Subject: Massachusetts Action Alert Text (Hines)..
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2000 090925 -0600 (CST)
From: "Roy L. Beavers"
To: emfguru
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Forwarded by EMF-L....... Action required in Massachusetts.....!!
Roy Beavers (EMFguru)
roy@emfguru.com
.....It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.....
NEW!!! Website... http://emfguru.com
...................People are more important than profits.................
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2000 09:18:15 -0500
From: azul@flash.net
To: "Roy L. Beavers"
Subject: Action Alert Text
MASSACHUSETTS COUNCIL
ON WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY IMPACTS
Contact: Virginia Hines — Concord - (978)371-0079
Tony Blair - Great Barrington - (413)528-0747
Diana Warren — Wayland — (508)358-2865
Janet Newton-EMR Network-(802)426-3035
ACTION ALERT - 9 FEBRUARY 2000
Home Rule Threatened- Who Owns Our Zoning?
The wireless telecommunications industry, the Massachusetts Municipal
Association, and the Conservation Law Foundation have co-sponsored a
bill in the Massachusetts Legislature which would eliminate local zoning
of wireless communications facilities.
The unnumbered bill is titled, "An Act Providing a More Efficient and
Uniform Process for Implementing Municipal Authority Over the Placement,
Construction and Modification of Wireless Communications Facilities."
This bill is a huge step backward and if passed into law, would totally
defeat the purpose of the Zoning Act as established after great effort
and widespread public input under Home Rule as Chapter 808 of the Acts
of 1975. In May 1999, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) in
Roberts v. Southwestern Bell decided that the 1996 Telecommunications
Act (TCA) did not pre-empt provisions of the Zoning Act and upheld local
zoning authority. In addition, the proposed bill also stops lawsuits,
the very remedy Congress envisioned in the TCA to resolve disputes.
The proposed legislation allows wireless communications to install
facilities in all zoning districts including residential, and historic.
Facilities located on, in, or attached to a building, existing wireless
telecommunications tower, pole, utility transmission tower, overhead
cable, smokestack, steeple, water tank or billboard would not require a
special permit, public hearing, abutter notification, conditions, or
variance. Approval would be by issuance of a building permit by the
bulding inspector within 30 days of filing the application.
This bill should be defeated. To retain local control we need to enact
legislation such as House Bill 961, now languishing in the Governmental
Regulations Committee, which would remove the "public utilities" status
from the wireless communications companies and get the Department of
Telecommunications and Energy out of the siting process.
A full vote in the legislature on this industry and MMA sponsored bill
is imminent, and at present , no public hearing is scheduled. It is
currently in the Governmental Regulations Committee , chaired by Senator
Michael W. Morrissey (617-722-1494) and Representative Daniel E. Bosley
(617-722-2120). Call or write them at the Governmental Regulations
Committee, State House, Boston MA 02133. Send a copy of your letter to
your state senator and representative.
Virginia Hines, Co-chairman
Massachusetts Council on Wireless Technology Impacts
86 Fairhaven Road Concord MA 01742-3518
Tel: (978)371-0079 FAX: (978)371-8255 E-mail: macwti@aol.com
Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.emfguru.com