[1st-mile-nm] Santa Fe Telecom Ordinance: Town Hall Meetings 4/8 & 4/22

[Richard Lowenberg]

I've held off posting the following announcement, to get clarification  
on whether the meetings
would address the entire Telecom Ordinance, or just wireless issues in  
a pending City Ordinance.
I've had no response from the organizers, yet.     RL
--------

>
> CONTACT:     John McPhee            505-577-8351
>                         Azlan White              505-983-7071
>
> WHAT:           Santa Fe Public Town Hall Meeting
>                        on City Telecommunications Code Revision
>
> WHEN:           Thursday April 8th, 7pm
>
> WHERE:         Mary Esther Gonzalez Senior Center
>                        1121 Alto Street
>

> CITY TO HOLD TOWN HALL MEETINGS ON WIRELESS ORDINANCE
>
> On April 8th, 2010, from 7-9 pm, the first of two Town Hall Meetings  
> will be held on the revision of Santa Fe’s telecommunications  
> ordinance.  It will take place in the Mary Esther Gonzalez Senior  
> Center at 1121 Alto Street.
>
> The second Town Hall Meeting will take place on April 22, 2010 in  
> the Genoveva Chavez Center, also from 7-9 pm. The public is urged to  
> come and participate at both meetings.
>
> Further revisions to the proposed ordinance will be presented, and  
> the possibility of a temporary moratorium on antennas and towers in  
> Santa Fe will be discussed. Critical issues that have led to the  
> calling of these Town Hall Meetings include: property values;  
> homeowner rights; aesthetics; public notification of and public  
> input into the locations of proposed antennas; and preservation of  
> the cultural and historic values of Santa Fe. The purpose of these  
> meetings is to gather public input into the ordinance revision  
> before the city council next considers it on May 12, 2010.
>
> Santa Fe's current telecommunications ordinance, which regulates  
> antennas in the public rights-of-way, was partially struck down in  
> 2004 by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, and it was never  
> revised. Santa Fe has a separate land use ordinance that regulates  
> antennas on private property. The lack of a valid public rights-of- 
> way ordinance did not pose a problem for several years because no  
> applications for antennas on public streets were submitted. However,  
> the advent of iPhones, iPads, and similar technologies has greatly  
> intensified the demand for bandwidth for mobile devices, and in  
> 2009, several antenna-building companies approached the city with  
> proposals to place as many as two to three hundred small towers on  
> the streets and sidewalks of the city. These would be a combination  
> of new antennas placed on existing PNM and Qwest poles, as well as  
> new 25-foot towers in areas of the city with no overhead utilities.
>
> To accommodate these applications, city staff has revised the  
> telecommunications ordinance and presented it to the city council  
> for approval. However, the revised ordinance, according to members  
> of the Santa Fe Alliance for Public Health and Safety, lacks  
> necessary protections. It eliminates effective public participation  
> in the approval process; allows antennas as a permitted use in all  
> residential areas for the first time; and gives blanket franchises  
> which allow these companies carte blanche to not only to install  
> cable underneath the streets, but to install antennas wherever they  
> please along the cable routes with no further notification or  
> approval process. The Alliance is proposing that the cable and  
> antennas regulations do not belong in the same ordinance, and is  
> presently working to draft two separate ordinances for presentation  
> to the public at the Town Hall Meetings, and to the City Council at  
> an early date.
>
> Other cities, such as San Diego, Pasadena, and Glendale, have dealt  
> with similar situations by first passing temporary moratoria on  
> antennas in order to craft careful ordinances. Glendale, for  
> example, has a 17-month moratorium which is still in effect and will  
> expire in June, while it solicits public comment on its newly  
> drafted ordinance.
>
> Councilor Miguel Chavez and the Santa Fe Alliance for Public Health  
> and Safety are co-sponsoring the upcoming Town Hall Meetings.
>


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