Washington Administrative Code › Title 480 - Utilities and Transportation Commission › Chapter 480-54 - ATTACHMENT TO TRANSMISSION FACILITIES › Section 480-54-050 - Modification costs; notice; temporary stay

Current through Register Vol. 24-14, July 15, 2024
(1) The costs of modifying a facility to
			 create capacity for additional attachment, including but not limited to
			 replacement of a pole, shall be borne by the requester and all existing
			 occupants and owner that directly benefit from the modification. Each such
			 occupant or owner shall share the cost of the modification in proportion to the
			 amount of new or additional usable space the occupant or owner occupies on or
			 in the facility. An occupant or owner with an existing attachment to the
			 modified facility shall be deemed to directly benefit from a modification if,
			 within sixty days after receiving notification of such modification, that
			 occupant or owner adds to its existing attachment or otherwise modifies its
			 attachment. An occupant or owner with an existing attachment shall not be
			 deemed to directly benefit from replacement of a pole if the occupant or owner
			 only transfers its attachment to the new pole.
(2) The costs of modifying a facility to
			 bring an existing attachment into compliance with applicable safety
			 requirements shall be borne by the occupant or owner that created the safety
			 violation that necessitated the modification. Such costs include, but are not
			 necessarily limited to, the costs incurred by the owner or other occupants to
			 modify the facility or conforming attachments. An occupant or owner with an
			 existing conforming attachment to a facility shall not be required to bear any
			 of the costs to rearrange or replace the occupant's or owner's attachment if
			 such rearrangement or replacement is necessitated solely to accommodate
			 modifications to the facility to bring another occupant's or owner's attachment
			 into conformance with applicable safety requirements to remedy a safety
			 violation caused by another occupant or owner. The owner and each occupant
			 shall bear their own costs to modify their existing attachments if required to
			 comply with applicable safety requirements if an owner or occupant did not
			 create a safety violation that necessitated the modification.
(3) An owner shall provide an occupant with
			 written notice prior to removal of, termination of service to, or modification
			 of (other than routine maintenance or modification in response to emergencies)
			 any facilities on or in which the occupant has attachments affected by such
			 action. The owner must provide such notice as soon as practicable but no less
			 than sixty days prior to taking the action described in the notice; provided
			 that the owner may provide notice less than sixty days in advance if a
			 governmental entity or landowner other than the owner requires the action
			 described in the notice and did not notify the owner of that requirement more
			 than sixty days in advance.
(4) A
			 utility or licensee may file with the commission and serve on the owner a
			 "petition for temporary stay" of utility action contained in a notice received
			 pursuant to subsection (3) of this section within twenty days of receipt of
			 such notice. The petition must be supported by declarations or affidavits and
			 legal argument sufficient to demonstrate that the petitioner or its customers
			 will suffer irreparable harm in the absence of the relief requested that
			 outweighs any harm to the owner and its customers and that the petitioner will
			 likely be successful on the merits of its dispute. The owner may file and serve
			 an answer to the petition within seven days after the petition is filed unless
			 the commission establishes a different deadline for an answer.
(5) An owner may file with the commission and
			 serve on the occupant a petition for authority to remove the occupant's
			 abandoned attachments. The petition must identify the attachments and provide
			 sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the occupant has abandoned those
			 attachments. The occupant must file an answer to the petition within twenty
			 days after the petition is filed unless the commission establishes a different
			 deadline for an answer. If the occupant does not file an answer or otherwise
			 respond to the petition, the commission may authorize the owner to remove the
			 attachments without further proceedings.