Plant City is leading the way in reaction to the recently signed “Advanced Wireless Infrastructure Deployment Act,” which allows wireless companies to use existing city facilities for “small wireless facilities.”
The bill was passed by both the House and Senate and signed into law during the past legislative section. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Mike La Rosa, R-St. Cloud, said the purpose of the bill, which was widely supported by telecommunications companies including AT&T and Verizon, is to advance the use of wireless technology throughout Florida.
“As we begin to reach capacity levels with our current 4G technology, it is time now for Florida to be forward-thinking and not allow for there to be a gap in our wireless coverage,” LaRosa said in an op-ed to the Tallahassee Democrat. “Florida is known for being a protagonist state. Let’s not lose our lead now.”
The Florida League of Cities initially opposed the bill as, essentially, a corporate giveaway that would place much of the burden in adding new technologies on city taxpayers.
“By unreasonably capping the permit application and attachment fees, as well as limiting the permit review timeframe, the bills require taxpayers to subsidize the business interests of wireless communications providers,” the League wrote in a statement. “The bills require a city, at its taxpayers’ expense, to develop engineering and other structural reports on the city’s own structures that a wireless company may or may not decide to use for an antenna.”
Plant City attorney Ken Buchman said the City aligned with the League in opposing the bill, but began working with Tom Cloud, a utility, land use, and environmental law attorney, as soon as it was clear the bill would pass. After its signage, Buchman said, the City only had about a week before it was enacted on July 1.
Cloud is helping a number of jurisdictions draft ordinances to enact the legislation. The Plant City Commission voted to adopt the ordinance during its July 24 meeting, making it among the first in the state to do so.
Cloud said the City’s priority was keeping the City’s ordinance enacting the bill as strict as possible. While the bill defines “small wireless facilities” as anything up to 28 cubic feet, Plant City’s law places the burden of proof on wireless companies to “demonstrate detailed information that they are in compliance” with the act’s provisions, Cloud said.
According to the new state legislation, the companies would be able to place the wireless facilities “on, under, within, or adjacent to certain utility poles or wireless support structures within public rights of way that are under the jurisdiction and control of cities and counties in Florida,” Interim City Manager Kim Leinbach told city commissioners.
Meaning, some of the installations could impact city streets, another issue Cloud and Buchman took into account when drafting a city ordinance. In such cases, Buchman said, whatever company comes in would have to incur the costs of any work done to city property, easing the burden on the tax payer.
Ultimately, Cloud said, the idea for the City’s interpretation of the state legislation was to keep it as strict and in-line with current standards utility companies would face to ease that tax payer burden, as well as maintain aesthetic value of city property, especially locations near private homes.
“We don’t want that problem in Plant City just because someone who owns a home happens to front on a right of way,” Cloud said. “Is the ordinance perfect? Far from it. We did the best we could do with the timeframe we were given by the legislature.”