Agenda - 10-01-1996 - 9a - Laserfiche WebLink

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52 v JUNE 1 5 AMERICAN �' •1 PLANNING QVews.O,,A,, Local Planning Issues in end of last year.That. in turn,has expanded the number of Satin Cellular Towers cellular transmission sites to 17,920 last December from just 9 384 a decade earlier. In response to both the increasing demand for mobile By Miche4 Gregory communication options and a very aggressive lobbying effort by the industry,the FCC opened another portion of the airwaves for In coming months,communities may lose the right to regulate the industry use.On March 14, the agency completed the biggest siting of cellular telephone cowers,just as that industry is emerging auction in U.S.history,lasting three months and costing as a major player in the larger telecommunications industry.The telecommunications carriers S7 billion.The airwave rights were Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association(CTIA)filed a divided geographically into 99 licenses that went to commercial petition with the Federal Communications Commission(FCC) mobile radio service(CMRS)carriers nationwide.The licenses last December that asks for federal preemption of local zoning were awarded co the highest bidder:among a combination of powers over cellular transmission fialines-This issue of Zoning older and newly formed companies.The FCC will auction more New aims to acquaint loaf planners with the impacts,real and licenses lacer this year to accommodate private mobile radio perceived,of cellular towers.Local siting regulations,staff reports, service(PMRS)carriers,which serve freight transporters,public and telecommunications plans from 15 jurisdictions were reviewed safety entities,citizens band radio,and ham operators.The newly to provide a summary of siting consideracioas. licensed carriers are already acquiring sites for towns and their Planners should understand that some jurisdictions regulate accompanying equipment buildings.Where a market exists for cellular cowers specifically,while others have regulations that cellular communications,local government must be prepared to apply to"communication cowers"generally.Wherever possible, deal with siting issue. we have tried to cull examples of regulatory techniques specific Canror csllrrlar The industry's wth to cellular technology.These varying degrees of specificity also ` has outpaced many local tourer a so&tion so exist in the regulations of many state communications and �-aessbstic io>ss>r �� governments'ability co public utilities agencies.Planners should learn their state's _ zoning _ understand the impacts of bureaucratic structure and its definition of communication s�~ cellular cowers and. cowers before drafting local regulations. therefore,to properly sire Represenacives of the cellular industry were also consulted and regulate them.The for this arcicic In contrast to the cone of the CTIA petition, situation is further many expressed an eagerness to work with APA and local complicated when residents, communities to educate piannea and citizens toward the expressing alum over the development of safe,fair,and informed regulations. aesthetic and reported WNW Mlsta health-related effects of ry cellular cowers,prompt In 1974,the FCC expanded the radio spectrum available to the hasty,reactionary public in order w make_room for budding cellular telecommu- SAW regulation.To avoid writing nicacions technology.Through the mid-1980s.the industry bad law,some communities worked to develop higher-quality transmission devices.Cellular have instituted siting technology was first marketed W consumem in the form of the 'r moratoriums until they have car phone. It presented local government with the phenomena ample opportunity to of cellular telephone anreno and the towers on which obey are _+ 'S a resarch and formulate mounted—cowers that bad to be erected somewhere in the - regulations that are fair to community. Unlike gmund-wired telecommunications,cellular both the community and technology made it pombk for a alkr to travel while commu- the industry. nicating with someone at a conventional telephone or with Both trends have put another mobile user.Cellular technology,explained in greater carriers on the offensive. detail below,operates on a fixed number of channels chat shah Thwarted by local"learning the same radio waves.As a mobile user passes through"cells" curves"and"regulatory chat parcel the landscape into a transmitting grid,the caller's barriers"in their efforts to break into new markets,they have connection is"patched"from one cell antenna to the next. sought powerSal remedies.The CTIA petition argues that the Twenty years later,personal communication services(PCS) supremacy clause(section 332)of the 1934 Federal have expanded to include hand-held portable phones and Communications Act authorizes preemption of state and local paging systems,and they are everywhere.A survey in the regulation of cellular tower siting.APA.in a letter to the FCC. January 1993 issue of Consumes Reports reported that cellular expressed opposition to such preemption.In March,executive technology added an average of 7,300 users per day in 1992, director Michael Barker cold the FCC that local communities bringing the U.S. total to about 10 million.Those numbers and planners are in the best position to balance their concerns have continued to grow, reaching more than 24 million by the with the needs of the cellular industry.The National