Of all the petitions regularly reviewed by the Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission, those involving wireless communications towers are among the most contentious.
A bill currently before the Georgia House would eliminate many of those debates.
The Broadband Infrastructure Leads to Development (BILD) Act would limit local review powers in an effort to promote wireless communications expansion and spur economic development. The bill, which could be up for a full House vote as early as this week, would allow wireless providers to build higher towers, expand existing ones and attach equipment to utility poles without review.
The proposal has prompted outrage from local governments around the state, the local planning commission among them. MPC Executive Director Tom Thomson sent letters Tuesday to Savannah-area House delegates urging them to push to defeat the proposal.
“While ostensibly designed to promote the expansion of cellular communications, this bill will seriously impair the ability of local governments to protect the public from the intrusion and expansion of towers,” Thomson wrote.
At issue is the bill’s definition of “substantial.” Any modifications deemed less than substantial, within a set of parameters, could not be subject to planning commission approval.
Among the unsubstantial changes listed by the bill are a 10 percent height allowance, meaning a tower approved for 200 feet could be as tall as 220 feet; and a 20-foot-wide allowance for equipment protruding from existing poles, meaning providers could add mounting arms brackets to poles designed to house interior antennas.
Equipment compounds at the base of the tower can be built larger as well under the bill.
Another sticking point of the bill with the MPC is it would prohibit zoning boards from figuring the need for towers into the review process. Wireless providers often cite gaps in coverage as a reason for building new towers, and the MPC routinely requests they demonstrate the need for towers in a certain spot.
“These aren’t minor changes, they are major ones,” Thomson said in a telephone interview. “Visual compatibility is a big thing with these towers, which is why it’s always such a fight. This bill takes that out of local hands, much to the detriment of those who have to live near these towers.”
Public backlash against towers, best summed up as a “not in my backyard” mentality, prompted Chatham County and Savannah in 2007 to craft and adopt a zoning ordinance specifically addressing wireless communication towers. The law is “often pointed to as a model ordinance,” according to the MPC’s Thomson.
The MPC does have allies in its fight against the BILD Act. Rep. Mickey Stephens, a former member of the MPC’s Zoning Board of Appeals, said local input “should be first and paramount” on zoning-related issues.
“I haven’t had a chance to look closely at the bill yet, but you need local input,” he said. "Having sat on the Zoning Board of Appeals and listened to arguments over towers, I can't see supporting the bill at this point."
BREAKOUT
On The Web
To read the bill and learn more about the BILD Act, visit http://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/en-US/display/20132014/HB/176
