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from passing any regulations that would “effectively prohibit” cell phone communications.
So what CAN we do, many residents want to know? Exactly how “tied” are our hands?
The answer — at least for now — is that there is no answer.
Federal guidelines are scarce. So local governments and cell-phone service providers all across the country are caught up in a complicated tug-of-war, with a host of ordinances and lawsuit* defining what localities can and cannot do to eurb telecommunications growth.
“The scope and boundaries of the laws are getting tested every day,” said county administrator John McCarthy. “We can impose any regulation we want, as long as we don’t get sued.”
And Sprint PCS will sue Rappahannock County if regulations are too strict. Their spokesman has made that plain.
However, Sprint does not deserve all of county residents’ ire. As McCarthy points out, they are merely the first ones taking the plunge. The county has had inquiries from other cellular companies, like Shentel and Bell Atlantic.
“If not them, it probably would have been somebody else,” McCarthy said.
‘We sorely need it’
Not everyone in Rappahannock is against the idea, of course.
Aside from personal uses, cell phone towers provide an important benefit to localities by improving
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