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FROM m\m HAIK ET AL (THU) 5.15*97 9:50/21 9:29,m 5760056999 F <br />Ron Moorse, City Administrator <br />May 15. 1997 <br />Page 2 <br />The legislation protects from fcdcr»U intrusion any local zoning deoisioii <br />concerning wireless facilities, so long as municipal zoning decisions do <br />not unreasonably discriminate among providers of functionally <br />equivalent services or preclude cellular service from a community. All <br />challenges to municipal zoning decisions, except for those dealing with <br />the environmental effects of radio frequency emissions, would have to <br />be appealed to the courts, rather than the FCC. As a result, the FCC is <br />prohibited from preempting local decisions regarding zoning. <br />Question 2: Is the city required to accommodate the antenna needs of an unlimited <br />number of vendors (six to eight versus two to three different vendors)? <br />Answer: Probably. The Telecommunications Act does not allow the city to limit <br />the number of providers within the city and it must reasonably <br />accommodate all requests. However, it is likely that market forces will <br />limiied the number of providers that seek transmission sites. <br />Question 3: Can the city prohibit antennas and towers from its niral residential area <br />even if this would require the vendors to go outside of Orono to provide <br />coverage to a small area of Orono? <br />Answer:Probably. Again, the city may reasonably restrict tower siructure.s a.s <br />long as it does not prohibit the provision of services. Since the <br />construction of these systems involves a great deal of planning, it is <br />likely that the providers can anticipate and adapt to this type of <br />regulation by the city. <br />Question 4; In general, docs the proposed ordinance appear to be defensible and <br />within federal requirements? <br />Answer:Yes. There arc no reported decisions dealing with this new law and <br />there is no clear direction on these difficult decisions. The stated <br />guideline is reasonableness, which the courts will have to define more <br />Specifically. The proposed ordinance on its face appears to be <br />reasonable. <br />057/14135450 5/lS'97