Annual updates to the Communications Uses Rental Fee Schedule and Listing of Cities by Population Strata
Bureau of Land Management
National Headquarters
Washington, DC 20240
United States
2800/2860 (HQ-350) P
This Instruction Memorandum (IM) provides guidance on the process established by which the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) right-of-way (ROW) regulations as to how it will update its Annual Communications Uses Rental Fee Schedule (Schedule) and Listing of Cities by Population Strata (Listing of Cities). The BLM will publish the annual updates to the Schedule and Listing of Cities on the BLM website for 2027 and annually thereafter. This IM also provides guidance, consistent with 43 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 2866.15, on the implementation of the BLM’s authority to waive or reduce rental fees in certain situations.
Mission
All BLM offices will use the following materials, as they appear on the BLM’s official website, to determine the rent for land use authorizations for communications uses:
- The current calendar year (CY) Communication Site Rental Fee Schedule.
- The current CY Listing of Cities by Population Strata.
The annual update to the fee schedule is calculated in accordance with the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) and the ROW regulations that implement those statutes (43 CFR 2866.30 and 2866.31). Those regulations provide for adjustment based on the Implicit Price Deflator-Gross Domestic Product Index (IPD-GDP). The BLM makes the Schedule and Listing of Cities materials publicly available, and field offices may reproduce the Schedule and Listing of Cities locally and make copies available to ROW and land use authorization applicants and other interested parties, as appropriate and upon request. The current schedule can be found at www.blm.gov.
The BLM will calculate the initial rent by determining the population served, and the type of communications uses initially identified on the ROW grant or communication use lease document. Subsequent rental determinations will be made based on the holder’s annual inventory certification submission. Communications Uses Rental calculation rules can be found under 43 CFR 2866.23 through 2866.44. If the authorization is less than 12 months, then the BLM will prorate the rent using a part-year factor. Uses not covered by the schedule are identified at 43 CFR 2866.30(b). If the ROW is issued between October 1 and December 31, calculate rent for the first partial year and for the subsequent year under the schedule and collect rent for both years through the offer letter. If the ROW is issued between January 1 and September 30, calculate rent for the first partial year only.
The case file must be documented with a description of how the rent was determined. Decisions issued to the holder should clearly explain how rent was established. The BLM staff must enter the rent determination in the Mineral and Lands Records System (MLRS) by using Action Code “Rental Rate Determined or Adjusted”. The decision for the rental rate determined date is the same date as the authorization issued for the action date. In the action remarks column, the rent amount and the term must be entered, separated by a semi-colon (e.g., $375.64; 6MOS). The BLM State Offices provide guidance to generate the initial Courtesy Statement for the initial rent, and to generate Accounts Receivable for subsequent bills.
Delegated authority to waive or reduce rent resides with the BLM State Director. Field offices shall provide guidance consistent with 43 CFR 2866.15(b)(3) to any ROW holder seeking relief from hardship caused by zone reassignments or zone value change.
Any rent waived or reduced by the BLM State Director pursuant to 43 CFR 2866.15 may continue to be waived or reduced by the centralized billing team for the entities identified in the initial waiver or reduction.
For linear communications uses facilities, the schedule is not applicable, and rent is instead calculated as provided in 43 CFR 2806.23.
The holder has the right to appeal rental decisions in accordance with 43 CFR Part 4.
This IM is effective immediately for Calendar Year 2027 billing.
The application of this policy will have no impact on the budget.
Section 504(g) of FLPMA requires that holders, subject to limited exceptions, pay in advance the fair market value of ROWs issued by the BLM (43 U.S. Code § 1764(g)). ROW holders certify the communications uses associated with their ROW annually by October 15th of each year under the regulations at 43 CFR 2866.30 and 2866.31. Based on that certification, the BLM calculates rent for the ROW using the applicable communications uses rental schedule. The schedule is based on population strata (the population served), as depicted in the most recent version of the Ranally Metro Area (RMA) Population Ranking, and the type of communications use or uses associated with the ROW. The various uses subject to the schedule are identified as part of the definition of “communications uses rent schedule,” set out at 43 CFR 2861.5.
The BLM updates the schedule annually based on the U.S. Department of Labor Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, U.S. City Average (CPI-U), as of July of each year (difference in CPI-U from July of one year to July of the following year), and the RMA population rankings.The BLM will limit the annual adjustment based on the Consumer Price Index to no more than 5 percent. The BLM reviews the rent schedule periodically to ensure that the schedule reflects fair market value.
This IM is consistent with Communication Site Right-of-Way Handbook (BLM Manual Handbook H-2860-1).
If you have any questions concerning the content of this IM, please contact Jeremy Bluma, Acting Branch Chief, Rights-of-Way, at 208-789-6014 or jbluma@blm.gov or Kerri-Anne Thorpe, Communications Uses and Hydropower Program Lead at 720-576-0799 or kthorpe@blm.gov.
The Division of Lands, Realty and Cadastral Survey (HQ-350) coordinated preparation of this IM with the Department of the Interior’s Office of the Solicitor and the U.S. Forest Service.