Consideration and Adoption of Resolution No. 2025-52 and Ordinance No. 2025-20:  A Resolution of the City Council of the City of Flagstaff, Coconino County, Arizona declaring as a public record that certain document filed with the City Clerk and entitled “2025 Amendments To Flagstaff City Code, Title 13, Engineering Design Standards And Specifications For New Infrastructure” and an Ordinance of the City of Flagstaff, Coconino County, Arizona, amending the Flagstaff City Code, Title 13, Engineering Design Standards And Specifications For New Infrastructure.
 

1. Adopt Resolution No. 2025-52
2. Read Ordinance No. 2025-20 by title only for the final time
3. City Clerk reads Ordinance No. 2025-20 by title only (if approved above)
4. Adopt Ordinance No. 2025-20

The intent of the Engineering Standards and Specifications is to provide minimum acceptable design and construction practices for new public infrastructure in the City of Flagstaff. The last update to these standards in 2024 consisted of a broad set of technical updates and improvements.  This amendment adds standard specifications and details allowing for the installation of fiberoptic communications infrastructure via micro-trenching within City roadways by authorized franchisees and licensees as well as contractors placing city-owned fiber infrastructure.  The micro-trenching method of installation can be faster and more cost-effective than existing approved methods of underground installation such as open trenching or boring.  Micro-trenching is accomplished by cutting a narrow slot trench along one or both sides of local and collector roadways typically at the joint between the concrete curb and asphalt pavement.  City staff consulted with other cities where micro-trenching has already been adopted, conducted a pilot project to evaluate the draft standards and the impacts of the installation method on existing infrastructure and the community and revised the draft standards based on the experience and observations during the pilot project.  The proposed standards have been developed to mitigate the impact to existing roadways while allowing for a new installation technology in support of expanding availability of high-speed internet to the public.

The installation of fiber communications infrastructure is most commonly completed by utility providers rather than the City of Flagstaff.  City revenue may increase in the event that the adoption of these standards results in the expansion of fiber networks and associated ongoing fees paid by providers to the City in accordance with franchise or license agreements.  These standards do not address fees, only construction methods.  There may be future projects where City-owned fiber could be installed utilizing this technique and the financial impact would be expected to result in lower costs than currently-approved underground methods.  We anticipate that the City of Flagstaff Development Engineering inspections and project management workload will significantly increase with the adoption of this amendment and will likely necessitate one additional inspector and one additional project manager to appropriately manage and inspect the anticipated widespread roll-out of new fiber network infrastructure.  City of Flagstaff Water Services utility locate staff workload will also significantly increase during the construction phase as the adoption of these standards are anticipated to precipitate the roll-out of additional fiber networks across much of the city.

Supports policy ED.3.9 - Develop infrastructure so that the community has access to high-speed internet and telecommunications.

There have been no previous Council decisions on the adoption of micro-trenching standards.

1. Approve the suggested code amendments.
2. Provide alternative direction to modify the suggested code amendments.
3. Do not approve the suggested code amendments.

Broadband infrastructure within City of Flagstaff right-of-way is currently placed underground via either open trenching or directional boring.  Existing standards require directional boring to the greatest extent feasible to limit the impact to pavement resulting from asphalt cuts.  Pole-mounted overhead infrastructure is also utilized where existing overhead facilities are available.  City Code no longer allows for the placement of new poles or overhead alignments except in certain limited circumstances.  The technology of micro-trenching has developed since the mid 2000's as service providers and industry worked to develop technologies that would allow for more rapid and cost-effective deployment of new fiberoptic networks.  Some variants of this approach involved very shallow cuts within only the asphalt pavement itself followed by the placement of various methods of patch.  There are documented failures of a shallow in-pavement approach, and it should be emphasized that these standards do not allow for in-pavement placement of fiber.  These standards propose a narrow trench approximately 2 " wide, 16" deep and typically located at the joint between the lip of the concrete curb and gutter pan and the asphalt concrete.  This approach has seen wider adoption in recent years and, particularly post-pandemic, as the demand for high-speed data for the home has increased.  The state of California, for example in 2021 passed Senate Bill 378 which requires all municipalities within the state to develop standards which allow for fiber optic installations via micro-trenching. 

Many municipalities within Arizona have adopted standards similar to those presented here.  The City of Mesa, in particular, has lead the adoption of micro-trenching standards within Arizona.  The standards proposed, as well as many other micro-trenching standards within Arizona, have utilized the standards that Mesa compiled as a baseline for the standards being adopted in other jurisdictions.  The Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) publishes a set of standard specifications and details which Flagstaff and most other Arizona municipalities have adopted those standards subject to local amendments.  Although MAG has not yet published a set of micro-trenching standards, they are actively evaluating the technology and recently published a report titled "Microtrenching Best Practices", a summary of which is attached.  This report was published after the preparation of the draft standards utilized in the City of Flagstaff pilot project.  The full report can be downloaded at the following web address: https://azmag.gov/Programs/Transportation/Regional-and-Subregional-Studies/Microtrenching-Best-Practices

In the absence of a consensus set of standard specifications and details, City Engineering staff utilized the information and documents provided by Mesa and other municipalities to create these proposed standards.  Earlier this year, the draft standards were then utilized as the baseline of a pilot project conducted by Wecom Fiber under an existing license agreement to evaluate this new technology prior to this proposal for formal adoption in code.  These proposed standards include modifications made to the previous draft standards based on the experiences and lessons learned during the pilot project.  Following are some of the highlights of staff's findings and observations from the pilot project:

• Micro-trenching averages 1,000 feet per day per trencher which is significantly faster than other underground methods of installation
• Micro-trenching results in a shorter duration of disruption to residents living along the path
• Where micro-trenches are placed at the curb-to-asphalt joint, staff assessed that the detrimental impact to the road structure is limited.  The mastic overband does, however, affect the aesthetics.
• Locations where the micro-trench was realigned to locations other than the curb joint to avoid existing infrastructure and across intersections result in more significant impact to pavement at these locations as a new joint which did not previously exist is created.  These standards prohibit the installation of micro-trench that is both within and parallel to bike lanes except at the curb joint.
• Vaults and boxes mounted flush to the surface grade were utilized for the splicing and connection of fiber to the residences along the pilot project path.  The pilot project licensee chose to utilize flush boxes. Other providers may utilize above-grade pedestals similar to the existing telephone and cable pedestals seen throughout the city.  Locating the larger boxes in locations which both remain in right-of-way and avoid existing sidewalks or other improvements proved to be challenging.  Where no other options were available, the flush-mounting of boxes within sidewalk was approved.
• The most frequent citizen concern was related to the placement of the vaults and boxes within the area of the right-of-way behind curb or sidewalk.  Often residents and property owners are not familiar with the location of the property line separating the private property from right-of-way at the lot frontage and have improved this area of the right-of-way and have concerns about the rights of the provider to place facilities at these locations as well as the responsibility for the restoration of landscaping, driveways and frontage upon completion.
• Other citizen concerns related to the general disruption to the surrounding property during the installation process.  Staff assess that due to the speed and narrow affected area of the micro-trenching process, these concerns would likely be greater with other available underground installation methods.

Staff provided these proposed standards for comment to other telecommunications, cable and fiber licensees and franchisees as well as posting for general public comment.  All comments received are in the attachments.



 

Business Retention, Expansion and Entrepreneurship - ED.3.9 Develop infrastructure so that the community has access to high speed internet and telecommunications.

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