Statement by MC4T for Council Work Session on ZTA 18-11

 

Statement by MC4T for Council Work Session on ZTA 18-11

October 9, 2018

Montgomery County residents want the best protections for neighborhoods to minimize the adverse impacts of obtrusive cell towers.

And, MC4T is particularly appreciative of the efforts by Council members to improve ZTA 18-11 by amendment.

In reviewing drafts of possible amendments, we urge the Council to fully prioritize the core concerns and best interests of residents. Specifically, any solution adopted by the Council must:

·      Establish appropriate setbacks that are no less than the current 60 feet from allresidences. Other communities have successfully established even greater setbacks in residential neighborhoods – and the Council has requested, but not been provided with guidance by Executive on setbacks in other jurisdictions.

·      Fix chronic causes of non-conformance of cell poles already installed in public rights of way in Montgomery County. Specifically, this non-conformance has been abetted because there has been no cross verification between Tower Committee recommendations and the provisions of wireless facility permits issued by DPS, no zoning reviews and technical inspections of wireless facilities by DPS and, ultimately, no enforcement.

·      Set minimum design standards, proscribe size limitations, and mandate concealment requirements - regardless of whether utilities are above ground or underground. ZTA 18-11 completely lacks design guidelines and size limitations and has very weak concealment provisions that will allow applicants to “opt out” in most cases.

·      Provide adequate public notice and require acceptance and full consideration of public input regarding all applications, but particularly for wireless facilities proposed in the public rights of way. County agencies along with the Tower Committee have ignored requirements for consideration of public input for years!

·      Allow full discretion and authority of OZAH examiners in all conditional use proceedings regarding wireless facility applications.  ZTA 18-11 contains highly inappropriate provisions that stack the deck against residents and in favor of applicants in OZAH reviews.

MC4T remains opposed to ZTA 18-11because it fails to address the many dysfunctional interdependencies and lack of accountability and transparency in zoning ordinances, permitting regulations and applications processing.   This has created a severe crisis of confidence regarding the County’s inability to fairly manage and enforce wireless facilities deployment.  ZTA 18-11 would accelerate this dysfunction in residential neighborhoods as hundreds of new cell towers are installed in close proximity to residences.

We remind the Council that wireless providers and neutral host operators are NOT utilities. They are NOT automatically granted same privileges as other utilities, because they are NOT subject to rules requiring universal service, nor subject to rate or operational regulation by the Public Service Commission. 

Further, in absence of written briefs to the contrary by competent legal counsel, County Council is in NO imminent threatof Federal preemption. Nor is the current zoning ordinance for towers in residential zones a “de facto denial of service.” Nor will a hastily written ZTA that reduces protections for residents somehow achieve “grand fathering” for County, and magically prevent pre-emptions by the FCC at some future point.

Montgomery County must have a comprehensive solution. A solution that establishes equitable application fees to reimburse the County’s full costs of engineering reviews and evaluations, and rewrites franchise agreements to obtain full and fair reimbursement for the true value of our public rights of way.

The Council has time to do this right. Mobile 5G is still being tested and actual 5G mobile service is years awayfrom commercial availability in Montgomery County.  The necessary equipment and chipsets for 5G compatible cellphones are NOT even being manufactured, yet, and won’t be for some time! 

We can and must establish fair, transparent and consistent tower and antenna zoning and administrative rules that reliably protect all residents without denying service.

MC4T urges the County Council to “Work with us!”  Together we can do this.

From http://www.mc4t.org