17.10.010 Purpose and Intent

(a) The City of San Mateo intends this Chapter 17.10 to establish reasonable, uniform and comprehensive standards and procedures for wireless facilities deployment, construction, installation, collocation, modification, operation, relocation, and removal within the City's public right-of-way, consistent with and to the extent permitted under federal and California state law. Pursuant to 47 U.S.C. 332(c)(7), the City may not regulate the placement, construction, and modification of wireless service facilities on the basis of the environmental effects of radio frequency emissions to the extent that such facilities comply with the Federal Communications Commission's regulations concerning such emissions. To the extent permitted by federal law, the standards and procedures contained in this Chapter are intended to, and should be applied to, protect and promote public health, safety and welfare, and also balance the benefits that flow from robust, advanced wireless services with the City's local values, which include without limitation, the aesthetic character of the City, its neighborhoods and community. This Chapter is also intended to reflect and promote the community interest by (1) ensuring that the balance between public and private interest is maintained on a case-by-case basis; (2) protecting the City's visual character from potential adverse impacts or visual blight created or exacerbated by wireless communications infrastructure; (3) protecting and preserving the City's environmental resources; and (4) promoting access to high-quality, advanced wireless services for the City's residents, businesses and visitors.

(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, regulations or other legal requirements 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 existing or future FCC's regulations concerning such emissions; (5) prohibit any collocation or modification that the City may not deny under federal or California state law; (6) impose any unfair, unreasonable, discriminatory or anticompetitive fees that exceed the reasonable cost to provide the services for which the fee is charged; or (7) otherwise authorize the City to preempt any applicable federal or California law.