RCC Wireless News
By Heather Forsgren Weaver
Oct 6, 2004
WASHINGTON-The process of streamlining tower sitings on historic land
saw several developments this week.
The Federal Communications Commission, the Advisory Council on
Historic Preservation and the National Conference of State Historic
Preservation Officers Monday signed the Nationwide Programmatic Agreement
meant to streamline tower sitings, and Tuesday afternoon the FCC released
the detailed rules implementing the agreement, surprising industry.
There are "lots of tweaks and changes" in the NPA, said John Clark,
counsel for the Tower Siting Policy Alliance, speaking to RCR Wireless News
from the PCIA Tower Show in Dallas.
Another industry representative was unavailable for comment,
complaining that the document was long and hard to digest.
The NPA is a follow-up to a similar programmatic agreement signed in
March 2001 for co-locations. The wireless industry and the historic
preservation community started negotiating tower sitings in 2000 with the
hope of establishing an NPA in a year. It took more than a year to complete
the interim agreement on co-locations and another three years to complete
the final agreement.
"The FCC must consider the impact of its undertakings on historic
properties, including those sites to which federally recognized Indian
tribes (including Alaska Native Villages) and Native Hawaiian Organizations
attach religious or cultural significance," said FCC Chairman Michael Powell
and FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein in a joint statement. "The
commission has an ambitious environmental and historic preservation action
plan to promote the timely deployment of necessary communications
infrastructure while, at the same time, improving the FCC's ability to
protect valuable historic and environmental resources. At the heart of that
plan is the goal of developing an NPA."
Last month when the FCC announced it had adopted the rules
implementing the NPA, the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association
indicated it plans to appeal because it believes that the FCC does not have
jurisdiction over most wireless facilities.
"The radical argument that we should abandon our protection of
historic places would not only result in irreparable damage to historic
American communities throughout the country, but it is also inconsistent
with our obligations under the NHPA," said FCC Commissioner Michael Copps.