Cell Phone Towers Ugly But Allowed

A federal appeals court rules that cities cannot block construction of the towers for aesthetic reasons alone.

1 minute read

January 19, 2006, 9:00 AM PST

"In the nation's first appellate ruling on an increasingly contentious local issue, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down parts of a La CaÃ±ada Flintridge law that had allowed the city to withhold building permits on public rights of way for purely aesthetic reasons."

"Unlike telephone or cable lines, cellphone transmitters can't be buried underground and need to be high enough to relay signals without obstruction. And they're seemingly everywhere. By June, service providers had installed 178,025 cell sites nationwide â€" adding more than 15,000 a year for the last four years."

FULL STORY: City Can't Bar Cell Towers on Looks Only, Court Says

Wednesday, January 18, 2006 in The Los Angeles Times

Infrastructure United States

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