WASHINGTON-A status report released at the third of a three-part series of open meetings between wireless industry players and government agencies outlined six critical issues that will form the basis of a future General Services Administration set of guidelines aimed at assisting federal agencies and wireless carriers in fulfilling presidential and congressional strictures regarding tower siting on federal, state and local government properties.
According to the document, the following issues and general understandings will be pursued:
Development of a prototype uniform process, including timeliness and appeals-A list of critical data elements for both industry and federal-agency property owners will be established as part of a general review process for site suitability evaluation, including timely responses to industry requests. A working group will issue revised guidelines by the end of May.
Site pricing-Agency flexibility is needed in developing antenna site prices, which can be derived from individual appraisals, consultation with site managers or by set rates.
Site competition-When there is limited space on government properties for towers, agencies should seek site competition and/or encourage collocation.
Fee reimbursement-If they can, agencies should be able to collect fees for any government services and/or resources provided; Legislation is being discussed to allow this. Some agencies, including GSA, currently are allowed to keep the fees for their leases.
Site security/access/rights of way-Carriers would be responsible for providing all Federal Communications Commission certifications, for correcting any interference problems, for obtaining personnel security clearances and for funding any “off hours” site access. Carriers also would have to negotiate their own deals with private land owners if such land must be crossed to reach the government site.
Site request denial tracking-Six months after the new guidelines are published in the Federal Register, agencies will provide the GSA with a one-time summary report detailing the number of site requests granted and more detailed information on those applications that were denied. Jurisdictions cannot take any longer to grant a siting request than they take to grant other land-use requests, and requests cannot be denied based on RF emissions.
The new guidelines will not be regarded as policy but only as recommendations because the GSA and the working group have no enforcement authority.
Doing its part to forward the siting initiative, the FCC also is readying a notice of proposed rulemaking regarding procedures for relief from state or local action based on the effects of RF emissions.
The GSA has taken the lead in this project partially because of its success in working with wireless carriers on placing towers and antennas on many of its properties; it has raised some $800,000 in the last year from lease fees and plans to raise that sum substantially in the future. However, the agency acknowledged that other federal bodies cannot take advantage of lease fees to reimburse administrative expenses for tower siting because of either lack of a uniform plan, lack of resources to devote to such a project or rules that prohibit their assessing of fees for anything other than a straight U.S. Treasury dump.
According to Sheldon Moss, government relations manager for the Personal Communications Industry Association, the contentious issue between government agencies and wireless carriers had been what rate to charge for use of federal properties. Fair market-based rates are backed by the carriers, while agencies fought for a percentage of gross revenues. The wireless industry apparently has won the preliminary round of this fight, based on talks between industry representatives and the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management.
