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Wireless Telecommunication Facilities Master Plan - Town of Morrisville, NC – Adopted July 23, 2013
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Congress did not define “substantial change” in the legislation. In order to determine what
constitutes “substantial change”, the only currently available definition arises from the FCC’s
National Programmatic Agreement (see footnote 2), which is also the definition endorsed by the
wireless industry.
Under this new Congressional requirement, local governments must approve any application for
collocation, removal or replacement of wireless equipment if the proposed modifications to an
existing facility do not involve a “substantial change” (and as noted above, the only currently
available definition of “substantial change” is that defined by the FCC in the National
Programmatic Agreement). This further degradation of local governmental authority over
wireless facilities (and the willingness of wireless providers to suggest to local governments that
this new statutory mandate provides a basis to immediately grant their application) is impacting
wireless deployment by emboldening the wireless industry to increase deployment efforts despite
local government concerns. Although this is recent legislation and there does not yet appear to
be any reported decisions involving Section 6409, Cityscape is aware of at least one lawsuit
being commenced citing Section 6409 as jurisdictional authority (despite the fact that the
applicant who has sought judicial relief was
granted
authority by the local government to modify
their facility with certain conditions).
Town of Morrisville Public Policies
Since the Town adopted the Personal Wireless Services Facility Development Standards the
Federal government has adopted additional policies that should be integrated into the existing
regulations in order to harmonize them with applicable federal law. For example, the timelines
as described in the “shot clock” House Bill 831 and Declaratory Ruling (NC Bill 831 for
collocations and Declaratory Ruling for new tower) should be integrated to Ordinances
Furthermore, the Town’s regulations should recognize the provisions of Section 6409 of the
Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 to permit equipment collocations,
removals and replacements on existing eligible facilities that do not “substantially change” the
physical dimensions of the tower structure.
Specific to the master plan mapping process, CityScape has identified geographic areas where
current zoning regulations do not permit wireless infrastructure, but where new wireless
infrastructure will be needed in the future. The anticipated infill of new wireless infrastructure is
shown in Figure 1. In addition to the potential use of the eighteen Town-owned lands for new
wireless infrastructure, CityScape has also identified the use of the utility easement for
collocations on the tower poles. The utility easement is shown in brown in Figure 1 and
additional potential other site locations are show as lavender triangles.
Through the public meeting process the citizenry has begun developing a list of siting priorities
for future antenna and tower locations. The hierarchy, permitting process, approval process,
definitions and supporting land use development standards are all items to be addressed in the
revision to the Town’s zoning ordinance.