Summary
To: Planning and Zoning Board
From: JP Murphy
Date: 7/6/2017
______________________________________________________________________
Subject:
Title
Wireless Communication Devices (5G Bill)
Summary:
The town will have to amend its ordinances to properly regulate and permit small wireless communications devices per new state law. CS/CS/HB 687 (La Rosa) preempts local government control of taxpayer-owned rights of way for placement of "small" or "micro" wireless antennas and equipment. Among other various provisions, the bill bars local governments from prohibiting or regulating the placement of "small" or "micro" wireless facilities on or next to existing cellphone towers and utility poles within municipally owned rights of way. The bill requires a local government to approve or deny an application for a permit to collocate small wireless facilities within 60 days of receipt of the application. An additional 30 days is provided to the local government after the date of the permit request to negotiate an alternative location for the equipment facilities, and if the application is not processed within that time frame, it is deemed approved. Local governments are also prohibited from imposing minimum distances between small wireless equipment. This "micro" equipment/infrastructure can be as large as six cubic feet in volume (for instance, 2 feet by 3 feet). All other wireless equipment associated with the facility cumulatively can be as large as 28 cubic feet in volume (the approximate size of a small refrigerator). The Florida Department of Transportation, deed-restricted retirement communities that have more than 5,000 residents and have underground utilities for electric transmission or distribution, and municipalities that are located on a coastal barrier island that has a land area of less than five square miles and fewer than 10,000 residents are exempted from all provisions of the bill. Also, the bill sets an arbitrary price cap of $150 per attachment...
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