Glendale, Los Angeles and LA County Join Arlington, Texas Fifth Circuit Appeal on Wireless Siting 1

Thanks to the city of Glendale, which joined with the city and county of Los Angeles and several other municipalities in Arlington, TX v. the FCC, filed in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeal maintains that the FCC has no authority to impose ‘shot clock’ time limits on municipal cell site permit reviews.

From the argument summary:

By adopting a national approach to the State and local siting process that is remarkably similar to the policy that Congress specifically considered and rejected in 1996, the FCC defied Congress’s choice.

…Section 332(c)(7) represents not an invitation for federal rules, but an “experiment in federalism.” Town of Amherst v. Omnipoint Commc’ns Enter., Inc., 173 F.3d 9, 17 (1st Cir. 1999). Congress deliberately did not offer a “single ‘cookie cutter’ solution for diverse local situations.” And its choice necessarily leads to “some cost and delay for the carriers.” But Congress conceived that this course would produce “individual solutions best adapted to the needs and desires of particular communities.” If Congress’s experiment fails, Congress remains free to alter it. The FCC cannot do so.

Wireless carriers petitioned the FCC more than two years ago to impose time limits on cell site application reviews; many municipalities and local government organizations opposed the idea. The FCC accommodated the industry by passing a ‘shot clock’ petition in November 2009, as Glendale was finalizing its new wireless ordinance.

The new ‘shot clock’ rules have now led to a wireless carrier lawsuit against Albion, Maine over alleged infractions.