Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Cities Plan Limits on Cell Phone Towers (Waste Of TIme)

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 14:16:31 -0500

I guess the City Attorney has never heard of the Telecom Act of 1996.
Carriers can easily make it sound like there is no other location that will provide
adaquate coverage.
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Cities Plan Limits on Cell Phone Towers

Responding to citizens' complaints, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels said he plans to
propose legislation to prohibit placement of cell phone antennas in
neighborhoods of single-family dwellings. Under the proposal, antennas would
only be placed in neighborhoods with single-family dwellings in the "rare" cases
where no alternative can be found. The proposal, which would not be retroactive,
comes as a blow to T-Mobile USA, which was seeking permission to install
antennas in 13 neighborhoods in an effort to improve service. The Hoboken, N.J.
City Council proposed an ordinance to regulate the design, height, setback
requirements, accessory equipment, fencing, roof access, lighting and ground
screening of cell phone antenna sites in the city. A public hearing and final vote
on the proposed ordinance is scheduled for April 2 at 7 p.m. at Hoboken's City
Hall. A similar proposal is pending before the Union City, N.J., Board of
Commissi oners. -

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nickels' cell-tower idea runs into opposition

By Jim Brunner
Seattle Times staff reporter

Neighborhood activists yesterday praised Mayor Greg Nickels for proposing a ban on new
cellular-telephone towers in
single-family neighborhoods, but a key city councilwoman said she supports the city's
existing regulations and was skeptical of
the mayor's plan.

Councilwoman Judy Nicastro said Nickels' proposal would alter years of work that
culminated in cell-tower regulations
approved by the council last fall and signed by the mayor.

"I don't plan on bringing this forward. We've already been down this road," said Nicastro,
who chairs the council's land-use
committee, which would consider the proposal.

While the legislation has not yet been drafted, Nickels said he was directing the city's
Department of Design Construction and
Land Use (DCLU) to propose within two weeks what would amount to a virtual ban on new
towers in single-family
neighborhoods.

That would halt 18 pending applications for new cell towers across the city, according to
Alan Justad, spokesman for DCLU.
It would not affect 30 other cellular antennas already approved for such neighborhoods in
the past five years, he said.

Nicastro said since she had not yet seen Nickels' proposal, she couldn't say for certain
she would oppose it. But she said she
believed the city's current regulations are adequate.

The regulations approved last September came after more than two years of public hearings
and comments from
neighborhoods and cellular-telephone companies.

The rules were supposed to discourage new cellular-antenna towers from being placed in
single-family zones but encourage
antennas to be "co-located" with utility poles. Most of the new antennas being proposed
would be placed on Seattle City Light
poles.

To change the rules now would be unfair, Nicastro said.

But neighbors in Beacon Hill, West Seattle and elsewhere have waged a campaign to stop
some of the proposed large towers,
some as high as 57 feet and topped with square panels. The mayor agreed with them.

"The towers are too tall, too large and are simply not a good fit," Nickels said.

Cellular providers have expressed worries about the mayor's plan, saying it would hurt
their industry's plans for improved
phone service.

Federal law prohibits cities from enacting laws that limit cellular coverage, so the city
would have to allow new cell towers in
single-family residential areas if no other option was available.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=134661230&zsection_id=268448406&slug=celltowers25m0&date=20030325

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Can you hear me?

Proposed ordinance aims to regulate cell phone towers

Tom Jennemann
Reporter staff writer March 23, 2003

REGULATING - Wednesday, the Hoboken City Council introduced an ordinance that sets
guidelines for erecting cell phone towers within city limits.

Walk down any Hoboken street and you'll likely see residents chatting on their cellular
phones. Above their heads on building rooftops will probably be a cluster of cell phone
antennas.

With the proliferation of cellular technology, there has been the need to increase the
infrastructure that supports this popular form of telecommunications. According to Federal
Communication Commission (FCC) data, over the last 15 years, cellular telephone firms have
installed about 22,000 antenna support structures in the United States. They have used
existing building rooftops, towers, water tanks, and similar structures, and occasionally
built new towers when no other alternatives were available.

The continuing surge in cell phone usage, from 16 million wireless subscribers in the
United States in 1994 to an estimated 110 million in 2001, according to the FCC, has
prompted the need for additional towers in all parts of the country, including Hoboken and
elsewhere in Hudson County.

This has also sparked complaints from residents with zoning or health concerns, but the
FCC has said that such antennas do not pose a health danger unless someone stands next to
them for long periods of time.

At Wednesday night's City Council meeting, an ordinance was introduced to regulate the
installation of wireless telecommunication towers, equipment, and facilities in the city.
The ordinance is the city's attempt to relegate any future cell antenna sites to
industrial areas and set guidelines for height, setbacks and design. The public hearing
and final vote on the ordinance are scheduled for the next City Council meeting on April 2
at 7 p.m., at City Hall.

According to the city's attorney, Joseph Sherman, Hoboken is keeping up with a statewide
and national trend of prioritizing cell tower locations, and setting design limits. A
similar ordinance is currently pending before the Union City Board of Commissioners.

Goals

To classify and prioritize land use for new towers, the ordinance sets location
priorities. Areas with existing cell towers are the most attractive possibilities,
industrial zones with non-residential buildings are other options, and areas with
residential buildings are a last resort.

Another goal is to develop criteria for design, including preferred construction
materials, colors, height, setback requirements, height restrictions, accessory equipment
location, fencing, roof access, lighting requirements, and ground screening.

Past court cases have shown that cities cannot deny the antennas based on perceived health
concerns, but can only do it if they violate zoning guidelines, such as height or historic
aesthetics.

With the new ordinance, antennas and supporting electrical and mechanical equipment on the
side of a building will now have to be a neutral color that closely matches the background
color of the façade to make the antenna as "visually unobtrusive as possible."

Another new regulation states that the maximum height of any rooftop antenna should not
exceed the height of the tallest accessory rooftop structure such as a stair or elevator
equipment.

The ordinance also sets setback requirements from the street line (25 feet) and minimum
separation distance requirements from historic district lines (500 feet) and between other
towers (1,500 feet).

Councilman Richard Del Boccio said Wednesday night that because of the popularity of
cellular and mobile technologies, the city has to take steps to insure the residents'
quality of life.

"Ten years ago we would never have even had to think about doing something like this,"
said Del Boccio. "But new technologies do come along, and with them we have to adapt.
Right now [these cell phone towers] really aren't regulated and they are randomly placed
on rooftops all over the city. We feel it is important that we have some sort of control
over where they go."

Similar discussions have occurred recently in Union City and North Bergen.

Del Boccio added that approving the ordinance will protect both the health and long-term
safety of residents as well as preserve the "aesthetics" of the neighborhoods.

While the danger from the radio emissions seems to be minimal, Del Boccio said one can't
be too careful when looking out for the well being of residents. According to the Network
and Academic Computing Services web site, "radio frequency (RF) emissions from antennas
used for wireless transmissions such as cellular and PCS signals result in exposure levels
on the ground that are typically thousands of times less than safety limits. These safety
limits were adopted by the FCC based on the recommendations of expert organizations and
endorsed by agencies of the federal government responsible for health and safety.
Therefore, there is no reason to believe that such towers could constitute a potential
health hazard to nearby residents or students."

Limits to regulation

The landmark Telecommunications Act of 1996 expresses the intent to preserve the authority
of state and local governments over decisions regarding the "placement, construction, and
modifications of personal wireless services."

Towers are owned by a public utility like telephone phone poles, and are regulated
similarly.

The overall goal of the ordinance is to establish locations in industrial areas that are
the most appropriate for the towers and limit the number of supporting towers to minimize
the impact of the antennas and other equipment on the streetscapes and view corridors
throughout the city, officials said.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=7454992&BRD=1292&PAG=461&dept_id=152072&rfi=8
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