Beginning Wednesday, Americans can add the virtually unfettered reception of satellite television to their list of ways to pursue happiness.
While thousands of new smaller-sized satellite dishes are going up, local governmental control over them is coming down, and that is causing a lot of static in village halls across the nation.
In a nutshell, the Federal Communications Commission has ruled that municipalities and other local governmental agencies no longer may restrict satellite dishes less than 1 meter wide in residential areas. In commercial areas, local governments are powerless if the dish is less than 2 meters wide.
That means that the dish can be placed on the front lawn, on the roof, sticking out from the geranium bed, wherever the dish owner wants. Apartment dwellers and condo owners will be able to hook up satellite dishes outside the most convenient window, leading to visions of skyscrapers bristling with them.
The only restriction seems to be that the dish cannot endanger health or safety, although some wags may contend that television alone does that.
The FCC contends it had to usurp the power of the local governments because it must prevent regulations by local jurisdictions from tilting in favor of cable television companies.
That explanation, however, has not stilled the howls of protest from national, state and local municipal groups.
Local officials contend they are less concerned about thousands of metal bowls fouling the landscape than what they see as a federal power grab over their building and zoning authority.
Conflicts over satellite dishes have a long history, going back to the older models, which at 10 feet or more were large enough to make neighbors see red. Now the size of individual dishes has been reduced to a couple of feet and they are being mass-marketed for hundreds of dollars rather than thousands.
Before Wednesday, municipalities small and large, including Chicago, restricted placement of the dishes so they would be out of sight from the street and in the rear of residential property. From now on–unless the FCC changes its mind–they can be bolted anywhere as long as they do not endanger health or safety.
“It’s one of those continuing instances of interference by another level of government coming in and telling local government what they should do,” said Beth Ruyle, executive director of the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association. “We understand the FCC concern that everybody have equal access, but the ability of placement and the physical look of items is important in neighborhoods.”
City planner Tom Smith said the ruling is not likely to pose a serious threat in Chicago, “but if dishes start popping up on front lawns, we’ll get complaints.”
The National League of Cities and U.S. Conference of Mayors plan to submit detailed petitions to the FCC as early as Wednesday seeking reconsideration of the order.
“We felt this was important enough to do that,” said Barrie Tabin, senior legislative counsel for the National League of Cities. “We don’t want to be overly optimistic or pessimistic, but the FCC does not appear to be terribly friendly to local governments.”
According to an FCC spokeswoman, the recently passed telecommunications bill directed the commission to adopt guidelines to pre-empt restrictions on all type of television antennas, but she said some unspecified modifications could still be made.
“Obviously, Congress has told us to adopt this, but it could be altered,” the spokeswoman said.
Local opponents of the FCC action are not predicting a veritable forest of small satellite dishes, even though 2.6 million of the 18-inch devices are in use across the nation and the number continues to grow.
But if the dishes do irritate neighbors for reasons other than health and safety, the federal regulations leave the nation’s 23,000 municipalities and townships powerless to do anything about it.
Executive Director David Bennett of the West Central Municipal Conference represents three dozen suburbs near Chicago.
“The bottom line is when local residents have complaints about the location of these dishes, they aren’t going to go to Washington, they’re going to go to village hall,” Bennett said.
The ruling, however, appears to be causing far fewer headaches in property-rich outlying areas, where some suburbs have changed ordinances to comply with the FCC or are considering changes. Municipal organizations in the northwest suburbs and in DuPage and Kane Counties said that they have had few if any problems with the dishes and that they expect little change.
William Dixon, village manager in Arlington Heights, said Tuesday that as satellite dishes have shrunk in size, so have any potential problems with their location. The village has an ordinance on the books, but Dixon said the board is likely to erase it soon.
Still, Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke questions the wisdom of federal officials intruding in back-yard business.
“To me, something like this should have the element of local control,” Schielke said. “Why somebody in Washington would want to stick their nose into something like this is beyond me.”
