City Council Meeting Date: July 13, 2021
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Ben Martig, City Administrator
Title
Consideration of Cable Franchise Ordinance with MetroNet (Second Reading).
Body
Action Requested:
The Northfield City Council is asked to approve the second reading of Cable Franchise Ordinance with MetroNet.
Summary Report:
The Northfield City Council held a public hearing on June 1, 2021, to consider an application from CMN-RUS, Inc., d/b/a MetroNet ("MetroNet") requesting a cable franchise from the City of Northfield to provide cable services in the City. Attorney Brian Grogan, Moss & Barnett, reviewed and prepared a report regarding the MetroNet application. A resolution was adopted regarding the qualifications of MetroNet to own and operate a cable system in the City (Attachment 3).
Attached is a copy of the MetroNet Cable Franchise Ordinance (Attachment 1) and the Dark Fiber Agreement (Attachment 2). The City Council held a first reading of the Ordinance at the June 15, 2021 meeting and approved the Dark Fiber Agreement.
The City conducted franchise negotiations with MetroNet utilizing the same franchise template document that the City had previously provided to its incumbent cable television operator, Charter Communications a/k/a Spectrum. The goal in utilizing the same base document was to ensure that competing operators will be franchised under similar terms and conditions. The focus of the negotiations was to amend the template document to address MetroNet's fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) cable system.
MetroNet proposes to build fiber to each dwelling unit within the City subject to build-out criteria specified in the franchise. The franchise generally requires MetroNet to build to 85% of the dwelling units within the City, subject to certain criteria. There is also line extension obligations which can be used to require additional build out beyond the 85% initial service area. MetroNet has indicated its expectation that i...
Click here for full text