The newly passed Indiana bill that would enable wireless companies to install wireless equipment anywhere public utilities run, regardless of local zoning regulations and ordinances, is generating quite the buzz in the Hoosier state. (see story below in “Zoning & Moaning” how one Indiana town, Crawfordsville, is fighting back and our top story on how California cities are allied for the same reason)
Cities and towns across the state have overwhelmingly disapproved of the bill, and have expressed concern that it will strip them of local zoning authority. The bill allows cities and towns to designate certain areas strictly for underground utilities, reports the South Bend Tribune, but this must be done by a May 1 deadline.
More than 100 cities across the state are now scrambling to quickly pass resolutions in response to the legislation and by the deadline. Both the South Bend and Mishawaka public works boards met on Friday to consider resolutions in response to the bill.
State lawmaker Ryan Dvorak (D-South Bend), who voted against the measure, said the tight deadline is a way for the state to make it “intentionally difficult for people to meet.”
“It’s all about money,” Dvorak told the South Bend Tribune. “They just don’t want to spend money on installations that are hideously ugly. Generally [the structures] are very ugly and people don’t like antennae and utility sheds all over the place, but the utility companies don’t want to pay for other options that might be less objectionable.”
One South Bend resident complained to the newspaper about the location of small equipment that has been placed on a new pole near her home. She said wireless equipment should be kept out of residential areas. “It’s a nuisance,” Kate Bergen told the South Bend Tribune. “It should be in a place that’s not residential.”
May 1, 2017
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