Amended in Senate August 18, 2015

Amended in Senate July 8, 2015

Amended in Senate July 2, 2015

Amended in Assembly April 6, 2015

Amended in Assembly March 26, 2015

California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly BillNo. 57


Introduced by Assembly Member Quirk

December 2, 2014


An act to add Section 65964.1 to the Government Code, relating to telecommunications.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 57, as amended, Quirk. Telecommunications: wireless telecommunication facilities.

Existing law requires a city, including a charter city, or county to administratively approve an application for a collocation facility on or immediately adjacent to a wireless telecommunications collocation facility, as defined, through the issuance of a building permit or a nondiscretionary permit, as specified. Existing law prohibits a city or county from taking certain actions as a condition of approval of an application for a permit for construction or reconstruction for a development project for a wireless telecommunications facility.

Under existing federal law, the Federal Communications Commission issuedbegin delete a rulingend deletebegin insert rulingsend insert establishing reasonable time periods within which a local government is required to act on a collocation or siting application for a wireless telecommunications facility.

This bill would provide that a collocation or siting application for a wireless telecommunications facility is deemed approved if the city or county fails to approve or disapprove the application within the reasonable time periods specified in applicable decisions of the Federal Communications Commission, all required public notices have been provided regarding the application, and the applicant has provided a notice to the city or county that the reasonable time period has lapsed.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

P2    1

SECTION 1.  

Section 65964.1 is added to the Government
2Code
, to read:

3

65964.1.  

(a) A collocation or siting application for a wireless
4telecommunications facility, as defined in Section 65850.6, shall
5be deemed approved if all of the following occur:

6(1) The city or county fails to approve or disapprove the
7application within a reasonable period of time in accordance with
8the time periods and procedures established by applicable FCC
9decisions. The reasonable period of time may be tolled to
10accommodate timely requests for information required to complete
11the application or may be extended by mutual agreement between
12the applicant and the local government, consistent with applicable
13FCC decisions.

14(2) The applicant has provided all public notices regarding the
15application that the applicant is required to provide under
16applicable laws consistent with the public notice requirements for
17the application.

18(3) (A) The applicant has provided notice to the city or county
19that the reasonable time period has lapsed and that the application
20is deemed approved pursuant to this section.

21(B) Within 30 days of the notice provided pursuant to
22subparagraph (A), the city or county may seek judicial review of
23the operation of this section on the application.

24(b) This section does not apply to eligible facilities requests.

25(c) The Legislature finds and declares that a wireless
26telecommunications facility has a significant economic impact in
P3    1California and is not a municipal affair as that term is used in
2Section 5 of Article XI of the California Constitution, but is a
3matter of statewide concern.

4(d) As used in this section, the following terms have the
5following meanings:

6(1) “Applicable FCC decisions” means In re Petition for
7Declaratory Ruling, 24 FCC Rcd. 13994 (2009) and In the Matter
8of Acceleration of Broadband Deployment by Improving Wireless
9Facilities Siting Policies, Report and Order, 29 FCC Rcd. 12865 begin delete10 (2014), as they may be modified or superseded by subsequent
11decisions of the Federal Communications Commission.end delete
begin insert (2014).end insert

12(2) “Eligible facilities request” has the same meaning as in
13Section 1455 of Title 47 of the United States Code.

begin insert

14(e) Except as provided in subdivision (a), nothing in this section
15limits or affects the authority of a city or county over decisions
16regarding the placement, construction, and modification of a
17wireless telecommunications facility.

end insert
begin insert

18(f) Due to the unique duties and infrastructure requirements for
19the swift and effective deployment of firefighters, this section does
20not apply to a collocation or siting application for a wireless
21telecommunications facility where the project is proposed for
22placement on fire department facilities.

end insert


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