The Town of Fountain Hills legal team has presented a report to the Town Council outlining federal and state regulations related to 5G small cell wireless infrastructure within the town.

Earlier this year the council heard from some residents who expressed concerns about the proliferation of the wireless installations and their potential impact on residents’ health. These individuals spoke during call to the public at multiple council sessions urging the council to take action to stop or further regulate the proliferation of the infrastructure.

As a follow-up to those concerns Town Manager Grady Miller asked Town Attorney Aaron Arnson to “fully research 5G and the Town’s ability to prevent wireless providers from installing and operating small cell wireless facilities in Fountain Hills.”

A memorandum presented by Arnson at the Aug. 22 council meeting outlined federal and state laws and regulations that prohibit municipalities from stopping 5G installations. Based on Arnson’s memo it appears the Town has very little ability to prohibit 5G wireless facilities from being installed within Fountain Hills.

“Federal and state law leave little for local municipalities to regulate in the 5G space,” Arnson states in his report. “Federal law makes it clear that a local municipality may not implement any regulation prohibiting the ability of a telecommunications provider to deploy small cell facilities (therefore 5G).

“Subsequent federal rules have tightened the regulatory space. State law further restricts a local municipality’s ability to regulate the deployment of 5G networks, as it preempts any local regulation not related to public safety and certain other narrow exceptions.

“Under Town Ordinance 18-01, the Town regulates this space to the extent legally possible.”

Federal law dates back to the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Under the TCA local municipalities may not prohibit the ability of any entity to provide any telecommunications services.

There are allowable permitting and application provisions for local government, but the federal and state laws include “shot clocks” on the time it takes to act on such requests to eliminate delays.

“Municipalities must approve applications unless ‘the application does not meet the applicable codes, local code provisions or regulations that concern public safety, objective design standards…or public safety and reasonable spacing requirement concerning the location of ground-mounted equipment in the right-of-way,’” Arnson said.

It was reported during the presentation that those citizens who had expressed their concerns to the council were informed and kept up to date on Arnson’s review of the law. It should be noted that national and global health organizations have reported there is no conclusive evidence that 5G, or any cellular waves, cause health issues in humans.

Lori Troller, who was one of the citizens to express concerns about potential effects, went to the podium at the meeting and thanked staff for its effort to research the legal aspects. It was also reported that a follow-up meeting had been scheduled with concerned residents.