Ohio Code 4939.04 – Management, regulation, and administration of public ways by municipal corporations
(A)(1) A municipal corporation shall provide public utilities or cable operators with open, comparable, nondiscriminatory, and competitively neutral access to its public ways.
Terms Used In Ohio Code 4939.04
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- operator: includes a wireless service provider, cable operator, or a video service provider that provides information services as defined in the "Telecommunications Act of 1996" 110 Stat. See Ohio Code 4939.01
- Public utility: means a wireless service provider as defined in division (A)(20) of section 4927. See Ohio Code 4939.01
- Public way: means the surface of, and the space within, through, on, across, above, or below, any public street, public road, public highway, public freeway, public lane, public path, public alley, public court, public sidewalk, public boulevard, public parkway, public drive, public easement, and any other land dedicated or otherwise designated for a compatible public use, which, on or after July 2, 2002, is owned or controlled by a municipal corporation. See Ohio Code 4939.01
(2) Nothing in division (A)(1) of this section prohibits a municipal corporation from establishing priorities for access to or occupancy or use of a public way by a public utility or cable operator when the public way cannot accommodate all public way occupants or users, which priorities as applied to public utilities or cable operators shall not be unduly discriminatory and shall be competitively neutral.
(B) The management, regulation, and administration of a public way by a municipal corporation with regard to matters of local concern shall be presumed to be a valid exercise of the power of local self-government granted by Section 3 of Article XVIII of the Ohio Constitution.