(A) The purpose and intent of this chapter is to provide a uniform and comprehensive set of regulations and standards for the permitting, development, siting, installation, design, operation and maintenance of wireless telecommunications facilities in the Town of Fairfax to avoid visual impacts to the downtown, scenic corridors, residential and visually distinctive areas; to avoid impact to listed and candidate endangered species including habitats; and to provide a uniform and comprehensive set of standards for the orderly development of telecommunications facilities and installation of antennas. These regulations are intended to prescribe clear and reasonable criteria to assess and process applications in a consistent and expeditious manner, while reducing the impacts associated with wireless telecommunications Facilities. This chapter provides standards necessary to: (1) preserve and promote harmonious land uses and the public right-of-way in the town; (2) promote and protect public health and safety, community welfare, visual resources, and the aesthetic quality of the town consistent with the goals, objectives, and policies of the General Plan; (3) provide for the orderly, managed, and efficient development of wireless telecommunications facilities in accordance with the state and federal laws, rules, and regulations; and (4) encourage new technology in the provision of wireless telecommunications facilities.
(B) This chapter is not intended to, nor shall it be interpreted or applied to: (1) prohibit or effectively prohibit any personal wireless service provider's ability to provide personal wireless services; (2) prohibit or effectively prohibit any entity's ability to provide any interstate or intrastate telecommunications service, subject to any competitively neutral and nondiscriminatory rules or regulation for rights-of-way management; (3) unreasonably discriminate among providers of functionally-equivalent services; (4) deny any request for authorization to place, construct or modify personal wireless service facilities on the basis of environmental effects of radio frequency emissions to the extent that such wireless facilities comply with the FCC's regulations concerning such emissions; or (5) prohibit any collocation or modification that the town may not deny under federal or state law.
(Ord. 833, passed 8-7-2019)