Florida House Passes Small-Cells Wireless Bill

opposed to the legislation, which takes away local authority on wireless infrastructure siting (see 1704270043). Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) enacted a similar small-cells bill last week that won support from the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, and the Republican state representative who sponsored the legislation is set to testify Wednesday in the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee (see 1704280050). Local groups at first balked at the Arizona proposal when industry first showed it before this year’s legislative session, but later worked out a bill with industry that they could support, the league’s Legislative Associate Tom Savage emailed us Friday. “It appeared the industry was taking an aggressive approach to preempt local management of rights-of-way and with little to no regard for the aesthetics of the technology or where the equipment is to be placed.” Mayor and council members directed the organization to negotiate “to retain police and land use powers over city and town rights-of-way and find compromise in the fee schedules and expedited timeframes the industry was seeking,” he said. “Our mayors and council members understood the bill presented an opportunity for our cities and towns, and the state, to be positioned for the rollout of 5G and this technology helps to better provide cell and data coverage that business and our citizens use every day.” Negotiations took months, Savage said. “After many hours of stakeholder meetings, phone calls and two complete rewrites of the bill, we ended up with legislation that the League, our member city and towns and the wireless industry supported.”