This time I thought it would be different. In July of this year, after almost five years of hearings, reports, delays and appeals, culminating in a Federal lawsuit against the City, the City of Albany finally issued a building permit allowing to AT&T to install its long overdue wireless facility on San Pablo Avenue. The legal costs to the City alone were over $53,000 not counting staff and in-house counsel time for writing and rewriting reports.
When the next AT&T application was put forward for a facility on Solano Avenue to serve Central Albany it seemed for a while the City had learned a lesson. Staff worked with the carrier to be sure the proposal met the zoning standards, the Planning and Zoning Commission met twice, suggested design improvements, hired a consultant and then an engineer to review the proposal, and approved the project unanimously on June 26th.
Federal law requires local governments to complete final action on wireless applications within 150 days (less if they are collocations). Albany had failed to meet the deadline on the earlier project. This time they negotiated an extension agreement until July 31st, well after the scheduled meeting. After the final approval no-one came forward to challenge the decision and it seemed AT&T customers might finally get service.
However on July 10th Councilmember Marge Atkinson called for a review of the unanimous decision, at the urging, no doubt, of the small group of opponents of wireless service. Atkinson gave no specific reason except to support her "constituency" in "making sure everything is in order." Apparently that didn't include meeting the Federal shot clock requirements.
Even though there was a short window to meet and deal with the appeal, no action was taken before July 31st when the agreement expired. The same statute which authorizes the 150-day window also gives the carrier only a 30-day window to claim their right to a timely decision. Consequently AT&T has once again had to go to Federal court to assert their rights.
Fortunately, City Council will consider the appeal at its next meeting Tuesday Sept 3rd. If, as expected, the appeal is denied, then the lawsuit will be withdrawn before the City is obliged to craft a response to the Court. However the entire process has once again put the City in legal jeopardy by ignoring a Federal mandate and risking yet another costly taxpayer funded court defense. AT&T customers end up paying twice since such litigation also adds to the cost of their service.
Clearly something is wrong with the way Albany handles wireless facility applications.
P&Z Commissioner Donaldson has written an eloquent appeal to Council (posted with the online agenda for the 9/3 meeting) asking them to quickly reject the appeal and move forward with simplifying the Wireless Ordinance. He concludes that "as this application demonstrates, it is unnecessarily complex, and complicates the decision making process with no offsetting benefits."
I agree completely. We can no longer afford these costly delays and obstruction. It is time to move forward.
