§46-89 Broadband-related permits; automatic approval. (a) A county shall approve, approve with modification, or disapprove all applications for broadband-related permits within sixty days of submission of a complete permit application and full payment of any applicable fee. If, on the sixty-first day, an application is not approved, approved with modification, or disapproved by the county, the application shall be deemed approved by the county.

(b) Permits issued pursuant to this section shall contain the following language: "This is a broadband-related permit issued pursuant to section 46-89, Hawaii Revised Statutes."

(c) An applicant and a public utility shall comply with all applicable safety and engineering requirements relating to the installation, improvement, construction, or development of infrastructure relating to broadband service or broadband technology.

(d) No action shall be prosecuted or maintained against any county, its officials, or employees on account of actions taken in reviewing, approving, modifying, or disapproving a permit application pursuant to this section, or against public utilities resulting from such actions.

(e) The sixty day time period established by subsection (a) shall be extended in the event of a natural disaster, state emergency, or union strike that prevents the applicant, agency, or department from fulfilling application review requirements.

(f) If an application is incomplete, the county agency shall notify the applicant in writing within ten business days of submittal of the application. The notice shall inform the applicant of the specific requirements necessary to complete the application. The sixty-first day automatic approval provisions under subsection (a) shall continue to apply to the application only if the applicant satisfies the specific requirements of the notice and submits a complete application within five business days of receipt of the notice.

(g) Nothing in this section shall affect the provisions of section 3 of Act 151, Session Laws of Hawaii 2011.

(h) For the purposes of this section, "broadband-related permits" means all county permits required to commence actions with respect to the installation, improvement, construction, or development of infrastructure relating to broadband service or broadband technology, including the interconnection of telecommunications cables, cable installation, tower construction, placement of broadband equipment in the road rights-of-way, and undersea boring, or the landing of an undersea communications cable. The term does not include any county permit for which the approval of a federal agency is explicitly required pursuant to federal law, rule, or regulation, prior to granting final permit approval by the county. [L 2013, c 264, §§2, 5; am L 2016, c 193, §2]

Note

L 2011, c 151, §3, referred to in subsection (g), was amended by L 2013, c 264, §3.