Tell Montgomery County Council to Say NO to ZTA 18-11; say YES to CAP!

Yesterday began a new school year. Hopefully your child’s journey to/from is school safe. However, if Big Telecom has its way and Zoning Text Amendment (ZTA) 18-11 passes, expect safety to diminish.  ZTA 18-11 is about making regulations cheap and easy for the wireless industry; It’s not about protecting residents or neighborhoods.

Example One: The ZTA would allow large dangerous equipment cabinets along our streets and roads: equipment so large — 20 cubic feet in size (2 feet x 2 feet x 5 feet tall) — that it would risk obscuring children from traffic at bus stops or while walking between school and home. Many other communities, concerned about the safety of their residents and the quality of their neighborhoods, require large equipment along streets and roads to be vaulted underground. Concerned Montgomery County residents want the equipment in underground vaults in Montgomery County, too. Montgomery County government staff have told us that the County doesn’t want to require equipment underground in the ZTA because vaults would be too expensive for the wireless industry.

Vaults are the preferred method in the Comprehensive Antennas Proposal (CAP): regulations that fairly balance providing services with the needs for strong resident protections. Please sign up to testify at the Public Hearing on the evening of September 25th. And contact our County Council to let them know that ZTA 18-11 IS NOT SAFE OR APPROPRIATE FOR THE PEOPLE OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY. Join us in asking the County Council to Say NO to ZTA 18-11; say YES to CAP!

-- Sue Present