Under heavy fire from local governments, New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman has dropped plans to help cellular tower construction companies to bypass local permitting authorities in hostile communities, and conceded permitting jurisdiction to local governments that oppose towers in their boundaries. Until Early August, Governor Whitman had approved state contracts with cellular operators as a state revenue source which would have allowed them to evade the permitting authorities of hostile communities by building wireless telephone towers on state highways that run through their towns. According to Don Ferguson, Planner of Wayne Township, approximately ten town governments voted in separate resolutions to oppose the deal.
New Jersey is a local control state.
The debate over local control of cell site permitting has grown increasingly hot since an Iowa court ruled earlier this year that the 1996 Telecommunications Act forced the city of Des Moines to permit an unwanted cell tower unless it can prove that the tower would have an adverse impact on the community, a burden that previously fell on developers. At the local level, preemption means that federally licenced corporations have the prerogative to build towers against the wishes of local communities. According to real estate lawyer Michael Grossman, state and federal courts increasingly interpret the 1996 law to erode local authority, favoring developers over local governments. As federal and state governments erode local community authority over permitting, local governments nationwide are employing guerilla tactics to reassert local control. In Des Moines, the local government has appealed its case to the Iowa Supreme Court following local protests and city council hearings.