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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017/02/08 - ADMIN - Minutes - Community Technology Advisory Commission - RegularOFFICIAL MINUTES ST. LOUIS PARK TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION MEETING OF FEBRUARY 8, 2017 ST. LOUIS PARK COUNCIL CHAMBERS MEMBERS PRESENT: Maren Anderson, Bruce Browning, David Dyer, Cindy Hoffman, Abe Levine and Rolf Peterson. MEMBERS ABSENT: None STAFF PRESENT: Clint Pires, Chief Information Officer, Jacqueline Larson, Communications and Marketing Manager, Reg Dunlap, Civic TV Coordinator and John McHugh, Community TV Coordinator OTHERS PRESENT: Travis Carter, U.S. Internet Vice President, Chuck Brolin and one other visitor 1. Call to Order Chair Anderson called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. 2. Roll Call Present at roll call were Commissioners Anderson, Browning, Hoffman, Levine and Peterson. Commissioner Dyer arrived at 7:03 p.m. 3. Approval of Minutes for December 14, 2016 It was moved by Commissioner Browning, seconded by Commissioner Levine, to approve the minutes. The motion passed 6-0. 4. Adoption of Agenda Mr. Dunlap asked to switch items 6 C. and D., and add item 6. G., Complaint log review. It was moved by Commissioner Peterson, seconded by Commissioner Browning, to approve the agenda as presented. The motion passed 6-0. 5. Public Comment – None 6. Reports & Discussion A. Small cell and distributed antenna systems (DAS) permitting in St. Louis Park Chief Information Officer Clint Pires gave a verbal report. Wireless cell companies have typically served customers with macro sites, such as on three water towers in St. Louis Park. The providers need to penetrate deeper into residential and commercial areas to meet the increasing demand. Small cells amplify the volume and speed of data delivered to customers. Each carrier installs its own small cells to serve customers. DAS is more like a tenant system that hosts several providers in one cabinet. The challenge: not every cell provider needs their capacity grown or speed amplified in the same areas as others. Five G wireless technology is coming and will provide the capacity the providers and customers need. Companies are attempting to use existing structures in the right of way owned by municipalities, such as traffic lights, street signs, light poles, etc. City staff has been working on this, and timing is very good because the city has just developed a master license agreement that will go to the City Council February 13 for adoption on February 21. Then a template will be in place for any provider that comes into town, and the conditions under which we'd allow equipment to be placed in our right of way. Verizon is the first customer, wanting locations along Park Place Boulevard from Cedar Lake Road to I-394. City staff expects the number of applications to grow and we want to be ready. We want the right of way equipment to be structurally sound and aesthetically acceptable. Aesthetics at West End, for example, are different than residential areas. The city is intent on retaining local control under which the conditions can occur. At state and federal level, telecom providers are attempting to strip control from local government on how or where these items are placed. Cities feel this is a public right of way and should be a city decision. At the same time companies coming in should have a level playing field and have a master template that defines conditions. Commissioner Browning asked if the state is involved at any level? How do they look at it versus the city? Mr. Pires said there has been legislation that would pre-empt local control and make statewide decisions. MACTA and other professional organizations are arguing for keeping local control. Commissioner Levine asked what standards would be statewide if the state was granted that authority? Mr. Pires said it is a work in progress, looking at rents that can be charged and making it a uniform amount. Another area that has been discussed is looking at ANY public property such as parks, water towers, etc., not just right of way. Commissioner Dyer asked if there was cooperation between Verizon and ATT for example, so they aren't all trying to replace different things, instead of them all hopping on same structure. Mr. Pires said putting a bunch of antennas on a streetlight won't do much for aesthetics, but we haven't seen much collaboration between companies, except to limit local control to manage installations. Commissioner Browning asked about how macro towers tie into fiber networks to provide communications for facilities? Do small cells link back up to macro towers and if so how? Mr. Pires said it's a combination and depends on backhaul needs. Commissioner Peterson asked if it could happen on private property, and if there are zoning regulations? Mr. Pires said, yes, we have zoning regulations so there are limits in private areas. Commissioner Peterson said he's installed Mobilite equipment and it's huge, and can't hang on poles. Is that what we mean? Mr. Pires said, each company would look at its own small cells, and perhaps have joint tenancy with one site hosting multiple carriers. Mr. Pires said the city is moving ahead with presenting this concept to the City Council February 13 to have them review master license agreement and individual installation agreements. Verizon is not getting everything they wanted but is getting what they need. Bloomington and St. Paul have templates in place, and Edina is working on one. B. City fiber deployment update with Chief Information Officer Clint Pires Mr. Pires talked about the status of the City’s fiber network and partnerships. The city has been involved in fiber installation for 12 years, and the school district started in 1998. The city did the bulk of its work in 2008 and 2009. The city and school district have collaborated for years now. The city has more than 50 miles of fiber after the 2016 installations. The cost analysis shows the payback is within eight years for installing fiber versus paying a provider, plus getting much better speed and quality. We keep building out the network and building in redundancy. Mr. Pires said in 2016, fiber was relocated by the Brookview Golf Course, and extended into Golden Valley and to the Hennepin County Sherriff’s Office. St. Louis Park Library has a fiber connection now, which was a goal of the city’s fiber study several years ago, provided by partnering with Hennepin County, who in exchange built some segments of fiber for the city to use. Another project with Hennepin County is Southwest Light Rail Transit. The county is putting fiber under the track then allocating strands to cities through which the line passes. Mr. Pires said fiber redundancy is a huge issue because reliance on connections to the internet is increasingly crucial. The city now has two connection to each location like City Hall, MSC, Police Station, two fire stations, Nature Center, the Rec Center, ROC and to all the main data centers. Why? Because some contractors aren't as careful as they should be, and we have to keep internet access if a main line is cut. Mr. Pires said fiber additions in 2016 were along Utica Avenue and Wayzata Boulevard, along with the construction on the east side of Utica with residential, hotel and offices. He said fiber or conduit is installed when the ground is open and it’s cost effective. The water meter replacement program involved wireless water meters being read by six data collectors in town. This allows reading all but 50 of the 14,000 installed meters. The fiber supports this, and gets the data back to City Hall. Wireless and fiber will coexist, and we need both. Mr. Pires said that fiber has been extended to the ROC, and wireless access points under the roof will be able to support 1,000 people connecting at the same time. Fiber was extended to Louisiana Oaks, Oak Hill and Aquila parks, and when that is done, Wi-Fi for a public amenity is added as well. Looking forward to 2017, fiber conduit will be added along Texas Avenue in the reconstruction from Minnetonka to Hwy. 7, and in the Sorenson neighborhood south of Lake Street, where about 4.5 miles of street will be replaced. That's really the city’s emphasis—to build capacity and make it helpful to community generally. Wi-Fi will be added to the Wolfe Park playground area and Veterans Memorial Amphitheatre. Mr. Pires said that’s 50 miles of fiber or conduit, and increasingly with a benefit to the community, and who knows, maybe someday fiber to the premise. Commissioner Browning asked about the cost of fiber or conduit? Mr. Pires said it varies but generally $10-$15 per foot. Generally two conduits and one fiber are installed to future proof it, in case we need more capacity later and have to replace a fiber. It’s much cheaper than boring again later, or opening up the street which leads to potholes and repairs. Commissioner Browning asked if they install single mode or multi-mode fiber? Mr. Pires said usually they install conduit, for future use, but that the existing fiber is usually single mode. Commissioner Levine asked if the city’s intent was to wire to every home eventually, or to leave that to U.S. Internet and others? Mr. Pires said, it’s a combination, that they expect to lease fiber to others. Commissioner Levine said that along Inglewood Avenue the street was torn up but no fiber was installed. Mr. Pires said the city had installed some fiber along Joppa, and that he’d like to review this with Commissioner Levine to see if it was someone else’s project. Chair Anderson thanked Mr. Pires for the impressive update. C. Discuss City Council strategic goal: Researching strategic options Mr. Pires said that the City Council has the goal of St. Louis Park as a technology connected community and has asked staff to develop strategies and action plans to achieve this. He suggested the Commission immerse itself in the study of some of the possibilities and ways to get there. A natural way to start is to see what others have done, and perhaps have a subcommittee study this. The goals were put together in 2015, and is meant to get us to 2025, so it isn’t a one year document. He said he’d love to see the Commission tackle this topic: how do we use all this fiber, and how does it help us? Commissioner Levine asked where the charter of the city starts and stops? For example, this is the Telecommunications Advisory Commission, but it could be the Technology Advisory Commission. The city can’t try to do it all itself, and shouldn’t, but would we be tasked with working on an entire problem or opportunity, or just the communications part of it? Mr. Pires said that this used to be the Cable TV Commission because that’s what was being reviewed, and that John McHugh suggested the name change to reflect the broader areas of review. Commissioner Browning said it needs to be a collaborative effort, that we’re always learning, and the technology is always evolving, and referenced a survey. Mr. Pires said it’s a challenge to conduct an accurate survey, it’s different than it used to be. We know we have to evolve with the times and get ahead of it where we can. Commissioner Levine suggested a subgroup, and Commissioner Browning volunteered. Mr. Dunlap said that the Commission now has six members, with another appointee coming in May or June, and that a subcommittee would probably have an additional meeting in the next few months and report back at the May meeting. D. Update on U.S. Internet progress in St. Louis Park Mr. Pires said the city and U.S. Internet have been in talks for several years to deliver fiber to the home someday. Many of us believe fiber to the home will happen, that it’s just a matter of time. What is happening in Minneapolis is noteworthy, and St. Louis Park is a natural because of our population density of 4,600 per square mile. This has been of interest to the Telecommunications Advisory Commission for some time, he introduced Travis Carter of U.S. Internet to describe what they’ve done in Minneapolis and more important, talk about how their plans might intermingle in St. Louis Park. Mr. Carter described U.S.I’s background in Minneapolis, going back to the city-wide Wi- Fi contract in 2008 and installing 2,500 access points. He said they did their best to deliver the technology and it still works today, but in the post-Netflix world it became apparent there wasn’t enough capacity on the network to deliver the service we would want to consume. U.S.I. researched fiber and began to build with the intent that someday they’d wire all of Minneapolis, and the customer would decide which services would be successful. U.S.I. started with 100 megabit speed seven years ago, and now has passed 56,000 homes in Minneapolis with a 52% market share in the blocks where they offer service. U.S.I. made the conscious choice to not provide cable TV service, to focus on internet with low latency, high bandwidth and no caps. U.S.I. started in the Uptown Area and moved south until they hit Minnehaha Creek. In 2017 U.S.I. plans to work west to Linden Hills, and next to that is St. Louis Park. U.S.I. offices are in Minnetonka, and we are looking to expand into St. Louis Park. Last year we did a project on Westmoreland, and this year are looking to connect to the West End and from the other side of town, Minikahda Vista, and connect those two areas similar to what we’re doing in Minneapolis. Mr. Carter said that U.S.I. needs some property in St. Louis Park for electronics, so once that hurdle is past, they can begin to deliver service here. The goal is to connect everyone, but since this is a privately funded venture, they build to their capacity, slow and steady, and are limited to the construction season of April 15 to November 15. U.S.I. deploys active Ethernet, so every home or business gets a dedicated fiber, which allows them to be technology agnostic. Mr. Carter complemented the City of St. Louis Park for allowing them to leverage the infrastructure already in place. U.S.I. has 840 units in multiple dwelling units signed up to wire, including Meadowbrook. Mr. Carter expects to reach 2,500 homes in St. Louis Park this year and include some single family homes. U.S.I. has a fixed amount of capital for construction and most of it will go to Minneapolis in 2017, but Mr. Carter looks to increase that in St. Louis Park in 2018. Commissioner Browning asked if they used hub and spoke design, and how deep underground they were? Mr. Carter said yes, and that they were usually 3 to 4 feet deep mainly avoiding gas lines. Commissioner Browning asked if there were any issues with fiber cuts? Mr. Carter said they had two or three per year, usually after the facilities are marked but the area is being cleared for large construction projects. Commissioner Levine asked how good the GIS systems are, that they work with? Mr. Carter said that they get the as-builts from each company in the right of way when they get a permit, then overlay them on one map. Then they go find out what’s really there, because the as-builts aren’t accurate. They manually dig up the gas main in front of every house and mark on the sidewalk how deep it is, and calculate where to bore. Commissioner Levine asked if that information was collected somewhere so the next company wouldn’t have to do this? Mr. Carter said no. He said they have three or four gas line hits per year and it brings a real circus, with fire trucks and everything. Chuck Brolin lives in an apartment building on Oxford, and said that U.S.I. sent a representative to talk to the residents about their plans last week. He said he was happy to hear that there would be no cost to residents to install a main box in each building, and then each unit would be connected to that box. His question was, how can this be done in only 120 days, from the West End or the Minneapolis border? Mr. Pires said that the city built excess fiber and capacity in some areas, so the city is leasing fiber and conduit to U.S.I. They are the second company to take advantage of that capacity. The City Council has authorized either a price per mile or value trades. U.S.I. has built 1.5 miles of fiber and traded that to the city to make a needed connection for the School District at 14th and Colorado. In addition we’re looking at more fiber along Excelsior Boulevard and a fiber connection to Shelard Park, which has been a goal for some time. Collaboration with U.S.I. allowed these connections to happen faster than they would have. Mr. Carter said this is unique to St. Louis Park, to do fiber leasing, and it will enable thousands of users to come online this year. It helps justify U.S.I. bringing more capital in later this summer or next year. Commissioner Browning asked whether they prefer to run fiber or Ethernet to each unit? Mr. Carter said installing Ethernet jacks is preferred because it’s technology neutral and more familiar to the customer. But it varies, depending on the building that is being connected. He said they have 20,000 fiber customers and they get about 12 tech support calls per day, so it’s a very reliable product. Eleven of those calls are the Wi-Fi connection in the home. Commissioner Peterson said fiber to the home can’t happen soon enough, for him. His son lives in Boston in a building that was built before Washington was President, and he has fiber there. Mr. Carter said that they expected the millennials to be their most popular demographic, but instead it’s the people in senior high-rises, and the reason is price. U.S.I.’s mantra is to build a service they would want to buy. There’s no contract, and it’s easy to connect. Mr. Pires said the Council has pushed for a choice of providers. Another thing U.S.I. has done is symmetrical speeds for upload and download, which is no small benefit. Mr. Pires said that he and Mr. Carter would be making a similar presentation to the City Council at a Study Session next week, and that they would be looking for feedback from the Telecommunications Advisory Commission on the arrangement with U.S.I. He said that making St. Louis Park the first fiber-wired suburb would be a great thing for residents. Chair Anderson made the motion to endorse the partnership between U.S. Internet and the city, including fiber lease agreements, and encourages U.S. Internet to continue to build out to the rest of the city. Commissioner Browning seconded, and the motion passed 6-0. E. Park TV marketing, publicity & program report for 2016 Mr. Dunlap said that there are five different ParkTV channels, and over 400 programs were produced by staff in 2016. Ms. Larson said that it was gratifying to see staff produce more short videos for social media, which results in a lot of views. She commended Paul Broden for doing several productions from Groves Academy, which is a new venue for ParkTV, and Paul and John McHugh for coverage of the FC Minneapolis soccer league. F. Review annual report to Council and pick the key points to report to Council Mr. Dunlap selected three goals for the draft report but these are subject to change based on Commission input, either in discussion tonight or by following up with email. He said that the Commission had a good start towards goal number one, with Mr. Pires’ presentation this evening: “Review small cell and distributed antenna systems permitting in St. Louis Park to ensure St. Louis Park is ready to be in the first wave to benefit from these technologies.” Commissioner Levine suggested changing goal number two, to “Bringing the highest speed fiber networks to city residences and businesses in the short term, and maintain high performance over the long term.” Commissioner Browning said that defining high speed, since that varies, would be useful. High speed five years ago is not fast enough today. Commissioner Levine suggested changing goal number three to: “Recommend ways to use high performing fiber and wireless networks, once established, to enhance livability in the city.” Mr. Dunlap said that was a very good improvement in the goals, and asked if other Commissioners agreed with that approach. The consensus was to make the changes. G. Complaint logs Commissioner Levine said that one thing that stood out was the confusion over the cost of service, that the taxes and fees that are added onto the bill are not usually talked about but can add 15% to the total. He said maybe Comcast could do a better job of addressing that up front with people. Commissioner Dyer agreed, and said it should be more like when other products are purchased so that only the tax is added, so that the cost is more predictable. Commissioner Levine said that with telephone offers, the details can get lost so a follow up email would help customers to understand the details of the offer. Mr. Dunlap said that there is a lawsuit in California about marketing the package price, but not including fees like the broadcast TV or sports channel fees, which are $8 in St. Louis Park, and the HD technology fee, which is $10. 7. Communications from the Chair, Commissioners and City Mr. Dunlap invited Commissioners to the MACTA Day at the Capitol and the upcoming Council Study Session. He said it was bittersweet to announce that ParkTV producer Scott Smith was retiring soon, that this would be his last Commission meeting and that everyone will miss him. Ms. Larson invited Commissioners to attend the Vision 3.0 upcoming meetings, that the goal is to reach as far and wide as possible in the community. 8. Adjournment Chair Anderson adjourned the meeting at 8:50 p.m. Respectfully submitted by: Reg Dunlap Civic TV Coordinator