The Town of Fountain Hills has been working for a couple of years on a set of local regulations for development of wireless communications infrastructure in town, but it appears the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) may be trying to preempt that local authority to regulate.
The town council directed staff on Nov. 18 to proceed with a letter to the FCC with objections to proposed rules the agency is planning for the Trump Administration’s “Build America: Eliminating Barriers to Wireless Deployments.” A staff report prepared by Development Services Director John Wesley said the objective of the FCC’s initiative is to “limit state and local regulatory authority over macro cell towers and other wireless communications facilities.”
According to Wesley, the introduction to the FCC rulemaking notice states the goal is to “advance the commission’s build America agenda by proposing reforms that would free towers and other wireless infrastructure from regulatory burdens imposed at the state and local level.”
