The Village of Algonquin, IL

Telecommunications companies, including Verizon, AT&T and others, are preparing to roll out a 5G network in the Village and throughout Illinois and nation.

The method of creating the 5G network that has been chosen by telecommunications companies is to utilize a large number of small, low power antennas, also known as small cell antennas, placed on existing utility poles or new poles, every several hundred feet.

To accomplish its goal in Illinois, the telecommunications companies wrote a bill, known as the Illinois Small Wireless Facility Deployment Act (the “State Act”), that was passed by the Illinois General Assembly in 2017.

A Declaratory Ruling passed last year by the FCC echoes many things in the State Act – so both the State Act and federal law severely limit the ability of the Village and other local governments to prevent small cell antennas within the community.

The State Act requires the following:

• The State Act requires the Village to allow small cell antennas on municipal streetlights or other Village-owned utility poles of a telecommunication company’s choice and caps the amount the companies need to pay the Village for those installations.
• The State Act strips away the Village’s traditional zoning authority and requires the antenna placements on Village poles to be permitted uses in all rights-of-way.
• The State Act allows the telecommunications companies to place small cell antennas on ComEd poles or other non-Village poles in the rights-of-way, again, as permitted uses.
• The State Act requires the Village to allow small cell antennas on new stand-alone poles installed by telecommunications companies in municipal rights-of-way, again at locations primarily chosen by the telecommunication companies. 
• The State Act strips away the Village’s traditional zoning authority over these new poles too, and requires that they be permitted uses in all rights-of-way.

Accordingly, the Village:

• would like providers to place their small cell antennas on ComEd poles where possible.
• is allowed, under both federal and the State Act, control over aesthetics.
• has adopted written design standards that telecommunication companies must adhere to in putting small cell antenna installations within the Village. While the Village can’t prevent these installations, the Village is doing its best to ensure they meet community standards from a design standpoint.
• doesn't know how many small cell antennas will be installed in Algonquin.
• cannot force providers to locate on poles with each other. Again, the State Act written by the telecommunication companies prevents the Village from doing that.

Federal law has, since 1996, preempted local governments from considering radio frequency in telecommunications equipment siting decisions so long as the equipment meets federal standards.

The provision of federal law that limits local authority over radio frequency emissions is in the “Communications Act of 1934, at 47 U.S.C. 332(c)(7)(B)(iv):

(iv) No State or local government or instrumentality thereof may regulate the placement, construction, and modification of personal wireless service facilities on the basis of the environmental effects of radio frequency emissions to the extent that such facilities comply with the Commission’s regulations concerning such emissions.

For those who want more information on the safety issues, the FCC has an RF Safety FAQ page.