration, storage or any other public utility or service to use the public streets, ways, alleys and places as the same now or may hereafter exist, for the construction and operation of plants, works, or equipment necessary or convenient for the furnishing thereof, or necessary or convenient for traversing any portion of the City for the transmitting or conveying of any service elsewhere. The City Council may prescribe the terms and conditions of any such grant. It may also provide, by procedural ordinance, the method of procedure and additional terms and conditions for making such grants, subject to the provisions of this Charter.

1504 RESOLUTION OF INTENTION, NOTICE AND PUBLIC HEARING.

Before granting any franchise, the City Council shall pass a resolution declaring its intention to grant the same, stating the name of the proposed grantee, the character of the franchise and the terms and conditions upon which it is proposed to be granted. Such resolution shall fix and set forth the day, hour and place when and where any persons having any interest therein or any objection to the granting thereof may appear before the City Council and be heard thereon. It shall direct the City Clerk to publish said resolution at least once within fifteen (15) days of the passage thereof, in the official newspaper. The time fixed for such hearing shall not be less than twenty (20) nor more than sixty (60) days after the passage of said resolution.

At the time set for the hearing, the City Council shall proceed to hear and pass upon all protests and its decision thereon shall be final and conclusive. Thereafter, it may grant, or deny, the franchise, subject to the right of referendum of the people.

1505 TERM OF FRANCHISE.

Every franchise shall state the term for which it is granted, which, unless it be indeterminate as provided for herein, shall not exceed thirty-five (35) years.

A franchise grant may be indeterminate, that is to say, it may provide that it shall endure in full force and effect until the same, with the consent of the Public Utilities Commission of the State of California, shall be voluntarily surrendered or abandoned by its possessor, or until the State of California, or some municipal or public corporation, thereunto duly authorized by law, shall purchase by voluntary agreement or shall condemn and take, under the power of eminent domain, all property actually used and useful in the exercise of such franchise and situate within the territorial limits of the State, municipal or public corporation purchasing or condemning such property, or until the franchise shall be forfeited for noncompliance with its terms by the possessor thereof.

1506 EMINENT DOMAIN.

No franchise grant shall in any way or to any extent impair or affect the right of the City to acquire the property of the grantee thereof, either by purchase or through the exercise of the right of eminent domain, and nothing herein contained shall be construed to contract away or to modify or to abridge either for a term or in perpetuity the City’s right of eminent domain with respect to any public utility. Every franchise grant shall reserve to the City the right to purchase the property of such utility either at an agreed price or a price to be determined in the manner provided for by the General Laws of this State.

1507 DUTIES OF GRANTEE.

By its acceptance of any franchise hereunder, the grantee shall covenant and agree to perform and be bound by each and all of the terms and conditions imposed in the grant or by procedural ordinance, and shall further agree to:

(a) Comply with all lawful ordinances, rules and regulations theretofore or thereafter adopted by the City Council in the exercise of its police power, governing the construction, maintenance and operation of its plants, works and equipment;

(b) Pay to the City on demand the cost of all repairs to public property made necessary by any of the operations of the grantee under such franchise;

(c) Indemnify and hold harmless the City and its officers from any and all liability for damages proximately resulting from any operations under such franchise;

(d) Remove and relocate without expense to the City any facilities installed, used and maintained under the franchise if and when made necessary by any lawful change of grade, alignment or width of any public street, way, alley or place, including the construction of any subway or viaduct; and

(e) Pay to the City during the life of the franchise, if operative wholly within the City, a percentage, to be specified in the grant, of the gross annual receipts of the grantee within the limits of the City, or such other compensation as the City Council may prescribe in the grant, or for a franchise to a public utility operating within and without the City such compensation as may be provided by the General Laws of the State.