When any street, highway, or road, or a portion of any street, highway, or road, is vacated pursuant to any section of this chapter or Chapter 5571. of the Revised Code, and the relocation of any conduits, cables, wires, towers, poles, sewer lines, steam lines, pipelines, gas and water lines, tracks, or other equipment or appliances of any electric cooperative, railroad, or public utility, whether owned privately or by any governmental authority, located on, over, or under the portion of the street, highway, or road affected by the vacation, are not required for purposes of the vacating authority, any affected electric cooperative, railroad, or public utility company shall be deemed to have a permanent easement in the vacated portion of the street, highway, or road for the purpose of accessing, maintaining, operating, renewing, reconstructing, and removing those utility facilities . The permanent easement also confers a right of ingress and egress to service and maintain those utility facilities and a right to trim or remove any trees, shrubs, brush, or other obstacles growing in or encroaching onto the permanent easement that may affect the operation, use, or access to those utility facilities.

Nothing in this section shall be construed to relieve an owner of the right to mine coal who petitions for a proposed improvement from the obligation to pay the relocation costs and expenses of public utility or electric cooperative facilities as provided in this chapter or Chapter 5571. of the Revised Code.

As used in this section, "electric cooperative" has the same meaning as in section 4928.01 of the Revised Code.

Effective Date: 10-16-1961; 06-10-2004 .