The request is for the City Council to adopt Resolution No. 2017–15 expressing the City’s opposition of SB 596/HB 687 which eviscerates local control for Florida cities with respect to taxpayer owned public structures and right-of-ways (generally roadway and sidewalks areas) for placement of “small” or “micro” wireless antennas and equipment by the multi-billion dollar wireless communications industry.

Currently, there is legislation being considered at the state level that would prohibit local governments from regulating anything except applicable building codes for this wireless infrastructure. Wireless communication providers and speculators would be able to ignore land development regulations, pedestrian movement, traffic view zones, traffic circulation as well as safety and aesthetic considerations. By unreasonably capping the permit application and attachment fees as well as limiting the permit review timeframe, the Bills require taxpayers to subsidize the business interests of wireless communications providers. The Bills require a city, at its taxpayers’ expenses, to develop engineering and other structural reports on the city’s own infrastructures that a wireless company may or may not decide to use for antennas. Should this legislation pass, there will be a proliferation of wireless infrastructure in areas where such equipment and infrastructure is unsightly, unsafe and inappropriate for that particular community.