Peters Township Council discusses impact of ordinance on wireless technology
Peters Township Council is considering an amendment to the section of the local zoning ordinance regulating commercial wireless communication facilities, a measure that in part addresses the future of the requisite technology.
During a public hearing held Monday in advance of council’s eventual vote, township manager Paul Lauer said the changes to the ordinance are in response to Federal Communications Commission rulings “aimed at removing barriers to broadband deployment.”
“The reality is that our existing ordinance, in terms of substance, is in conformance with that decision of the FCC,” he said. “It changes very little in terms of substance.”
As such, construction of the tall ground-mounted wireless towers with which most people are familiar will continue to be allowed in the township only as a special use in places that are zoned as industrial. Equipment that can be co-located on existing structures is allowed in any district with approval from municipal administration, with some limitations.
“None of these wireless small structures will be permitted in residential areas where you have underground utilities,” Lauer said. “They can be located where there are overhead utilities. In fact, we have a few in town already that are co-located on telephone poles.”
He spoke about possible ramifications with regard to the next generation of wireless technology.
“What will be interesting to see as 5G begins to be deployed is whether or not those limitations in fact make it difficult, if not impossible, to deliver 5G service in residential sections of Peters Township,” he said. “And I think this is something we need to pay attention to and look at going forward.”
He said 5G service, which is portrayed as offering much more rapid data transfer than its technological predecessors, relies primarily on the placement of smaller structures.
“Their service area is actually fairly small,” Lauer said. “But at the same time, we have so many housing plans where you have only underground utilities, and those people are not going to want to see that pole in their front yard.”
The FCC’s ruling allows for the establishment of design standards for the equipment.
“This kind of 5G tower can take any form, and what we would not want to see in Peters Township, if they end up in residential districts eventually, is a telephone pole placed in someone’s front yard for the purposes of hanging the tower,” Lauer said. “So we would attempt, when new poles go up, to make sure that they have at least some aesthetic quality to them.”
He told council where they are placed appears to be a matter of logistics.
“We have been approached by one of the carriers with regard to small cell towers, and one of the things that I suggested to them was that the objection to these towers would be less if, in fact, they weren’t in the front yard, that if you could take advantage of open space behind properties,” he said. “But they’re not anxious to do that because of the cost of having to locate in an area that they don’t necessarily have easy access to.”
David Ball, council chairman, added some perspective.
“It’s going to be a long time before we see a 5G solution here,” he said, “and I have a secondary concern that when the carrier companies find out that they’re going to have a problem in places like Peters Township serving them with 5G, they’re going to go back to the regulators and say: Hey, we can’t do this. You need additional regulations, and we need the ability to put them anywhere we want.”