ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 30, 1996 TAG: 9601300046
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
WE TOOK 6th District Congressman Robert Goodlatte to task for inserting language in the telecommunications-reform bill that would make it a crime to make indecent material - whatever that might be - available to minors over computer networks.
But the Republican from Roanoke left a helpful mark on the legislation as well, by ensuring that local zoning and land-use controls can't be ignored when cellular telephone towers are built.
Goodlatte's is not a small contribution, given estimates that the telecommunications industry may need to build 100,000 cellular towers nationwide over the next five years.
Both the House and Senate versions of the telecommunications-reform bill had provided localities with the ability to site the towers, but neither industry nor local-government officials were satisfied. Goodlatte, a member of the joint conference committee reconciling the two versions, heard concerns that localities wouldn't have the legal tools to control tower placement, creating the potential for aesthetic and environmental damage despite local protections.
Ninth District Congressman Rick Boucher, the Democrat from Abingdon who also is a member of the conference committee, has worked on telecommunications reform for years. Goodlatte's staff brought local-government representatives and Boucher's brought industry lobbyists together to work out language that gives local governments primary authority over where towers can be built.
Localities won't be able to override federal or state environmental laws to approve a tower site. Nor will they be able to use their zoning authority to discriminate among providers and deny a site in order to inhibit competition. A locality's decision can be appealed to the Federal Communications Commission and, if need be, eventually taken to court.
Some decisions will wind up there. But the bill provides a fair, evenhanded process that ensures localities will have a strong say in how land within their boundaries can be used. That was Goodlatte's intent. In this instance, good intentions had a good outcome.
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