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Department Approval i� � Item Description BACKGROUND � i, REQUEST FOR COUNCIL ACTION Ebuf ; J uf n; Date: Item No 5023021 24/ b 03/22/10 13.c City Manager Approval Discussion Regarding Use of Public Property for Commercial Purposes At the January 11, 2010 City Council meeting, City Council members requested that a discussion be held at a future meeting to discuss commercial uses of public property in light of the request by Clearwire to locate a telecommunications tower in Acorn Park Per City Council request, staff has provided with this report the following chapters of the Comprehensive Plan; Land Use, Parks and Open Space, and Utilities. For the discussion, staff attempted to take an inventory of commercial uses that currently occur on land owned by the City. It is important to note that depending on how you define a `commercial use'; the list of such uses can be quite large. Below is an initial summary of staff's findings: Right-of-way — There is extensive use of the right-of-way for commercial uses, primarily by utilities such as Xcel and Qwest. We are prohibited in charging for the use of our right-of-ways by these utilities by state statutes. (We do require utilities to get a permit from the city and are able to have them reimburse the city for staff time reviewing the permit). There are also bus benches and shelters that have advertising on them for which we charge an annual fee. City Hall Campus — There is an existing telecommunications tower that has 4 providers on the City Hall Campus (Sprint, T-mobile, Verizon, and TTMI). On January 11, 2010, another telecommunications tower was given land use approval to be located on the City Hall campus. There are several vending machines to serve employees that are owned by private business. (In the case of the soda machine in the Police Department, a portion of the sales are donated to the Roseville Police Benevolent Association). Conference rooms within the buildings on the campus are occasionally rented out to private companies. A craft show is also held within the City Hall building annually. Skating Center — The Oval has several events held throughout the year that may be considered `commercial activities', mostly consisting of arts and craft shows. There are also vending machines and catering conducted by private businesses within the Skating Center facility. The Oval scoreboard also advertises for Coca-Cola. The Oval is also officially named the "Guidant John Rose Minnesota Oval" to reflect a donation by the Guidant Foundation. Parks — In Reservoir Woods Park, there is an existing telecommunications tower serving 5 providers (T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T, Clearwire, and TTMI). In addition, the actual reservoir serves the St. Paul Water Utility (although the actual land that is operated as the reservoir is still owned by the St. Paul Water Utility). In many parks, there are utility poles and lines located in Page 1 of 3