Morrisville Wireless Telecommunication Facilities Master Plan - 2013

Wireless Telecommunication Facilities Master Plan - Town of Morrisville, NC – Adopted July 23, 2013

Congress did not define “substantial change” in the legislation. In order to determine what constitutes “substantial change”, the only currently available definition arises from the FCC’s National Programmatic Agreement (see footnote 2), which is also the definition endorsed by the wireless industry. Under this new Congressional requirement, local governments must approve any application for collocation, removal or replacement of wireless equipment if the proposed modifications to an existing facility do not involve a “substantial change” (and as noted above, the only currently available definition of “substantial change” is that defined by the FCC in the National Programmatic Agreement). This further degradation of local governmental authority over wireless facilities (and the willingness of wireless providers to suggest to local governments that this new statutory mandate provides a basis to immediately grant their application) is impacting wireless deployment by emboldening the wireless industry to increase deployment efforts despite local government concerns. Although this is recent legislation and there does not yet appear to be any reported decisions involving Section 6409, Cityscape is aware of at least one lawsuit being commenced citing Section 6409 as jurisdictional authority (despite the fact that the applicant who has sought judicial relief was granted authority by the local government to modify their facility with certain conditions). Town of Morrisville Public Policies Since the Town adopted the Personal Wireless Services Facility Development Standards the Federal government has adopted additional policies that should be integrated into the existing regulations in order to harmonize them with applicable federal law. For example, the timelines as described in the “shot clock” House Bill 831 and Declaratory Ruling (NC Bill 831 for collocations and Declaratory Ruling for new tower) should be integrated to Ordinances Furthermore, the Town’s regulations should recognize the provisions of Section 6409 of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 to permit equipment collocations, removals and replacements on existing eligible facilities that do not “substantially change” the physical dimensions of the tower structure. Specific to the master plan mapping process, CityScape has identified geographic areas where current zoning regulations do not permit wireless infrastructure, but where new wireless infrastructure will be needed in the future. The anticipated infill of new wireless infrastructure is shown in Figure 1. In addition to the potential use of the eighteen Town-owned lands for new wireless infrastructure, CityScape has also identified the use of the utility easement for collocations on the tower poles. The utility easement is shown in brown in Figure 1 and additional potential other site locations are show as lavender triangles. Through the public meeting process the citizenry has begun developing a list of siting priorities for future antenna and tower locations. The hierarchy, permitting process, approval process, definitions and supporting land use development standards are all items to be addressed in the revision to the Town’s zoning ordinance.

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