Report from the Midwest: The Trouble with Towers

Kreines & Kreines, Inc. received a call from a Midwestern city that had a new proposed ordinance for which they had outside help preparing.  No one liked it but the person who wrote it.

The City asked Kreines & Kreines, Inc. to help them.  Here are some things we found:

·       The proposed ordinance prohibits any personal wireless service facilities within 200 horizontal feet of a residential property.  In a city that is mostly residential, this can amount to a wholesale prohibition in violation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

·       The proposed ordinance required a horizontal separation between “towers” of at least ¼ mile.  This could never work until the ordinance stops using the term “tower.”  Personal wireless service facilities will be as close as 80 meters apart in order to provide 3G services in urban and suburban areas.  And they won’t be towers.

·       The proposed ordinance confused the terms “fall zone” and “setback.”  It is important to know the difference between these two terms.  A setback regulates crowding.  A fall zone regulates falling debris such as ice.

·       The proposed ordinance approves the height of “towers” by the “applicant’s service need.”  Kreines & Kreines, Inc. believes that applicants have no “service need.”  

We told this city what we tell all our clients:

·       Do not make approvals contingent upon radio frequency technology.

·       If the U.S. Congress wanted technology experts to review and approve applications, they would have required technology boards or engineering commissions in the Telecommunications Act to have review authority.

·       Instead, the Congress gave local governments zoning authority over construction, placement and modification of personal wireless service facilities.

·       This means that normal planning and zoning standards should be used as the basis for decisions, not technology jargon that no one understands except for the industry representative uttering it.

Kreines & Kreines, Inc. is writing a new ordinance for this city based on planning and zoning standards.  After each set of location, siting and design standards in the ordinance, the following sentence appears:

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Kreines & Kreines, Inc.
58 Paseo Mirasol, Tiburon, CA 94920
Phone: (415) 435-9214
Fax: (415) 435-1522
e-mail: mail@planwireless.com