Montgomery Council To Take Up Small Cell Towers Again

The Montgomery County Council will begin considering a zoning text amendment that would create an approach for the county to deal small cell phone infrastructure.

Current rules handle towers hundreds of feet tall that need hundreds of feet of setbacks. The industry, however, has been pushing toward smaller antennas, often on existing utility poles.

The ZTA would establish rules for how those antennas could move into neighborhoods that have buried their utilities.

The ZTA is the result of nearly a year of debate, both before the council and before County Executive Ike Leggett.

For example, if one carrier company wants to build an antenna and then a second company also wants to build an antenna. The ZTA gives the county the ability to tell the two companies to build together, Council President Hans Riemer said.

“We are able to enforce certain kinds of restrictions on the industry by working with them in that manner,” Riemer said.

You can read a report from the council’s analyst here.

Like this post? Sign up for our Daily Update here.
Douglas Tallman

About Douglas Tallman

Reporter with 35 years experience throughout Maryland. Reach me at dtallman@mymcmedia.org or via Twitter at @MCM-Doug

Comments

| Comments are closed.

Engage us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter