Less than a month after being told its plans for adding street poles along Coast Highway were “offensive,” the NextG company has filed a lawsuit in federal court asking to set aside the Newport Beach City Council’s July 27 decision regarding those poles.
“The City is essentially leveraging its monopoly control over the public way to deny NextG the ability to install its facilities in the public way unless it attaches to – and pays monopoly rent for – City-owned infrastructure,” the lawsuit states. The suit was filed Friday, and sources say the City was served this week.
Some city officials have said privately they expected a legal response to the City Council’s unanimous vote to deny NextG’s request to add five poles along Coast Highway, including one in front of the Cameo Highlands neighborhood. NextG wants to build to poles for antennas that boost wireless connectivity between carriers, and although the company could use existing city poles, officials balked at paying the city’s fee of $1,500 a month to use its poles.
“In order to allow NextG to attach to City-owned streetlight poles, the City demands that NextG pay the City $1,500 per month for each pole, which, when calculated for the five permit locations adds up to $900,000 over a ten-year period (and more than $1,000,000 if standard annual escalators are assumed),” the lawsuit states.
A company official in the past has said those figures are “just not reasonable.”
The lawsuit also alleges that Newport Beach is violating the 1996 Telecommunications Act, “which seeks to promote rapid deployment of wireless telecommunications technology.”
Staff in the Newport Beach City Attorney’s office are reviewing the complaint and will recommend appropriate action, said Tara Finnigan, a city spokeswoman. She declined to comment further.
Patrick S. Ryan, vice president of government relations and regulatory affairs for NextG, also declined to elaborate on the suit “I would need to refer you to the litigation documents for further comment,” he said.
NextG also is seeking permits to keep a pole it added along Coast Highway, near the Shake Shack overlooking Crystal Cove; read our story here. That 30-foot pole was added this spring, but Coastal Commission officials said the company’s permits were incomplete. Ryan said the company recently applied for a new permit to move it across the street inland, so it would not obstruct the coastal views.
“As to the Crystal Cove node, the permitting process appears like it will take some time,” Ryan said in an email this week. “We remain committed to the proposal to move the pole to the inland side of the road.”
State Parks officials filed a protest, he said, which could slow the process. Coastal Commission staff did not return a phone call requesting an update on that pole permit.
Read our earlier story here.
