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RELEVANT LINKS: <br />For regulation of <br />telecommunications right-of- <br />way users, see Appendix A, <br />Sample Ordinances and <br />Agreements. <br />For regulation of city right- <br />of-way generally, see LMC <br />information memo, <br />Regulating City Rights of <br />Way, and Right of Way <br />Regulation, LMC Model <br />Ordinance. <br />Minn. Stat. 237.163, Subd. 2 <br />(f). Chapter 94, Art. 9, 2017 <br />Regular Session. <br />E. City approaches <br />Regulation of placement of cell towers and personal wireless services can <br />occur through an ordinance. The Minnesota Telecom ROW Law provides <br />cities with comprehensive authority to manage their rights of way. With the <br />unique application of federal law to telecommunications and the recent <br />changes to state law, along with siting requests for locations both in and out <br />of rights of way, many cities find having a separate telecommunications <br />right-of-way user ordinance (in addition to a right-of-way ordinance) allows <br />cities to better regulate towers and other telecommunications equipment, as <br />well as collocation of small wireless facilities and support structures. <br />Some cities also have modified the definitions in their ordinances to exclude <br />cell towers, telecommunications, wireless systems, DAS, small cell <br />equipment, and more from utilities to counter the cell industry's requests for <br />equal treatment or more lenient zoning under the city's zoning ordinances. <br />In addition to adopting specific regulations, many city zoning ordinances <br />recognize structures as conditional uses requiring a permit (or many of these <br />regulations include a provision for variances, if needed). While cities may <br />require special permits or variances to their zoning for siting of large cell <br />facilities, under state law, small wireless facilities and wireless support <br />structures accommodating those small wireless facilities are deemed a <br />permitted use. The only exception to the presumed, permitted use for small <br />wireless is that a city may require a special or conditional land use permit to <br />install a new wireless support structure in a residentially zoned or historic <br />district. Cities will want to review their zoning to make sure it complies with <br />the Minnesota Telecom ROW Law. <br />II. Deployment of small cell technologies and <br />DAS <br />Small cell equipment and DAS both transmit wireless signals to and from a <br />defined area to a larger cell tower. They are often installed at sites that <br />support cell coverage either within a large cell area that has high coverage <br />needs or at sites within large geographic areas that have poor cell coverage <br />overall. <br />League of Minnesota Cities Information Memo: 8/1/2017 <br />Cell Towers, Small Cell Technologies & Distributed Antenna Systems Page 6 <br />