Friday, September 21, 2018

Muni Input Brushed Aside on Small Cell Siting, Say BDAC Reps

Two municipal representatives on the FCC’s Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee say localities’ concerns were brushed aside as the Commission prepared the small cells siting streamlining item, to be voted on next week.

Debbi Goldman, the representative for Communications Workers of America on the BDAC’s Model Code for Municipalities Working Group, calls the draft order “inconsistent” with the working group’s recommendations and an overreach of federal authority,” in a filing this week. The proposal sets “presumptively reasonable” siting costs at $270 per year per site, according to Goldman, who adds the working group didn’t reach a conclusion about fees because “of a lack of agreement.”

“The draft order ignores our work, choosing instead to further the interests of the wireless industry over that of the public,” Goldman writes. The proposal also limits local aesthetic requirements and historical review. She also takes issue with this, noting those standards are set based on local community concerns and have a direct bearing on a city’s “economic development, historic preservation, property values, tax levels, and jobs.” Continue Reading

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