The Senate Economic Growth Committee is scheduled to review S-2674 on Tuesday, June 15, 2021, at 10 a.m. The purpose of this legislation is to provide for uniform regulation of small wireless facility deployment in the state and mirrors, and in some cases beyond, current Federal law. The Assembly companion of this bill, A-1116, was reported out of committee with amendments and is set for second reading in the Assembly. It is anticipated that there will be a committee amendment to S-2674 to allow it to conform to amendments already made to its Assembly companion. There may, however, be additional amendments from the Senate committee.
The League (NJLM) and the Conference of Mayors (NJCM) met regularly with industry representatives and, as a result, the Assembly Appropriations Committee amended the bill to address many of the concerns raised by the NJLM and NJCM. We appreciate the work of Assemblywoman Carol Murphy in responding to many of the concerns we raised.
As noted above, other amendments may be forthcoming and we believe more work can be done to ensure all communities have access to broadband internet. We are hopeful that we can continue to work with the bills' sponsors and all stakeholders to develop and fair and rational bill.
For more information on S-2674/A-1116 and an overview of the underlying matter of small cell deployment please see the League’s recent blog post.
Contact: Frank Marshall, Esq., Associate General Counsel, fmarshall@njlm.org, 609-695-3481, x137.