ST. PETE BEACH \u2014 Responding to resident concerns, city commissioners unanimously approved amendments to strengthen the city’s wireless facilities ordinance on first reading, adding new restrictions on cell towers and small wireless facilities.<\/p>\n
The changes significantly increase local regulation within the limits of federal and state law, city attorney Ralf Brookes told commissioners.<\/p>\n
“We’ve been very careful not to stray into areas that are preempted by federal or state law,” Brookes said.<\/p>\n
The amendments increase setbacks and discourage locating communication facilities near residential neighborhoods, low-intensity areas and environmentally sensitive sites. They also limit the height of most facilities within residential areas to the maximum permitted building height in each zoning district and require fall-radius setbacks from existing or approved buildings.<\/p>\n
The revised code encourages tower users to minimize visual impact through careful siting, design, landscape screening and camouflaging techniques. It also prioritizes co-locating equipment on existing towers rather than building new single-use structures.<\/p>\n
Tower owners must now take steps to protect the area’s unique character, including The Don CeSar Hotel, Boca Ciega Bay Aquatic Preserve, Upham Beach Park, Pass-a-Grille Historic District and other historic and natural sites. They must verify compliance with environmental reviews and historic preservation requirements when facilities could affect these locations.<\/p>\n
State law constraints<\/p>\n
Brookes explained that two Florida statutes severely restrict what local governments can regulate regarding wireless facilities, particularly the Advanced Wireless Infrastructure Deployment Act.<\/p>\n
State law prohibits cities from using traditional zoning, land development regulations, aesthetic considerations or location preferences to deny permits for small cell sites in public rights of way. Co-location applications \u2014 such as adding antennas to existing poles \u2014 are limited to building permit review, largely bypassing public hearings.<\/p>\n
The law caps application fees, mandates 60-to-90-day review periods and prevents cities from imposing height limits beyond 10 feet above existing poles unless waived. Municipalities cannot enact broad moratoriums to halt small cell deployments.<\/p>\n
“Although quite restrictive, both statutes recognize the traditional authority of local governments over land use development and zoning restrictions,” Brookes said. The new provisions ensure applications actually meet statutory criteria for streamlined review.<\/p>\n
Resident concerns<\/p>\n
Resident Kelly Lee McFrederick, who successfully lobbied to remove a 5G cell tower from in front of her house, urged commissioners to continue strengthening protections.<\/p>\n
“No one wants this in front of their house, and the one on 36th and Gulf is one of the scariest I’ve ever seen,” she said. “Be the hero for Florida, be the hero for the beaches and say, ‘You know what, telecom, we want to own our beaches, we want to own our city, we want to own our homes.'”<\/p>\n
McFrederick warned that insurance issues complicate tower liability, noting that providers resisted determining who would pay for damages if a tower failed.<\/p>\n
“I do feel we have a lot of legs to stand on, and I very much encourage you to keep doing what you’re doing,” she said. “This has been a battle for the beaches, and I’m in it.”<\/p>\n
Implementation<\/p>\n
City manager Fran Robustelli said the city will need to hire outside contractors to review permit applications because staff lacks the necessary technical expertise.<\/p>\n
“These won’t be planners, these would be technical wireless communication experts, so they really know the technology,” Brookes added. The city will issue a request for proposals to find qualified reviewers.<\/p>\n
Applications typically arrive in batches rather than a steady stream. Over the past five years, the city received one batch of about 20 applications and another of roughly 30.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Jon Maldonado suggested the county might have subject matter experts available to assist.<\/p>\n
“We want to be tough negotiators \u2014 that’s why we’re beefing up our ordinance,” Brookes said, noting that the Florida Department of Transportation maintains separate right-of-way rules for structures along Gulf Boulevard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETE BEACH \u2014 Responding to resident concerns, city commissioners unanimously approved amendments to strengthen the city’s wireless…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[47243,14637,596,202,2149,47242,204,203,199,201,200,47244],"class_list":{"0":"post-86680","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-cell-tower","9":"tag-florida-statutes","10":"tag-pinellas-county","11":"tag-st-pete","12":"tag-st-pete-beach","13":"tag-st-pete-beach-city-council","14":"tag-st-pete-headlines","15":"tag-st-pete-news","16":"tag-st-petersburg","17":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","18":"tag-st-petersburg-news","19":"tag-wireless"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}