FEDERAL LAND VALUATION CHANGE SEEN AFFECTING RIGHT-OF-WAY COSTS
Interagency task force led by Justice Dept. April 15 will publish final revised standards on federal appraisal of public lands, action that telecom and energy interests said could increase cost of using rights-of-way (ROW). They said such action also would violate restrictions last year set in 2001 Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations bill. Edison Electric Institute (EEI) spokesman said task force, known as Interagency Land Acquisition Conference, was attempting to slip under Congressional radar by publishing revised govt. land appraisal desk guide, rather than formal regulations, enabling federal appraisers to assess inflated costs on companies seeking to deploy fiber and other utility infrastructure on public land.
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Document, Uniform Appraisal Standards for Federal Land Acquisitions, allows federal agencies to assess charges on telcos and energy providers for rights-of way based on criteria other than fair market value, commonly accepted practice used by appraisers, spokesman said. Any other valuation methodology is not generally accepted by appraisal professionals in either the public or private sectors, he said. “At a time when concerns for building telecommunications and energy infrastructure are paramount, the changes made in the new edition for conducting appraisals could be used to justify higher cost for acquiring and using rights-of-way on federal lands for transmission and distribution lines, gas pipelines and fiber optic telecommunications facilities,” EEI fact sheet said. Calls to interagency task force members weren’t returned by our deadline.
Govt. source said changes proposed by task force “came as a surprise” to govt. rights-of-way specialists and agency executives, many of whom until recently were unaware of interagency panel’s activities. Task force originally was created in 1968 by U.S. Attorney General to address legal issues involving federal lands and condemnation and acquisition of lands by federal govt., source said.
On a related front, discussions at Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to change federal land valuation methods have caught attention of Sens. Burns (R- Mon.) and Craig (R-Ida.), respective chmn. of Interior Appropriations and Forests and Public Land Management subcommittees. “We understand that the agencies have proposed treating fiber optic telecommunications lines in a manner that would take into account the commerce being generated by the flow of data through its cables,” they said April 4 in letter to BMA and USFS. “We understand that one proposal is being considered which would identify each strand of fiber optic fiber -- of which there are 25 in a fiber optic cable -- as a separate ROW requiring an individual assessment by the agencies.”
BLM spokesman said concerns raised by Burns and Craig were unfounded since assessment of ROW fees based on number of fiber strands or amount of bandwidth used on fiber cables “was a dead issue.” Idea originated in staff meetings but was dropped when related documents were leaked to Senate, he said. He said agency still might consider revision of how ROW fees were collected but said extensive public consultation must take place first before agency offered official proposal. Impact on deployment of Internet and advanced telecom services will be at forefront of decision, he said.
Impetus for planned rulemaking is that there hasn’t been review of federal land “rent schedule” since 1986, another BLM spokesman said. “It’s prudent to see if [schedule] is still accurate,” he said. However, he said it could take up to 4 years before BLM made final changes.