The passing of Indiana House Bill 1164, intended to address 5G placement concerns, has immediately drawn both supporters and detractors in Fort Wayne, IN, reports WANE-TV. The bill’s author, State Representative Ethan Manning, explained that the bill was drafted to clarify an earlier 2017 ruling regarding the use of existing structures for 5G development.
“This bill does not invalidate existing underground utility area ordinances,” Manning told WANE-TV. “It just clarifies that if you already have existing above-ground utilities, you can’t retroactively say now this is an underground area.” Manning said that some communities were interpreting the 2017 language in a way that was not intended, making it more difficult to place 5G towers. “What we’re doing there is just clarifying a law that was passed in 2017, and then adding additional notification to homeowners and a required collaboration on location and aesthetics,” he said. “We also deal with local permitting and right-of-way fees, making it easier and a more streamlined process to get broadband projects, built on a local level.”
However, the Fort Wayne City Council believes that final decisions on placement should rest with local communities, and all nine members added their signatures to a letter bringing their concerns to the state representatives. “Let the city governments, the county governments, rural areas, and urban areas alike take a look at this and make the decisions themselves rather than a government far away in Indianapolis that really doesn’t know as much about the neighborhoods as we do,” stated Councilman Geoff Paddock.
“We have a lot of really nice looking neighborhoods in the southwest quadrant from Sycamore hills to Waynedale to West Central,” said Arline Nation, representing her neighborhood association, the Southwest Area Partnership. “We’d like to maintain their good looks as much as possible. Some of these cell towers can be 40 feet tall and they could be located within meters of each other. People who live in an area know what’s best for the area they live in.”
“We’re not inherently opposed to small cell towers,” Packard Area Planning Alliance President Kody Tinnel told WANE-TV. “We understand part of the movement towards better technology access includes that. We’re really concerned about where they are located, especially as it relates to residential areas. The telecom companies have been working for years to try to make it easier for them to just place these towers pretty much wherever they want without any pushback or buy-in from local stakeholders, including neighborhood leaders or local governments.”
“Even the FCC at the federal level has said that some burdensome local regulations are hindering the deployment of broadband,” stated Manning. “That’s what 1164 is about, is [it’s] making it easier to physically build the infrastructure that we need.” The bill is on its way to review by the Indiana State Senate.
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