Cherry Hill Seeks Oversight Of Small Cell Facilities

CHERRY HILL, NJ — Cherry Hill is looking to exercise the limited local control they have over small cell wireless facilities as those facilities expand throughout South Jersey, officials announced.

A small cell facility is a group of telecommunications equipment that is much smaller than the traditional 200-foot cell towers, officials said. They support existing cellular networks to improve service and data speeds, and some may be able to support new 5G services being rolled out by some wireless carriers.

They use low-powered antennas to send data over high-frequency millimeter waves, but since those waves are also more easily blocked by physical barriers, pole-mounted small cell facilities must be located closer together than traditional cell towers to operate correctly.

Under federal law, wireless carriers can install these small cell facilities on public rights-of-way, such as utility poles, and municipalities have no ability to stop them, officials said. They only have some control over the approval process, including what information needs to be presented in order to gain approvals, how much it will charge in fees to apply for approval and the aesthetic appearance of the facilities.

A proposed ordinance introduced during Cherry Hill Council’s meeting Monday night mandates that any wireless carrier seeking to install a small cell facility anywhere in Cherry Hill must, among other requirements:

• Provide service maps to demonstrate any existing service gaps and justify the need to install new equipment in a specific location
• Locate the facilities on existing poles before requesting to build a new pole to house equipment.
• Meet specific aesthetic requirements when installing on existing poles, including making any equipment box, or “cabinet,” the same width as the pole, painted the same color and mounted away from oncoming traffic.
• Provide proof, if a carrier applies to install a new pole, as to why no existing pole could support the facility. Proof must include a structural engineering report and a letter from the utility company that owns existing poles, among other documentation
• Adhere to strict aesthetic standards when constructing any new pole, including a requirement the new pole be a “stealth” pole that conceals all equipment and matches its surroundings

The ordinance would also require all carriers to verify that each of its individual small cell facilities meet FCC safety standards, as mapped out on the FCC website. Both the World Health Organization and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have concluded that wireless service radio frequencies do not cause negative health effects.

The proposal was drafted after the township’s professionals met with a telecommunications expert, and they decided to introduce the proposal before a proposed state law further restricts municipalities’ oversight of the approval process.

Officials said the township has received multiple inquiries from wireless carriers, but no small cell facilities have yet been set up in the township.

To use an existing pole in the township, the application fee is $500 for the first five poles, and $100 a pole for every pole after that. A $250 fee will apply for the modification or replacement of an existing pole. The fee to apply for a permit to build a new stealth pole is $1,000. Each permit application requires the carrier to pay a $2,500 escrow deposit to pay for professional fees incurred during the review, including expert consulting fees.

After acquiring a permit, the carriers will have to pay a $270 fee for each small cell wireless facility in the township annually.