California cities are pushing back against the tighter limits on wireless infrastructure permit reviews that the Federal Communications Commission approved in a party line vote earlier this month. Three cities in Los Angeles County – Glendora, Rancho Palos Verde and Torrance – and the California and Oregon leagues of cities filed a challenge to the FCC’s ruling with the San Francisco-based ninth circuit federal appeals court.
The FCC ruling said cities, or other local agencies, can’t delay starting a 60-day federal shot clock and can’t add aesthetic requirements when granting permit for expansions or other additions to cell sites and towers, or other wireless facilities, so long as the changes are within certain limits. In other words, when the work falls under what are usually called the “6409” rules, after the section federal law involved. The FCC said that the 60-day shot clock begins as soon as a wireless company takes the first step in a permit process, whether or not they’ve filed a formal application. If the shot clock expires, the permit is “deemed granted”.
The cities and associations filing the petition for review argued, as might be expected, that the FCC exceeded its authority…
The Commission’s new rules and significant changes to its existing rules unlawfully preempt local and state government authority promulgated without response to the arguments advanced by Petitioners in the record…
Petitioners seek review of the Ruling on the grounds that the Ruling is arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion.
The cities’ filed on Monday. I haven’t seen any other appeals from any other parts of the U.S. Assuming that’s the case, it’ll be handled by the ninth circuit, which is also considering a similar, but much larger, challenge to the FCC’s 2018 preemption of local ownership of city street light poles.
That case was heard in February, by three ninth circuit judges. There’s no particular timeline for a decision, but they’ve been working on it long enough that it could come at any time. Expect a similar journey of a couple of years for this latest appeal.