(a) The State or county shall not enter into an exclusive arrangement with any person for use of the right of way for the construction, operation, marketing, or maintenance of small wireless facilities or for small wireless facilities collocation.

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Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes 206N-5

  • Application: means a request submitted by an applicant to the State or county for a permit to collocate small wireless facilities or to approve the replacement or modification of a utility pole. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 206N-2
  • Collocate: means to install, mount, maintain, modify, operate, or replace small wireless facilities on or immediately adjacent to a wireless support structure or utility pole. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 206N-2
  • Communications service: means cable service, as defined in § 440G-3 or title 47 United States Code § 522(6), as amended; information service, as defined in title 47 United States Code § 153(24), as amended; telecommunications service, as defined in § 269-1 or title 47 United States Code § 153(53), as amended; mobile service, as defined in title 47 United States Code § 153(33), as amended; or wireless service other than mobile service. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 206N-2
  • Communications service provider: means a cable operator, as defined in § 440G-3 or title 47 United States Code § 522(5); a provider of information service, as defined in title 47 United States Code § 153(24); a telecommunications carrier, as defined in § 269-1 or title 47 United States Code § 153(51); or a wireless provider. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 206N-2
  • county: includes the city and county of Honolulu. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 1-22
  • Decorative pole: means a state or county pole that is specially designed and placed for aesthetic purposes and on which no appurtenances or attachments, other than a wireless facility attachment, specially designed informational and directional signage, or temporary holiday or special event attachments, have been placed or are permitted to be placed according to nondiscriminatory state or county rules or codes. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 206N-2
  • Feasible design and collocation standards: means reasonable, objective, and nondiscriminatory specifications concerning the physical structure, construction, location, and appearance of small wireless facilities; provided that those specifications facilitate the installation of the small wireless facilities and may be waived by the State or county. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 206N-2
  • Historic district: means a group of buildings, properties, or sites that are either listed in the National Register of Historic Places or as determined by the state historic preservation program in accordance with chapter 6E. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 206N-2
  • Right of way: means the area on, below, or above a public roadway, highway, street, sidewalk, alley, utility easement, or similar property. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 206N-2
  • Small wireless facilities: means a wireless facility or other facility providing communications service that meets one or both of the following qualifications:

    (1) Each communications service provider's antenna can fit within an enclosure of no more than six cubic feet in volume; or

    (2) All other equipment associated with the communications service facility, whether ground- or pole-mounted, that is cumulatively no more than twenty-eight cubic feet in volume; provided that the following types of associated ancillary equipment shall not be included in the calculation of equipment volume: electric meter, concealment elements, telecommunications demarcation box, grounding equipment, power transfer switch, cut-off switch, and vertical cable runs for the connection of power and other services. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 206N-2

  • Technically feasible: means that by virtue of engineering or spectrum usage, the proposed placement for a small wireless facility, or its design or site location can be implemented without a reduction in the functionality of the wireless facility. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 206N-2
  • Utility pole: means a pole or similar structure that is or may be used in whole or in part by or for wireline communications, electric distribution, lighting, traffic control, signage, or a similar function, or for the collocation of small wireless facilities. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 206N-2
  • Wireless facility: includes small wireless facilities but shall not include:

    (1) Wireline backhaul facilities; and

    (2) Coaxial or fiber-optic cable between utility poles or communications facilities that are otherwise not immediately adjacent to and directly associated with a particular antenna. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 206N-2

  • Wireless provider: means an individual, corporation, company, association, trust, or other entity or organization who:

    (1) Provides services, including wireless broadband services, whether at a fixed location or mobile, to the public using wireless facilities; or

    (2) Builds or installs wireless communication transmission equipment or wireless facilities, including an individual authorized to provide telecommunications service in the State. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 206N-2

  • Wireline backhaul: means the transport of communications data or other electronic information by wire from wireless facilities to a communications network. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 206N-2
(b) Subject to this section, the construction or modification of small wireless facilities in the right of way shall be a permitted use not subject to zoning review or other discretionary approval; provided that such facilities shall be constructed and maintained so as not to obstruct the usual travel, public safety, on such right of way or obstruct the legal use of such right of way by utilities or authorized parties.

The State or county shall have the authority to condition the approval of an application upon compliance with pre-established nondiscriminatory feasible design and collocation standards on small wireless facilities to be installed on property solely owned by the State or county. As part of a feasible design and collocation standard, the State or county may require the communications service provider to pay the State or county for the electricity that is used by the small wireless facilities and to place an appropriately sized fuse on the small cell to control the amount of electricity used by the communications service provider. To the extent the State or county establishes feasible design and collocation standards, they shall be made available in published guidelines and apply ninety calendar days after their publication. Nothing in this section requires the State or county to establish feasible design and collocation standards.

Modified or replaced utility poles associated with a small wireless facility that meet the requirements of this section are permitted uses subject to the permitting process in § 206N-6.

No additional discretionary permit shall be required to maintain, operate, modify, or replace small wireless facilities and associated utility poles along, across, upon, and under the right of way. The grant of a permit for a small wireless facility does not authorize the installation, placement, maintenance, or operation of any communications facility, including a wireline backhaul facility, other than a small wireless facility, in the right of way, and shall not otherwise be a general authorization to occupy and use the right of way.

(c) Each modified or replaced utility pole installed in the right of way for the collocation of small wireless facilities shall not exceed the greater of:

(1) Ten feet in height above the tallest existing utility pole in place as of July 1, 2018, located within five hundred feet of the modified or replaced pole in the same right of way; or
(2) Fifty feet above ground level.

New small wireless facilities in the right of way shall not extend more than ten feet above an existing utility pole in place as of July 1, 2018. Subject to this section and § 206N-6, a communications service provider or wireless provider may modify, replace, and maintain a utility pole or small wireless facility that exceeds these height limits along, across, upon, and under the right of way, subject to applicable zoning regulations.

(d) A communications service provider may replace a decorative pole, when necessary to collocate a small wireless facility, if the replacement pole reasonably conforms to the design aesthetics of the decorative pole or poles being replaced.
(e) Subject to § 206N-6, and except for facilities excluded from evaluation for effects on historic properties under title 47 C.F.R. § 1.1307(a)(4), a State or county may require reasonable, technically feasible, non-discriminatory, and technologically neutral design or concealment measures in a historic district. Any such design or concealment measures shall not have the effect of prohibiting any provider’s technology, nor shall any such measures be considered a part of the small wireless facility for purposes of the size restrictions.
(f) The State or county shall:

(1) Be competitively neutral in the exercise of its administration and regulation related to the management of the right of way and with regard to other users of the right of way; and
(2) Not impose any conditions that are unreasonable or discriminatory.
(g) The State or county may require a communications service provider to repair all damage to the right of way directly caused by the activities of the communications service provider in the right of way and to return the right of way to the same or better condition before the damage pursuant to the competitively neutral, reasonable requirements and specifications of the State or county within thirty calendar days. If the communications service provider fails to make the repairs required by the State or county within thirty calendar days after written notice, the State or county may complete those repairs and charge the applicable party the reasonable, documented cost of the repairs.