The consultant who wrote Anna Maria’s master wireless services plan and assisted with writing the city’s cell tower ordinance says technology has changed so much that updating both are now critical for the city.
Commissioners are currently discussing changes to the cell tower ordinance with Rusty Monroe of the Center for Municipal Solutions, the company that recently wrote the cell tower ordinance for Bradenton Beach. The commission has not yet discussed any change to the master plan.
The cell tower issue in Anna Maria dates to 2002, when Tech Tower Inc. expressed interest in building a tower at Roser Memorial Community Church on Pine Avenue.
The proposal prompted a public outcry, and a 2002 city commission moratorium on cell towers until a master plan and ordinance were in place. The city hired Ted Kreines to write the master plan and consult with city attorney Jim Dye on an ordinance.
In October, commissioners asked Monroe to review the city’s telecommunications ordinance and make recommended changes. Monroe said there would be no charge to the city for the revisions.
The Bradenton Beach cellular communications ordinance includes verbiage that CMS would receive compensation from telecommunications companies that propose and build cell towers in the city.
Kreines also was asked by The Islander about updating the master plan. He said updating the master plan should take place before any ordinance amendments.
Commissioners did not ask Monroe to review the master plan, and Mayor Mike Selby said a review by Kreines would “cost us something.”
Selby was pleased with Monroe’s “no charge” estimate to provide recommendations.
Monroe sent his recommendations to Selby before the Nov. 17 commission meeting and suggested the city could retain CMS and use its model ordinance as a “template” if it wanted to proceed with amendments.
Monroe said the template “already deals with the issues in the context of today’s world,” and has “never been successfully challenged in almost 15 years.”
A number of Monroe’s recommendations were to change verbiage in the current ordinance from encouraging or suggesting that companies or carriers do something in constructing a tower to “mandatory requirements,” he wrote.
“Regulations should require, prohibit or facilitate. Encouraging is useless and has no legal effect and just confuses the issue,” Monroe said.
Kreines said, however, that when he wrote the master plan in 2003 he used suggestive words in the plan and ordinance to “reduce the threat of litigation” by companies.
While Selby and the commission like Monroe’s free recommendations, they also are paying attention to a petition submitted to the city by cell tower opponent Jamie Walstad, who led the fight opposing the Roser cell tower proposal in 2002.
Walstad’s petition, which has more than 100 signatures, including that of Anna Maria Commissioner Dale Woodland, opposes any change to the current cell tower ordinance that doesn’t “protect all of the residential property owners fairly.”
The petition asks why it is the city’s responsibility to ensure cell phones work in Anna Maria all the time. Walstad said in the petition that if the ordinance needs updating, the city should contact Kreines as the author of the original documents.
“I feel extremely comfortable with (Kreines’) advice,” she wrote.
Commissioners directed Dye to review Monroe’s suggestions and report back at the commission’s Dec. 15 meeting.
Selby said he would contact Kreines before then for an estimate to review and update the master wireless services plan and wireless ordinance.
Kreines said the updating process would start with the master plan, then the ordinance. The master plan can’t be ignored, he observed.
He said he likely would not need to come to Anna Maria as he’s worked with Dye and updating the master plan could be done via e-mail and telephone calls to and from Dye and himself.