GA House Bill 176, titled “Mobile Broadband Infrastructure Leads to Development (BILD) Act“ limits the oversight that local governments and citizens exercise in the permitting process for cell towers.
This bill passed house and senate, and went to Governor Nathan Deal’s desk on March 24. The governor signed the bill April 21, so it is now Georgia state law.
111 (c) [& following...] A local governing authority's review of an application to modify or collocate wireless facilities on an existing wireless support structure shall not include an evaluation of the technical, business, or service characteristics of such proposed wireless facilities. A local governing authority shall not require an applicant to submit radio frequency analyses or any other documentation intended to demonstrate the proposed service characteristics of the proposed wireless facilities, to illustrate the need for such wireless facilities, or to justify the business decision to collocate such wireless facilities; provided, however, that the local governing authority may require the applicant to provide a letter from a radio frequency engineer certifying the applicant's proposed wireless facilities will not interfere with public safety emergency communications.
Without this oversight, citizens and local government could be unable to request:
- the environmental effects of wireless microwave transmission
- business justification for placement of wireless facilities, such as “to fill a dead zone in our coverage map”