{"id":763,"date":"2017-03-21T07:48:43","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T12:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/northpotomacnews.org\/?p=763"},"modified":"2017-03-21T07:48:43","modified_gmt":"2017-03-21T12:48:43","slug":"cell-tower-controversy-update-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northpotomacnews.org\/?p=763","title":{"rendered":"Cell Tower Controversy Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update from the Montgomery County Coalition to Control Cell Towers (MC4T) dated March 11, 2017:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

As of March 8, 2017, the time to submit comments to the FCC regarding the streamlining of cell tower deployment is closed.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>For those interested, here\u00a0are links to some of the relevant submissions of interest (beware, as they are lengthy!):<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Montgomery County, Maryland:\u00a0 <\/span>https:\/\/ecfsapi.fcc.gov\/file\/103091020720870\/COMMENTS-Montgomery%20County.pdf<\/span><\/u><\/a>;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

State of Maryland Department Of Transportation, Highway Administration: <\/span>https:\/\/ecfsapi.fcc.gov\/file\/103080203219641\/SHA%20Response%20to%20WT%2016-421%203-8-2017.pdf<\/span><\/u><\/a>;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Smart Communities Siting Coalition (a coalition of 1800 communities, of which our own Montgomery County is a part<\/span><\/span>):\u00a0 <\/span>https:\/\/www.fcc.gov\/ecfs\/filing\/1030998488645<\/span><\/u><\/a>; and,<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Crown Castle: <\/span>https:\/\/ecfsapi.fcc.gov\/file\/1030840282837\/Crown_Castle_Comments_-_Small_Cell_Infrastructure_PN_(Final).pdf<\/span><\/u><\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The County called the federal government out for its own hypocritical behavior, and also called Mobilitie out for being the one provider that cannot seem to get its act together and which, because of its own careless and imprecise work, decided it would rather lobby the FCC to overcome its obstacles than to actually adhere to local rules and prepare thorough and meticulous applications in the first place.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In support of the FCC\u2019s desire to strip local governments of power, Crown Castle in its submission called out a bunch of states for allegedly making the application process difficult.\u00a0 Of course, not only was Maryland one of those states, but it even highlighted Montgomery County specifically, accusing the County of charging the highest application-related fees in the country.\u00a0 Whether true or not, Crown Castle \u2013 and the industry in general, for that matter \u2013 is not exactly destitute.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Crown Castle was recently on the verge of filing 100+ tower applications in Montgomery County\u00a0but, per the County\u2019s request that it\u00a0delay those filings, Crown Castle again agreed to delay\u00a0doing so\u00a0until at least May.\u00a0 The County is going to be meeting with the FCC in the near future to continue its pursuit of retaining as much local power in this matter as it can.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

— <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Montgomery County Coalition to Control Cell Towers (MC4T)<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Andy Spivak, Stonebridge Community<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Drew Morris, Stonebridge Community<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Aaron\u00a0Rosenzweig, Westleigh Gaithersburg<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sue Fitzpatrick, President – North Potomac Citizens Association<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Naomi Yount, VP – North Potomac Citizens Association<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Carol V. Falk, President – West Montgomery County Citizens Association<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Montgomery County Alliance<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Lisa Patterson, President –\u00a0Darnestown Civic Association<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Art Slesinger, Darnestown Civic Association\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mike Saft, Stonebridge Community HOA Board\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Peter Cheung Westleigh<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Joseph Chiu Dufief Mill Estates \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Steve Tvardek, Hunting Hill HOA Board<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Stephen Tolbert, Hunting Hill HOA Board<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Tracey Blanton,\u00a0<\/span>Mill Creek Towne<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Lisa Cline, Washingtonian Woods<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Jim Sledge, Germantown<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Laura Tise Magnuson, Esq., Germantown<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Kevin Dinallo, Dufief Mill Estates<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sharon Bernstein, Dufief Mill Estates<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Kate Kheel MSMA<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Dean Lin<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Glen Brown<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Kim Schwalm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Kate Doonan<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Susannah Goodman<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Linda Mayo, President, Potomac Crossing HOA<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update from the Montgomery County Coalition to Control Cell Towers (MC4T) dated March 11, 2017:\u00a0 As of March 8, 2017, the time to submit comments to the FCC regarding the streamlining of cell tower deployment is closed.\u00a0 For those interested, … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":695,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/northpotomacnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/northpotomacnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/northpotomacnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northpotomacnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northpotomacnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=763"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/northpotomacnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":764,"href":"https:\/\/northpotomacnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763\/revisions\/764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northpotomacnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/northpotomacnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northpotomacnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northpotomacnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}