NATOA Files Petition for Reconsideration on FCC Tower Siting Ruling
Yesterday, NATOA, joined
by the National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties, the
United States Conference of Mayors, and the American Planning Association,
filed a Petition for Reconsideration with the FCC as to a part of the FCC’s
recent ruling developing a “shot clock” for tower siting application
review.
Although the entire rule,
and the FCC’s claim of legal authority to issue it, is troublesome to NATOA,
the Petition focused on one of the most troubling aspects of the Ruling.
In addition to establishing deadlines of 90 days for collocation application
reviews and 150 days for review of all other applications, the Ruling gave a
local government the ability to toll those shot clocks when an application was
“incomplete.” However, the local government would only have the power to
toll the shot clock because the application was incomplete if it discovered the
incompleteness within 30 days of when the application was submitted. This
rule has the potential for serious unintended consequences, especially when
problems with an application are only apparent after 30 days through no fault
of the local government, or when third parties (or the applicant) hold up the
review process.
NATOA focused its
Petition on this 30 day incompleteness deadline. First, our Petition
argues that the FCC (even under its own, incorrect, understanding of its
authority) exceeded its power by issuing this rule. Second, our Petition
discusses some of the numerous practical problems with the 30 day
incompleteness deadline. Third, our Petition expresses our concern about
the origin and thought process behind this rule when the rule was implemented
without CTIA’s request, without discussion in any party’s comments or ex parte
presentations, and without preliminary discussion with any local
government.
NATOA requested that the
FCC remove or revise the 30 day deadline and, instead, give local authorities
the ability to toll the shot clock for legitimate reasons at any point during
the review process. To accompany this Petition, NATOA also filed an
Emergency Motion for Stay requesting that the Commission suspend the entire
Ruling or at least the 30 day incompleteness deadline until there is more
deliberation on this issue.
NATOA’s Petition does not
address the FCC’s legal authority to institute the 90 and 150 day shot
clocks. The Petition makes clear to the FCC that we are not accepting their
argument that they acted within their authority, but, we are not holding that
argument at this time in this Petition. Rather, we believe that this
larger legal argument is more suited to a judicial appeal. NATOA supports
appeal efforts on the part of local governments; however, NATOA is not
currently participating in an appeal at this time. NATOA does have the
ability to join an appeal at a later date if it is determined that such action
is in the strategic best interest of our members.
We will keep you up to
date on any developments on our Petition or Stay request.
The full text of NATOA’s
Petition for Reconsideration is available here.
The full text of our
Emergency Motion for Stay is available here.