8C.6  Use of public lands for towers and transmission equipment.
  1.  In accordance with other applicable laws, when entering into a lease with an applicant for the applicant’s use of public lands, an authority shall offer the market rate value for use of that land. The term of the lease shall be for at least twenty years, but all or a portion of the land may be subject to release for public purposes after fifteen years.
  2.  a.  If the authority and the applicant cannot agree on the market rate for lease of the public land and cannot agree on the process to derive the market rate, the appraisals of a three-person panel of appraisers shall determine the market rate. Each party will appoint one appraiser and the two appointed appraisers shall select a third appraiser. Each appraiser shall independently appraise the appropriate market rate for lease of the land. The market rate shall be set at the median value between the highest and lowest market rates determined by the three independent appraisers. However, if the median between the appraisals of the appraisers appointed by each party is greater than or less than ten percent of the appraisal of the appraiser selected by the two appraisers, then the appraisal of the appraiser selected by the two appraisers shall determine the rate for the lease. Each appraiser shall send a copy of the appraisal to the authority and the applicant. The authority shall use the appraisal process under this paragraph to determine the lease rate for purposes of this subsection.
  b.  An authority shall approve or reject the lease rate as determined by the appraisal process pursuant to paragraph “a” within fifteen days following completion and receipt of the appraisals obtained pursuant to paragraph “a”. The authority’s failure to reject the lease rate as determined by the appraisal process within fifteen days constitutes approval of the lease rate determined pursuant to paragraph “a” as the market rate value for the use of the land for purposes of the lease between the authority and the applicant.
  c.  The authority and applicant shall conclude the appraisal process within one hundred fifty calendar days from the date the applicant first offered a proposed lease rate to the authority.
  d.  If using the three-person panel, each party shall bear the cost of its own appointed appraiser and equally share the cost of the third appraiser.
2015 Acts, ch 120, §6, 10
Section applies to applications submitted on or after July 1, 2015; 2015 Acts, ch 120, §10