{"id":7248,"date":"2015-10-31T13:16:42","date_gmt":"2015-10-31T20:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=7248"},"modified":"2017-08-20T13:20:49","modified_gmt":"2017-08-20T20:20:49","slug":"sequim-wa-to-ban-wireless-wi-fi-cell-towers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=7248","title":{"rendered":"Sequim, WA to ban wireless Wi-Fi, cell towers"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>by\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:alinderoth@sequimgazette.com?subject=Sequim%20Gazette%20-%20City%20to%20ban%20wireless%20Wi-Fi,%20cell%20towers\">ALANA LINDEROTH<\/a>, \u00a0Sequim Gazette Reporter<\/li>\n<li>October 28, 2015<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Any and all plans to implement Wi-Fi or cell phone towers within the Sequim city limits are on hold.<\/p>\n<p>The Sequim City Council approved a six-month moratorium on wireless communication support towers on Oct. 26 via a 5-1 vote with councilor Dennis Smith opposed and Ken Hays absent.<\/p>\n<p>The moratorium went into immediate effect and includes all zones except public facility zones, according to Ordinance 2015-018.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNew technology allows this, but appropriate consideration needs to be made for safety so they don\u2019t become \u2018wi-fry\u2019 towers,\u201d City Attorney Craig Ritchie, said. \u201cThat is something we don\u2019t have regulations for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although the city has yet to receive any applications for the construction and installation of either Wi-Fi or cell towers, the moratorium allows city officials the time to create appropriate safety and aesthetic regulations to support the technology.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe didn\u2019t have to worry about this before because the technology wasn\u2019t good enough to have good transmission from shorter towers, but now we have to worry about it,\u201d Ritchie said. \u201cThe City of Sequim does not have sufficient control over the potential use of our rights of way by cell phone and wireless companies for mini-tower structures.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Already, cities like Spokane have dealt with the onset of wireless companies in pursuit of real estate to install mini-communication towers, which are then leased to companies like AT&amp;T, Verizon or Sprint. There\u2019s also a Wi-Fi net-work relying on similar technology in Port Angeles, but the towers used are primarily placed on city-owned telephone poles, Ritchie said, whereas the City of Sequim doesn\u2019t own its telephone poles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we\u2019re really looking at is almost nothing but safety,\u201d Ritchie said. \u201cAs a hypothetical example, X-rays are a safe technology, but testing X-rays is important because they\u2019re adjustable and you can fry things with X-rays if set incorrectly that otherwise are wonderful things, therapeutic, diagnostic agents.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Once developed, Ritchie expects the local regulations to be similar to those created in Spokane where the data showing how testing will be done, how often and the parameters, are required.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs I understand it from our consultant, it (the safety) has to do with how stuff is aimed,\u201d he said. \u201cSo if it\u2019s aimed right, it should be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Once the needed regulations and associated requirements are in place, Ritchie anticipates working with companies seeking to install mini-communication towers, he said, as the city isn\u2019t against better cell phone coverage and Wi-Fi access.<\/p>\n<p>Consistent with the adoption of a moratorium without first holding a public hearing, a hearing has been scheduled on Monday, Nov. 9.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>ALANA LINDEROTH, \u00a0Sequim Gazette Reporter<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"mailto:alinderoth@sequimgazette.com\">alinderoth@sequimgazette.com<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sequimgazette.com\/news\/338046141.html#\">http:\/\/www.sequimgazette.com\/news\/338046141.html#<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by\u00a0ALANA LINDEROTH, \u00a0Sequim Gazette Reporter October 28, 2015 &nbsp; Any and all plans to implement Wi-Fi or cell phone towers within the Sequim city limits are on hold. The Sequim City Council approved a six-month moratorium on wireless communication support towers on Oct. 26 via a 5-1 vote with councilor Dennis Smith opposed and Ken [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127,28,1,289,203],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-antenna","category-cell-tower","category-uncategorized","category-usa-2","category-washington-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11145,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7248\/revisions\/11145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}