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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018/05/09 - ADMIN - Minutes - Community Technology Advisory Commission - Regular St. Louis Park City Hall • 5005 Minnetonka Blvd., St. Louis Park, MN 55416 www.stlouispark.org • Phone: 952.924.2500 • TTY: 952.924.2518 OFFICIAL MINUTES ST. LOUIS PARK TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION MEETING OF MAY 9, 2018 ST. LOUIS PARK CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS MEMBERS PRESENT: Maren Anderson, Bruce Browning, David Dyer, Cindy Hoffman, Abe Levine, Nathan Munson and Rolf Peterson MEMBERS ABSENT: John McHugh, Community TV Coordinator STAFF PRESENT: Jacqueline Larson, Communications and Marketing Manager, Reg Dunlap, Civic TV Coordinator OTHERS PRESENT: Deb Heiser, St. Louis Park Director of Engineering and Matt Muilenburg, Comcast Construction Manager 1. Call to order Chair Levine called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. 2. Roll Call Present at roll call were Commissioners Anderson, Browning, Dyer, Hoffman, Levine, Munson and Peterson. 3. Approval of Minutes for March 14, 2018. It was moved by Commissioner Browning, seconded by Commissioner Munson, to approve the agenda. The motion passed 7-0. 4. Adoption of the Agenda 5. Public Comment There was none. 6. Reports & Discussion A. City Director of Engineering Deb Heiser to talk about ROW management with 5G & the new small cell law implementation Ms. Heiser showed PowerPoint slides to provide background. She started with a diagram of a typical street to show how much infrastructure is under a city street and why management is necessary. The city has had a right of way ordinance since 1974, which protects the health, safety and welfare of citizens. It was updated last fall because of the change in state law last spring, which allows small cells to be treated like other private equipment in the right of way. Previously, small cells were treated similarly to macro cell towers. St. Louis Park City Hall • 5005 Minnetonka Blvd., St. Louis Park, MN 55416 www.stlouispark.org • Phone: 952.924.2500 • TTY: 952.924.2518 Key changes in the right of way ordinance include strengthening the provision on patching and restoration, to better protect the traveling public, and requiring accurate electronic as-built maps for underground facilities. She reminded everyone to dial 7-1-1 for Gopher State One Call before digging, for safety and to protect the integrity of the infrastructure, and described the city’s right of way permitting. Small wireless facilities are defined as a permitted use, are no taller than 50 feet, cannot be taller than 10 feet above existing structures, antennas may not be larger than six cubic feet and associated equipment may not be greater than 28 cubic feet in volume. The fee per antenna is $1,500 and a consolidated application for multiple similar equipment installations is available. If collocated, the rent is $150 per year and maintenance is $25 per year, which are fees set by the new state law. The electricity must be separately metered. Ms. Heiser said the city usually reviews permit applications within a week, but the new state law requires approval or denial within 90 days or the application is automatically approved. The city may deny a permit for health, safety and welfare reasons, or noncompliance with decorative wireless support structures or signs. The city has a master licensing agreement with Verizon dating to early last year that was based on cell tower practices. A collocation agreement is in place for Mobilite, acting for Sprint, and we’re on the third draft of an agreement with AT&T. Chair Levine asked about the future demand for small cells. Ms. Heiser said that they are needed every 300 feet, about every block, because data is king on 5G, and will provide faster streaming than today. There was a big push before the Super Bowl, and we expect more demand but we haven’t seen it yet. Mr. Dunlap asked about the definition of health, safety and welfare, and if aesthetics were included in welfare? Ms. Heiser said health was pretty well understood, and that safety pertained to proximity to the street and for example, if they couldn’t plow snow safely. ADA requirements are part of welfare, if a pole was proposed for the middle of a sidewalk, for example. Aesthetics pertain to banners that can screen the antennas, for example. Commissioner Munson asked about the decorative pole requirements. Ms. Heiser showed an example of a decorative pole in the West End that was replaced with a higher gauge metal. Commissioner Munson said small cells are a permitted use except in single family residential zones or historic districts, and asked if the city has a policy on single family residential zones? Ms. Heiser said Community Development is working with the Planning Commission to update the antenna ordinance. Ms. Heiser said they are not prohibited in residential areas, but they are working on language relating to aesthetics and welfare. Commissioner Munson asked if the public could comment when a permit was requested; Ms. Heiser said because of the shot clock, there wouldn’t be an opportunity for public comment. Commissioner Munson asked about disposition of unused equipment; Ms. Heiser said there is a bond requirement to cover that. Commissioner Hoffman asked about the weight of the equipment? Ms. Heiser replied that wind load was more of a concern than weight. She added that a lesson learned since the first deployments was put into the ordinance to have the cables run inside the pole, not on the outside. St. Louis Park City Hall • 5005 Minnetonka Blvd., St. Louis Park, MN 55416 www.stlouispark.org • Phone: 952.924.2500 • TTY: 952.924.2518 Commissioner Browning said that poles in front of a house were unpopular during the Wi-Fi project, and asked if that might need to happen for small cell deployment? Ms. Heiser said, yes. Commissioner Munson said he can see two light poles in front of his property, and to add the antennas pictured would be problematic. Chair Levine said, if you want 5G they have to go somewhere. Commissioner Munson said agreed, but I also have utility poles in the back yard, so where there are options, I’d like to see the installations be what’s best for the community, as opposed to what works best for the technology company. Commissioner Peterson asked if 5G is connected by fiber to a central location? Chair Levine said that it was not a mesh network, that the gig speeds of the backbone fiber feed the small cells that have limited range and limited ability to penetrate buildings. Ms. Heiser said that the range is improved if the antennas are in open spaces in the right of way, rather than on the side of a building. She also said that the cost of the permit must reflect the city’s actual costs, so the hours spent on right of way permits are tracked and will be evaluated each year, along with other permits and fees. B. Comcast engineer to describe the DOCSIS 3.1 standard, advantages to customer and other Comcast technologies Mr. Muilenburg described Comcast’s Next Generation Architecture project called Fiber Deep, and NGAN for short. Coax cable will still be used, but only for the last 200 or 300 yards. The old fiber nodes served 500 customers, but we’re cutting that down to 80 customers per node on average. There is no amplification over the last 300 yards. This is not an upgrade, it’s an enhancement. We’re not selling a new product, we’re making our current product better and upping the capacity and speeds that are available. The old design served 400 or 500 customers, and from each node there were 5 amplifiers to the end of the line. With NGAN, lot of coax is replaced with fiber. Mr. Muilenburg played a video that showed that each node now serves 4 or 5 multiplexing ports. Each of these ports converts fiber to coax, but because the coax cable runs are 1000 feet or less, no amplification is needed. The benefits of fiber deep are: • Increased upstream and downstream bandwidth • Less maintenance • Increased reliability and signal quality for customers • Fiber is closer to the home, so the opportunity to serve each home with fiber directly is now possible Mr. Muilenburg described the construction and cut over process. The fibers are small, 44 count, and are over-lashed to existing cable. One month before the cutover, customers will be notified with a letter; three days before the cutover, customers will be door-tagged. Customers will be alerted with texts the day of the cutover. The outages for customers were two hours in Roseville in the winter, so they expect shorter outages in the summer. St. Louis Park City Hall • 5005 Minnetonka Blvd., St. Louis Park, MN 55416 www.stlouispark.org • Phone: 952.924.2500 • TTY: 952.924.2518 Commissioner Browning asked if there’s a point when fiber will be installed all the way to the home? Mr. Muilenburg said that is a possibility. They are using Remote Fi in this NGAN project, and putting some head end equipment in the nodes in the field. The digital lasers will improve upstream speed ability. He said the DOCSIS 3.1 system can offer 1 gig service, and is being tested in several markets. It requires customers to use a different modem. It’s not widely launched yet and the standard is still in the approval process, but Comcast is evaluating it. Chair Levine said that recently Comcast had significantly increased internet download speeds, and asked if that’s a marketing decision or if a new technology had been changed? Mr. Muilenburg said it was a marketing decision, that Comcast had increased speeds in15 of the last 17 years and that they plan to continue to do that. Commissioner Hoffman asked about the difference between upgrade and enhancement? Mr. Muilenburg said an upgrade occurred in the late 1990’s because we wanted to sell more services. When NGAN is done, there are no new products to sell, it’s to make what we offer, better. Mr. Dunlap asked if decreasing the number of customers per node will improve service to some of the known problem areas? Mr. Muilenburg said they have evidence from Roseville that it does. Commissioner Munson asked where this has already been deployed and when it would be finished in St. Louis Park? Mr. Muilenburg said Roseville, Vadnais Heights, Falcon Heights, Columbia Heights are completed. Construction is under way in St. Louis Park, that cutovers would start in June and the project would be complete by the end of the year. C. Comcast price increase effective May 1, 2018 Mr. Dunlap said that city has no authority over the price of services but takes complaints about price increases. The increases were 50 cents to $2 for various services. D. Wireless industry guest to talk about 5 G and the potential impacts on cable TV in St. Louis Park Chair Levine said this item was deferred, and was disappointed that his contact person has declined after a year of exchanging emails. Mr. Dunlap said he’d follow up with Ms. Heiser to see if she had a contact person. E. Smart Cities Subcommittee progress report Commissioner Browning summarized the meeting on April 30 with Operations Manager Jeff Stevens and Streets Field Supervisor Jeff Wolff. Commissioner Browning said he was pleasantly surprised at how much the city is already using technology to save money and do a better job, which are elements of a smart city. The snow plows have GPS that is tracked by a software called PreCise. Managers can tell where a truck is at any time, and how fast it’s going. The trucks have a computerized system to apply salt and sand, and use 1/3 as much salt as the old trucks. St. Louis Park is a leader in advanced technology for plowing and asset management, which uses Cartegraph software installed in 2014. The city owns 1,800 street lights, and has St. Louis Park City Hall • 5005 Minnetonka Blvd., St. Louis Park, MN 55416 www.stlouispark.org • Phone: 952.924.2500 • TTY: 952.924.2518 been converting them to LED’s for the last five years. Excel is also converting their street lights to LED’s. The city is already saving $500 per month in electrical service, which converts to 29,000 kilowatt hours or 31,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere, so it’s good for the environment. F. CenturyLink franchise fee review Mr. Dunlap said St. Louis Park has agreed to join a number of cities to do a franchise fee review of CenturyLink based on information provided at the last commission meeting. CenturyLink’s billing systems weren’t talking to each other and they did a write off to cover overpayments. CenturyLink has been notified. G. Review Comcast & CenturyLink complaint logs Commissioner Browning asked about the complaint against CenturyLink for having to pay $7.99 for the wire protection plan. Mr. Dunlap said the customer thought it was unfair, and wasn’t satisfied with the response. Mr. Dunlap said he was very happy to report it was a quiet quarter for complaints. 7. Communications from the Chair, Commissioners and City staff 8. Adjournment It was moved by Commissioner Peterson, seconded by Commissioner Munson, to adjourn the meeting at 8:25 p.m. The motion passed 7-0. Respectfully submitted by: Reg Dunlap Civic TV Coordinator