Hoffman Estates officials have gazed into the Information Age and pronounced it ugly.
With cable TV companies offering phone service, phone companies offering cable TV and new players constantly stepping into the electronic information market, it won’t be long before every house has four different wires sprouting from its aluminum siding.
Municipal rights of way, meanwhile, could be laden with so much heavy black cable that major thoroughfares could look like the insides of telephone switching stations. Even burying cable and wire presents problems, with perpetual street and easement tear-ups, jammed underground rights of way and the increased potential for contractors to cut service with one wrong move of a backhoe.
Fearing this kind of mess, Hoffman Estates officials have hired two consultants to devise a plan for coordinating requests from companies that want to string overhead wires or lay underground cables. It’s an effort that’s drawing attention from other communities, where officials are anticipating similar headaches as they try to keep pace with the booming electronic information industry.
“We’re anticipating more companies coming in and wanting to run lines and put up towers,” said Bruce Anderson, Hoffman Estates’ cable TV coordinator. “It isn’t something that has happened yet, but it’s something we need to plan for in case it does.”
Added Mayor Michael O’Malley: “We do not want to tear up the rights of way every week or every month. That disrupts families and it disrupts businesses. It disrupts life in general. This is something we prefer to do once rather than doing it over and over again.”
Aside from the convenience factor, the aesthetics of the Information Age are of no small concern.
Local officials don’t want their roads looking like patchwork quilts, their utility poles loaded with heavy lines, unsightly towers popping up next to homes, or residents’ lawns dug up every time a new company comes into town. And while municipalities cannot restrict companies from doing business in town, they can control what happens to public and private property.
So communities throughout the Chicago area are adopting laws to ensure that contractors clean up as they go and inflict the least damage.
For example, in Elgin, where Ameritech Corp. is installing wires for its new cable-TV venture, crews are prohibited from tearing apart streets, sidewalks or other property without the city’s permission.
Officials acknowledge that some inconvenience is inevitable. And they are quick to point out that increased competition in the electronic information business is likely to drive down costs and increase service quality.
Still, Elgin officials like to boast that not a single road has been torn up while Ameritech has installed its cables.
“You have to balance the two, not only looking after limited resources but also providing citizens with options,” said Eric Stuckey, Elgin’s public information officer.
“Really, competition will bring better service and hopefully more innovation in products. And that’s something our City Council and residents wanted. This isn’t just about cable TV. This could be phone service, Internet access.”
Others say it’s a matter of educating the public: Companies have a right to lay cables, and any inconveniences usually are only temporary.
“That comes with the territory,” said Gary Karafiat, community relations manager for Naperville, where crews also are installing wires for Ameritech’s new cable TV venture. “The overall goal was to provide a choice and more options and lower prices, and I think that goal has been accomplished.”
Some communities say they’re not worried because they’re too small to attract any serious competition at this point.
In Crystal Lake, which has 28,000 residents, officials say the cost of competing against the established cable company discourages new firms from moving in.
“Typically in a community our size, the cost is prohibitive because a competing cable company would not be able to guarantee market penetration or the necessary number of customers,” said Greg Fettes, Crystal Lake’s assistant city manager
“Basically, we have very little control over the cable company. I think the citizens would like us to have more control over prices, but we really only have control over a few things, such as where their facilities can go and such.”
But Hoffman Estates is going a step further with a formal study to help the village plan and prepare for a future that could be rife with competition.
The consultants, which the village expects to pay a combined $22,000, will gauge future demands for telecommunications in Hoffman Estates; recommend how the village might better accommodate everyone wanting to lay cable, string wires or install towers and antennas; and look at how Hoffman Estates might get the most out of its limited space for utility lines along public rights of way and easements.
In addition, the outside experts will determine whether the suburb should consider installing underground ducts to hold cables and wires. This way, officials say, less ground would have to be torn apart for installations, and chances of a clumsy contractors cutting service would be reduced.
“We have to manage our resources wisely to make sure that as many people as possible are able to have access to the rights of way,” Anderson said. “Lots of people are wanting to do different things. We feel that if we don’t start planning now, we’ll be caught short later.”
