ALEXANDRIA, Va.-Staff of the federal Advisory Commission on Historic Preservation said a wireless industry proposal on collocation of wireless facilities is sound, but did not adopt the proposal, instead opting to wait for the National Conference of State Historic Preservations Officers to sign on.
Staff members also hope to prepare a draft nationwide programmatic agreement for the historic preservation council’s consideration at its March meeting in Little Rock.
The nationwide programmatic agreement would “manage the whole wireless program,” said Charlene Dwin-Vaughn, ACHP program analyst assigned to the Federal Communications Commission.
Dwin-Vaughn cautioned that concrete efforts for a nationwide programmatic agreement have not yet started.
“We are not there yet. We haven’t got into the nuts and bolts” of such an agreement, Dwin-Vaughn told reporters during a break in the ACHP meeting.
As part of the ACHP meeting, Dwin-Vaughn explained a process that began last August, where ACHP staff brought together officials from the historic preservation community, the wireless industry and the FCC to examine what to do with towers that were built without going through the historic preservation process and new towers and collocations that are yet to be sited.
“In the past year [the] SHPO’s [state historic preservation offices] work has increased sixfold to tenfold, with some SHPOs receiving 50 requests each month,” said Dwin-Vaughn.
Four meetings of a 35-member telecom users group have been convened to look at the issues involved with building wireless facilities.
The first step was a letter from ACHP staff indicating to SHPOs that it was permissible for the FCC to delegate its authority in the historic preservation process to carriers, tower companies and their representatives.
The second step was to be an interim agreement on collocation that would have given “amnesty” to existing towers if no complaints had been received by the FCC and for towers and collocations on buildings or in areas that are not at least 45 years old.
“We have been trying to bite off the small chunks,” Rob Hoggarth told RCR Wireless News. Hoggarth is the senior vice president for government relations for the Personal Communications Industry Association.
While the ACHP staff believes the industry’s collocation proposal is sound, there was a mixed response from the SHPOs.
“Many thought we were premature in bartering a deal with the FCC and industry,” Dwin-Vaughn told the ACHP.
Dwin-Vaughn further told the ACHP that the interim deal cannot go forward until the NCSHPO signs on. If the NCSHPO does not do this before the March meeting, Dwin-Vaughn said she would be returning to ask the ACHP to step in.
In response, ACHP Chairman Cathryn Buford Slater asked whether it would be possible for a draft nationwide programmatic agreement to be ready for the March meeting assuming the NCSHPO signed onto the interim collocation proposal. Dwin-Vaughn said she thought that was possible, noting the industry’s desire to move the process along.
Hoggarth said he was not surprised that the ACHP did not adopt the industry’s interim proposal over the objections of the NCSHPO, noting that “from an industry perspective, we were trying to move things faster than the inertia that a government agency would permit.” He added that he was encouraged by the commission’s willingness to step in if that becomes necessary.
