The purpose of this article for the siting, installation, alteration
and maintenance of wireless telecommunications facilities, as the
term is herein defined, is to:
A. Protect residential areas and land uses from potential adverse impacts
of wireless telecommunications facilities;
B. Encourage the location of cellular facilities in appropriate locations;
C. Minimize the total number of cellular facilities throughout the Borough
of Fort Lee;
D. Strongly encourage the co-location on approved wireless telecommunications
facilities as a primary option rather than construction of new or
additional single-use towers;
E. Encourage users of monopoles and antennas to locate them, to the
extent possible, in areas where the adverse impact on the residential
community is minimal, particularly to avoid adverse visual impacts
upon residential dwellings;
F. Encourage users of monopoles and antennas to locate and configure
them in a way that minimizes the adverse visual impact of the towers
and antennas through careful design, siting, landscape screening and
innovative camouflaging techniques;
G. Enhance the ability of the providers of telecommunications services
and emergency services to provide such services to the community quickly,
effectively and efficiently;
H. Avoid potential damage to adjacent properties from tower failure
through engineering and careful siting of tower structures;
I. Ensure compliance with Federal Communications Commission regulations
concerning eligible facilities requests to modify eligible support
structures;
J. Ensure compliance with applicable environmental laws and regulations.
For the purposes of this article, the following terms shall
have the meanings indicated below:
BASE STATION, EXISTING
Any lawfully existing structure other than a tower that,
at the time of review or consideration, already supports or houses
lawfully existing FCC-licensed or FCC-authorized wireless transmission
equipment, even if such structure was not initially built for the
sole or primary purpose of supporting or housing wireless transmission
equipment.
BASE STATION, PROPOSED
Any proposed or lawfully existing structure other than a
tower that is being proposed to be used to support or house FCC-licensed
or FCC-authorized wireless transmission equipment and which does not,
at the time of such proposal, already support or house wireless transmission
equipment.
EQUIPMENT COMPOUND
An area surrounding or adjacent to the base of a wireless
telecommunications tower, or surrounding, adjacent to, within or upon
a wireless telecommunications base station, in which wireless transmission
equipment is located.
WIRELESS TELECOMMUNICATIONS FACILITY
The tower or base station and all wireless transmission equipment
used in connection with any FCC-licensed or FCC-authorized wireless
transmission.
WIRELESS TRANSMISSION EQUIPMENT
Any antennas, including panel or multimodal antennas, small
cell systems (such as exterior or interior "DAS" distributed antenna
systems), or dish microwave antennas, that are used in connection
with any FCC-licensed or FCC-authorized wireless transmission, and
all other equipment associated with and necessary to their operation,
including wires, cables, cabinets, and backup power equipment.
All new wireless telecommunications facilities, including towers,
antennas, distributed antenna systems (DAS) (also referred to as a
"microcell," "booster" or "repeater" antenna system) on private property
and publicly owned lands, but not in the Borough right-of-way, shall
be subject to the regulations of this article, except as otherwise
provided herein. The provisions of this article shall not govern any
antenna that is owned and operated by a federally licensed amateur
radio station operator or is used exclusively as a receive-only antenna
in accordance with Federal Communications Commission regulations.