Agenda - Planning Commission - 12/01/2016

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!s i Regulating ir l aciliti s in Public Rights-of-Way By L.S. (Rusty)Monroe and Jackie Hicks :. Communities nationwide are being faced with a new wireless facility siting issue: applicants claiming the need and right to locate new tall communications support structures, and related equipment, in public rights-of-way. When first discussing the issue of new wire- It's disheartening to hear such com- the Internet—many of which seemed like mere less facilities in the public right-of-way ments and to hearthe frustration in their pipe dreams less than a decade ago.Because (PROW),all too frequently we hear comments voices.This article is intended to end that of this,carriers are reducing the traffic on each such as these from local officials and staff: frustration and enable local officials to better original high-power macrocell site by building understand the issue in context,appreciate a number of smaller sites,each serving only a • "We were told that most of this issue was the significant regulatory rights communities portion of the original area and thus reducing preempted and that we had little to say still have in most states,and make informed the amount of traffic on any given site.This about it anymore." decisions related to the issue of siting wire- shift to smaller sites,coupled with the shorter • "With all the changes in the law and tech- less facilities in the PROW. transmission and receive distances involved, nology,we don't even know what choices is intended to result in the increased capacity, of policies we have." Understanding the Matter in Context speed,and reliability the public demands. As • "We just took the company's word with Wireless carriers face a demand by the con- a consequence,communities will be faced respect to our rights." suming public for ever-increasing capacity, with the challenge of finding ways to accom- • "How are we expected to deal with the speed,and reliability.This multifaceted modate the number of new facilities needed number of applications the Federal Com- demand is rooted in the seemingly endless to meet the public's demand without upset- munications Commission(FCC)and other number of new wireless services being of- ting a large segment of the same public by experts say to expect?" fered,coupled with the new myriad uses of allowing structures that change neighborhood _ character,negatively impact property values, or present a threat to public safety.It's a clas- F sic NIMBY(not-in-my-backyard)situation. I' What's Coming? The wireless industry has(finally)acknowl- edged that the number of new sites it needs - over the next several years is a magnitude greater than currently exists.Currently there e are slightly more than 300,000 wireless facili- N ties nationally.However,going forward(make _ sure you're sitting down)each carrier is go- Ing to o- ingto need—at a minimum—a site to serve iq no more than 50 to 75 of its customers.(You _ 1 -- - 3 can do the arithmetic for your community.)In some communities it may be twice as many - sites as that,depending upon the number of G living units and the demand in a particular area of the community.Of course,in densely populated areas containing large apartment or condominium complexes,the density of ® • •�• • •� • sites will be significantly greater,as many • • complexes will need multiple sites to serve that complex. ZONINGPRACTICE ii.i6 AMERICAN PLANNING ASSOCIATION(page 2