When it comes to future growth of wireless communications in Sedona, the city’s hands are pretty much tied — but with a little wiggle room.

That sentiment was shared during a joint work session of the Sedona City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission on Wednesday, Sept. 14. There, they received an update on the city’s proposed wireless master plan by Susan Rabold, a consultant with CityScape.

Since meeting with council in July, CityScape staff has completed assessments of the existing wireless infrastructure in Sedona and developed propagation maps from their recent assessments.

“You’re not going to see a decrease in the infrastructure [cell towers], you’re just going to continue seeing more and more,” Rabold said. “So planning for that is really important, especially if you’re maintaining aesthetics.”

Even though the city’s hands are somewhat tied due to federal regulations, Rabold said the city will have a say in regard to public health, safety and welfare. In addition, it can give input when it comes to development standards such as landscaping, height, infrastructure type, siting strategies, setbacks, location, fencing and signage.

A city report states that a comprehensive approach to wireless development in Sedona will help align the needs of wireless broadband service providers with government and community objectives. This should allow for infrastructure planning and development that will accommodate multiple providers, improve public safety and help at tract and retain residents and businesses.

Rabold said the goal of the wireless master plan is to “facilitate the creation of an optimized wireless telecommunications environment that is efficient, capable and meets the long-term forecasted user requirements of the businesses, residents and visitors in the city of Sedona while minimizing visual impact of the new infrastructure.”

The master plan will identify existing infrastructure and project where new infrastructure will be necessary to meet wireless connectivity goals and objectives by the community and industry, she said. It will simplify the network deployment process enabling technology of wireless services to residents in an expedient and efficient manner. It will ensure compliance with state and federal legislation required of local government. And, it will also create a new method for community revenues as those with cell towers on their property are often paid anywhere from $500 to $2,400 a month by the cell phone providers.

Federal law mandates that cities, counties and states abide by the following:

• Must allow for the carriers to deploy their systems.
• Must act expeditiously in these requests.
• Must treat providers equally by providing equal access to “functionally equivalent services.”
• Local governments’ land development standards may not supersede or undermine areas of federal jurisdiction.
• Enable federal government to use federal property, rights-of-way and easements for leasing for new telecommunications infrastructure.
• Requirements for tower lighting and markings are exclusively regulated by the FAA/FCC.

Rabold said to date they have found that within Sedona an additional 18 towers will be needed to keep up with standards and demand over the next 10 years. Of these, they are recommending that eight be placed on city-owned public land at a recommended height of 35 feet. And while by law the city can’t refuse a cellular tower being built, on public lands it would at least have a say in the matter.

“The community benefits by using the public lands because you can scrutinize what that site looks like and hold them accountable to develop it where you want it within that particular piece of property, how it will be screened, the height, color — everything,” Rabold said. “You are in the driver’s seat.”

Members of City Council and the Planning and Zoning Commission will conduct site visits in small groups to the city-owned properties pointed out by CityScape. They will then provide their suggested locations as well as the type of “concealed” versions of the cell towers they would like to see. Those results will be compiled, given to the consultants and then presented at a future council meeting.

City Manager Justin Clifton stressed that increasing the number of cell towers is not something the city is actively pursuing. But instead, he said it’s a matter of preparing for if or when it’s needed.

“The purpose of this is, if you start with the premise that we have limited control for all the reasons discussed and if you accept that it’s probably going to happen, then the idea is to have a little more control,” he said.

“The question is, would you rather have a request that meets some previously-vetted analysis or a request that just meets whatever standard the provider selected and whatever property owner they negotiated with? We’d rather have the one we vetted. Our driving force is to be better prepared in an environment where we already have limited control or influence.”