The Senate passed a bill on Wednesday regulating the process by which the state expects to achieve universal cell phone and broadband services. After numerous amendments, the bill passed 29-1.
A mixture of federal stimulus funds, state, and private money will be used to expand broadband throughout the state, while state and private money will finance cell phone expansion.
While the bulk of the work is slated to be completed within three years, it’s not clear exactly how comprehensive and fast cell phone and broadband coverage is projected to be by the end of that time. Sen. Mark MacDonald, D-Orange, complained that the description they had received of the expected capabilities of the system was so dense as to be unreadable. Next year, if the Senate gets its way, the expectations will be clearer. MacDonald introduced an amendment to direct the administration to provide a clear explanation by January 2012. It passed unopposed on a voice vote.
The telecom bill streamlines the permitting process for towers and antennas to provide both cell phone and wireless broadband coverage. Sen. Vince Illuzzi, R-Essex-Orleans, introduced a series of amendments from the Economic Development Committee that tweaked the streamlining. While most of the amendments passed on a voice vote, the senate agreed in an unusual 15-14 vote with amendments from the Natural Resources Committee to sunset various provisions in 2014.
Two parts of the bill will sunset in 2014. One sets shorter deadlines for the Agency of Natural Resources to issue stormwater permits in connection with telecom projects in waterways designated as “unimpaired” by pollution.
Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden, expressed concern that the ANR is understaffed, and that changing the rules solely for telecom projects in unimpaired waterways would give too little priority to all other stormwater permits. Sunsetting the rules, she argued, would give an opportunity to evaluate in three years how well the agency is serving other stormwater permit applicants.
The second sunsetting portion of the bill exempts some of the telecom construction activities from Act 250 and municipal bylaws and ordinances.
Another close vote, 16-14, removed aesthetic protection under Act 250 for telecom work along roads designated as scenic corridors and byways, including Interstates 89 and 91 and Route 100 and Route 4. The protection encourages what Illuzzi called “stealth technology” for towers, like disguising them as trees. Speaking for the Natural Resources Committee, Sen. Joe Benning, R-Caledonia, argued that every road in the state is a scenic corridor, regardless of its official designation. He expressed concern that special provisions applying to work along designated scenic corridors would discourage telecom providers from prioritizing projects along the interstates and the other roads. Opponents of the towers would also exploit the protection to slow down projects, he argued.
Senators on both sides invoked the beauty of the Vermont landscape and the special protections it receives under the state’s prohibition on billboards and Act 250. Illuzzi said he “strongly opposes” the amendment, because telecom providers want to build as fast and cheaply as possible. Lyons argued that current law provides sufficient protection against ugly cell phone towers and backed Benning’s argument that treating scenic roads differently could direct early development elsewhere.
The 16-14 vote split all three parties, with Illuzzi’s Economic Development Committee voting against the amendment and four of the five members of Lyons’ Natural Resources Committee voting for it.
Other streamlining that the Senate agreed to included adjusting the definition of small and ultra-small projects that will be subject to reduced regulation and directing the Public Service Board to devise a process for relaxing the requirement that all adjoining landowners be notified of a project. Illuzzi referred to a 56,000 acre parcel in the Champion lands purchased by the state in the 1990s, saying that installing a cell phone tower there should not require notifying all the hundreds of adjoining land owners.
The senate also inserted a net neutrality provision into the bill. The provision prohibits telecom carriers from treating different types of internet or telecommunications content differently, for example, giving them different speeds.
Finally, Sen. Randy Brock, R-Franklin, introduced an amendment to reduce conflicts of interest on the board of the Vermont Telecommunications Authority. The amendment, which passed, prohibits board members from working in Vermont with a telecom company for a year after they leave the board. Current law prevents them from working for telecom companies while they serve on the board.
