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.
