Article 3. Scope Of Franchise of California Public Utilities Code >> Division 3. >> Chapter 2. >> Article 3.

Any franchise granted under this chapter with respect to a given utility service is in lieu of all other franchises, rights, or privileges owned by the grantee, or by any successor of the grantee to any rights under the franchise, for transmitting and distributing the utility service within the limits of the municipality as such limits exist at the time of the granting of the franchise or as they may thereafter exist except any franchise derived under Section 19 of Article XI of the Constitution as that section existed prior to the amendment thereof adopted October 10, 1911. The acceptance of any such franchise granted under this chapter shall operate as an abandonment of all such franchises, rights, and privileges within the limits of such municipality as such limits at any time exist, in lieu of which the franchise is granted under this chapter.

No franchise granted under this chapter in any way impairs or affects the right of the granting municipality to acquire the property of the grantee by purchase or condemnation, and nothing contained in such a franchise shall be construed to contract away, modify or abridge either for a term or in perpetuity the municipality' s right of eminent domain in respect to any public utility.

No franchise granted under this chapter shall ever be given any value before any court or other public authority in any proceeding of any character in excess of the cost to the grantee of the necessary publication and any other sum paid by it to the municipality therefor at the time of acquisition.

Every franchise granted pursuant to this chapter, except when a definite term therefor is specified in the ordinance granting it, is indeterminate, that is to say, every such franchise shall endure in full force and effect until, with the consent of the Public Utilities Commission, it is voluntarily surrendered or abandoned by its possessor, or until the State or some municipal or public corporation purchases by voluntary agreement or condemns and takes under the power of eminent domain, all property actually used and useful in the exercise of the franchise and situate within the territorial limits of the State, municipal, or public corporation purchasing or condemning such property, or until the franchise is forfeited for noncompliance with its terms by the possessor thereof.

Every gas franchise granted pursuant to this chapter confers upon the grantee the right to use, or to lay and use, gas pipes and appurtenances for the purpose of transmitting and distributing gas; every oil franchise so granted confers upon the grantee thereof the right to use, or lay and use, oil pipes and appurtenances for the purpose of transmitting and distributing oil or products thereof; every industrial gas franchise so granted confers upon the grantee the right to use, or lay and use, industrial gas pipelines and appurtenances for the purpose of transmitting and distributing industrial gas; every water franchise so granted confers upon the grantee thereof the right to use, or to lay and use, pipes, ditches, flumes, conduits, and appurtenances for the purpose of transmitting and distributing water; and every electric franchise so granted confers upon the grantee thereof the right to use, or to construct and use, poles, wires or conduits and appurtenances for the purpose of transmitting and distributing electricity for all purposes, under, along, across, or upon the public streets, ways, alleys, and places as they now or hereafter exist within the municipality.