Opinion ID: 3030701
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Least Intrusive Means

Text: [19] Under all existing versions of the “significant gap” test, once a wireless service provider has demonstrated that the requisite significant gap in coverage exists, it must then make some showing as to the intrusiveness or necessity of its proposed means of closing that gap. Here again, the circuits are split as to the required showing. The Second and Third Circuits require the provider to show that “the manner in which it proposes to fill the significant gap in service is the least intrusive on the values that the denial sought to serve.” Penn Township, 196 F.3d at 480 (emphasis added); see also Omnipoint, 331 F.3d at 398; Unity Township, 282 F.3d at 266; Willoth, 176 F.3d at 643. The First and Seventh Circuits, by contrast, require a showing that there are “no alternative sites which would solve the problem.” Second Generation Props., 313 F.3d at 635; see also St. Croix County, 342 F.3d at 834-35 (adopting the First Circuit service area.” 259 F. Supp. 2d at 1014. Courts applying both versions of the “significant gap” test appear to agree on this proposition. See e.g., Second Generation Props., 313 F.3d at 631; 360o Communications Co., 211 F.3d at 87; Willoth, 176 F.3d at 643-44. METROPCS, INC. v. SAN FRANCISCO 2741 test and requiring providers to demonstrate that there are no “viable alternatives”) (citing Second Generation Properties).11 After concluding that material issues of fact remain as to the presence (or absence) of a significant gap in MetroPCS’s coverage, the district court attempted to reconcile competing interpretations of the intrusiveness inquiry by creating its own “fact-based test that requires the provider to demonstrate that its proposed solution is the most acceptable option for the community in question.” 259 F. Supp. 2d at 1015 (emphasis added). Since there is no controlling legal authority on the issue, our choice of rule must ultimately come down to policy considerations. The district court’s “most acceptable option” rubric seems a hopelessly subjective standard, and one wonders how a proposed site could ever be proven “the most acceptable” if a zoning proposal with respect to it had already been denied by local authorities. On the other hand, the First and Seventh Circuit requirement that a provider demonstrate that its proposed facility is the only viable option seems too exacting. As the case at bar demonstrates, there may be several viable means of closing a major service gap, (see MetroPCS Alternative Site Analysis, SER 26-35), and in such a situation, this “only viable option” rule would either preclude the construction of any facility (since no single site is the “only viable” alternative) or require providers to endure 11 The district court also notes that, in the Fourth Circuit, “ ‘[a] community could rationally reject the least intrusive proposal in favor of a more intrusive proposal that provides better service or that better promotes commercial goals of the community.’ ” 259 F. Supp. 2d at 1014 (quoting 360o Communications Co., 211 F.3d at 87). This rule is inapposite to the case at bar since the Fourth Circuit, as discussed above, does not recognize either version of the “significant gap” test. Instead, it holds that the TCA prohibits only general or “blanket” bans on wireless services. Under such a rule, denials of individual siting requests can never run afoul of the TCA, and so the relative intrusiveness of different siting proposals is irrelevant. 2742 METROPCS, INC. v. SAN FRANCISCO repeated denials by local authorities until only one feasible alternative remained. This seems a poor use of time and resources for both providers and local governments alike. [20] The Second and Third Circuit “least intrusive” standard, by contrast, allows for a meaningful comparison of alternative sites before the siting application process is needlessly repeated. It also gives providers an incentive to choose the least intrusive site in their first siting applications, and it promises to ultimately identify the best solution for the community, not merely the last one remaining after a series of application denials. [21] For these reasons, we now adopt the “least intrusive means” standard and instruct the district court to apply this rule as necessary in its consideration of the prohibition issue on remand.