HOWELL – The Howell Township Council has voted unanimously to adopt an ordinance amending the chapter of the land use code regarding the placement of small cell equipment and wireless poles in the public right-of-way.
The purpose of the ordinance is to establish a local policy concerning small cell equipment and wireless poles, conserve the limited physical capacity of the public rights-of-way, and assure that any and all telecommunication carriers providing services in Howell through small cell equipment and wireless poles comply with the laws and regulations of the township, according to the ordinance.
The ordinance states that the purpose of the amendment is to “enable the township to discharge its public trust consistent with rapidly evolving federal and state regulatory policies, industry competition and technological development.”
Small cell equipment or small cell facilities are defined in the ordinance as being attached, mounted or installed on an existing pole or wireless pole in the public rights-of-way and are used to provide personal communications services; wireless facilities and transmission media including femtocells, picocells and microcells, outside distributed antenna systems (ODAS), a personal wireless service facility as defined by the Federal Communications Act of 1996 (amended 2014), or a wireless service facility that meets certain qualifications.
When the ordinance came up for consideration by the council on June 12, Joan Osborne, who chairs the Howell Environmental Commission, spoke during the public hearing and asked officials to table the ordinance until the township receives additional information.
“I have a concern (the ordinance) is going to allow small cell equipment/towers in neighborhoods. I think the way this is drafted right now clearly contemplates these (small cell facilities) in residential areas,” Osborne said.
She said she has concerns regarding exposure to radiation “on 24-hour per day basis.”
“We are at a point where this is relatively new technology, we do not know how it is going to impact small children, people who are pregnant, (and) wildlife in the area. When you have exposure to non-ionizing radio frequency there is, from my understanding, thermal warming.
“If you ever had the experience of having a long cell phone conversation and when you are done you feel your hand is warm, you feel your face is warm. … not because (the cell phone) is a heater, but because it is bringing in these radio-radiation frequencies.
“Everybody used to think asbestos was perfectly safe, everybody use to think smoking was not going to harm you, we learn things over time. I think we could proceed cautiously and not put this is neighborhoods right now,” Osborne told the council.
Township Attorney Joseph Clark said the ordinance requires licensees to provide the township manager, township engineer and Township Council with information indicating that anything they are planning to do would be compliant with federal regulations.
“That would include federal regulations relating to the radio frequency emissions,” Clark said.
Under federal and state law, if the small cell facilities are compliant with regulations, the township is prohibited from considering potential health affects as a reason to reject a company’s request to place the equipment in the municipality.
“Under the law it has already been determined that (the equipment) does not present harm to people,” Clark said.
Resident Barbara Dixel said she has testified for many years about the ill effects of radiation.
“The federal government said it is fine, it does not matter if the kid next to you gets brain cancer, the federal government said it is fine,” she said.
Dixel asked for the ordinance to be tabled to allow for another public hearing.
Mayor Theresa Berger said that, “with all due respect,” the American Cancer Society is not advocating for municipalities to deny cell phone use.
“The (society) is saying (according to its website) that the possible radiation is similar to, or less than, what is currently being emitted from the towers that are currently there and you probably have more damage from the cell phone than the tower,” Berger said.
Environmental Commission member Gerard Barron expressed concern about the height of the equipment anticipated in the ordinance. He said the small cell equipment “is lower than usual.”
“Cell towers are 60 to 80 feet in height … This (small cell equipment) is going to be (on) telephone poles that are 35 feet high right in front of your house. That is not very good for your health. I’m sorry, I do not want it in front of my house. I do not know if you (the council members) want to volunteer to be the first one to have it in front of your house,” Barron said.
Jim Herrman, Howell’s director of community development, said the small cell equipment would be similar to what an electrical transformer looks like on a telephone pole.
“If you have a 35-foot high wooden telephone pole with a transformer, that is almost very similar to what the small cell (equipment) will look like. They cannot go higher than 6 feet higher than existing poles. Typically, (companies) would want to be as high as they can, but we cannot have it stick out where there is a 70-foot pole next to 35-foot wooden telephone poles,” Herrman said.
He said small cell equipment is “meant to blend in” with the area and that residents “probably would not notice the difference if you are driving down the street.”
“That is what we are trying to regulate here, to make sure we have some sort of control over this before we get an applicant that comes in with a 120-foot-tall monopole which is basically a cell tower, which we do not want,” Herrman said.
“We have heard these fear-mongering claims for over 20 years,” Deputy Mayor Robert Nicastro said. “Technology is a necessity for society today and unfortunately in rural areas we have always kind of been behind the eight ball because we are rural and that is why the phones were always dropping calls, because we were always fighting cell towers.”
Nicastro said he believes technology is advancing and will help to better serve the community.
“I understand fear, but we have been hearing this fear-mongering for over 20 years. The technology is there and we have all become (used to it). You do not leave home without your cell phone,” he said.
Berger, Nicastro, Councilman Bob Walsh, Councilwoman Evelyn O’Donnell and Councilwoman Pauline Smith voted to adopt the ordinance regulating the small cell equipment.