Legislation designed to streamline permit applications for small cells was signed into law this week by California Governor Gavin Newsom. The measure would require local agencies to batch process permits when they receive two or more broadband applications for nearly identical broadband project sites in terms of equipment and general design but not location, which are submitted at the same time by the same applicant.
Batching projects allows for an applicant to submit one master application for up to 25 or 50 sites depending on the size of the jurisdiction and have all of them processed simultaneously.
The measure would simplify the small cell deployment application process for cities by reducing the number of site application vendors, according to Jonathan Kramer, Senior Partner, Telecom Law Firm, but it would require them to do more work in a short time frame.
The law says the local agency must approve or reject the applications and notify the applicants before the local shot clock expires or the permits will be “deemed approved.” On the surface, the law agrees with a long sought policy goal of the wireless infrastructure industry.
“This is another step by the government, at the state as well as the federal level, to require local governments to do more in less time or face a deemed approved remedy,” Kramer said. However, the applicant must meet all of the requirements in the local siting code to be approved.
Most jurisdictions don’t have good processes in place to provide remedies to keep cell sites from being deemed approved, Kramer said.
“Carriers have to follow all of the steps required at the local level, and a lot of local jurisdictions don’t adopt those necessary steps to defend against the deemed approved remedy,” he said.
Local jurisdictions that don’t have design ordinances and design resolutions have 60 days to adopt them before the law takes effect. Design resolutions include a preference for camouflage sites as opposed to non-camouflage sites and configuration for wood pole deployments that minimize the visual intrusion. The cities will need to tighten up their noticing processes, as well, according to Kramer.
Municipalities have already been adopting these procedures, because they have anticipated the passage of this legislation.
By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor
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