Petersburg assembly passes wireless tower ordinance first reading after setback cut

The Petersburg Borough Assembly passed the first reading of a wireless tower ordinance on June 15 after cutting its sensitive-area setback requirement from 1,500 feet to 500 feet, a change members said was necessary to avoid potential violations of federal law.

The Ordinance

Ordinance 2026-14 cleared its first reading 6-0 after five amendments. The ordinance would establish zoning and permitting standards for wireless communication facilities, require those facilities to be reviewed as conditional uses, prioritize colocation, and set development standards. It also includes a waiver procedure for situations where strict adherence would require technically impossible designs, cause structural instability, leave a significant coverage gap, or render a coverage area unable to handle emergency calls. Without such an ordinance, members said the borough has little say or control over tower siting under existing code.

The Setback Debate

Assembly Member Newman drove the setback reduction. He told the assembly that restricting towers to commercial and industrial zones, combined with a fall-zone rule requiring clearance equal to 110 percent of tower height, left carriers with nowhere to build. That situation, he said, would push carriers toward the waiver process and put a future assembly in a difficult legal position.

"The waiver process, I really feel, will put a future assembly in a hard position," Newman said. "Because now all of a sudden they're gonna have to make a decision that nobody's gonna like, and the intent of the ordinance has not been achieved."

Newman also said carriers had communicated that the ordinance as written placed the borough at risk of violating the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996.

Vice Mayor Stanton Gregor supported the ordinance overall. "I do support this amendment," Gregor said, citing the specific legal concerns Newman raised. He said his earlier no vote on a prior version came from wanting legal counsel or Planning and Zoning to review the setback first.

"I'm going to be voting yes tonight," Gregor said. "It's first reading. I generally do when I get to before the public hearing, but I imagine we'll be hearing from some of the telecommunications companies on this amended version to see how that feels for them."

The setback amendment passed 5-1, with one member opposed. That member questioned why 500 feet was the right number and said the ordinance existed because of public outcry, not carrier demand.

Among the other amendments adopted was one clarifying that determinations of FCC compliance are made by the FCC, and that the borough is not responsible for enforcing or interpreting FCC requirements.