Implementing Georgia’s Small Cell/5G Law: What Georgia Counties Must Know

The “Streamlining Wireless Facilities and Antennas Act”, effective October 1, 2019, resulted from two years of negotiations between wireless providers and local governments. It establishes a statewide, streamlined process covering all aspects of the permitting of small cell poles, antennas and equipment in local governments’ rights-of-way. This page serves as ACCG’s one-stop shop for all materials explaining the new small cell technology; various aspects of the law that local governments must know; local permitting conditions and requirements; what can be expected in the roll out of small cells; and crafting appropriate local ordinances to comply with the law.

Workshop on Small Cell Implementation, August 12, 2019

To view the 2019 ACCG, GMA, Verizon and AT&T workshop on implementing the law, please click here:

http://www.accg.tv

Summary of the Legislation

To view a detailed summary of SB 66, the “Streamlining Wireless Facilities and Antennas Act”, please click here.

For a brief summary highlighting some of the major provisions ACCG and GMA were able to negotiate in the bill, please click here.

For attorney Ken Jarrard’s SB 66 - PowerPoint presentation, explaining the law to Georgia’s city attorneys, please click here.

Model Ordinance

Georgia counties are not required to adopt ordinances governing the placement and regulation of small cell poles, antennas and equipment in their right-of-way (ROW). The enactment of SB 66 from the 2019 session of the Georgia General Assembly creates a statewide, streamlined process which will govern this process for local ROW, becoming effective October 1, 2019. However, local governments are encouraged to adopt an ordinance to implement this law if they wish to address these authorized safeguards governing small cell deployment in their right of way.

Georgia counties may wish to consider modeling their local small cell ordinance after the proposed ordinance created by attorney Ken Jarrard for Forsyth County: https://www.forsythco.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=tE-t9EQ5x5w%3d&portalid=0

  • Please contact Ken at the Jarrard and Davis Law Firm at 678-455-7150 if you have questions on Forsyth’s proposed ordinance. Note that Ken was heavily involved, on behalf of ACCG, in the bill’s negotiations and knows the legislation like no other.

Questions

If you have questions relating to SB 66 that have not been addressed above, please e-mail ACCG staff at [email protected].