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