WASHINGTON-Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), ranking minority member of the House telecommunications subcommittee, will not engage in the controversy surrounding antenna siting in Rock Creek Park, said Colin Crowell, a member of his staff. “The (National) Park Service was told at a hearing (on March 24) that Rock Creek Park would be used as a microcosm of the country but that does not mean that they (the park service) don’t have to go through their normal processes … We’re not going to get involved in each and every step of the process. We’ll just monitor it,” Crowell said.
NPS told Bell Atlantic Mobile April 30 that its application, which already had been returned once, still was incomplete. Bell Atlantic is being asked to acknowledge that it is subject to NPS regulations and provide additional information concerning the partnership it created with Contel to site the antennas.
The request for new and additional information will delay a decision on antenna siting in the Washington, D.C., park since the NPS letter indicates that the 60-day clock has not started ticking on the application. Under a December memorandum from NPS Director Richard Stanton, siting applications are supposed to be acted on within 60 days, during which time the public is invited to comment. But the 60-day countdown does not begin until an application is deemed complete.
The NPS did have some good news for Bell Atlantic. Audrey Calhoun, superintendent of Rock Creek Park, said in the April 30 letter that NPS officials had “decided to provisionally accept [Bell Atlantic’s] application and begin the review process.” NPS “provisionally” accepted Bell Atlantic’s application because the park service is “currently in a transition period between old and new regulations and guidance.” Comments on the new NPS siting guidelines were due May 1.
Bell Atlantic Mobile is reluctant to complain about the additional requirements, said Audrey Schaeffer, a company spokeswoman. Crowell was even more insistent that nothing be made of the additional information request. “You have to look at the motivations of those who are complaining. I think the industry wants to use this as an example. I am not hearing it from Bell Atlantic. I would distinguish between the [industry and Bell Atlantic] and I would distinguish between the motivations of those who are griping about it,” he said.
The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association has been citing Rock Creek Park as an example of NPS foot-dragging since December 1996 when CTIA sent a letter to President Bill Clinton asking him to spur the NPS and other federal agencies to site wireless facilities on federal lands. At the March 24 hearing, CTIA President Thomas Wheeler said the park service has continually delayed siting. He cited Rock Creek Park as an example but conceded no wireless companies officially had applied.
Following the hearing, Bell Atlantic and Cellular One both submitted applications, which were returned because the park service said they were incomplete.
