Florida Cities File Constitutional Challenge Over 5G Rules

The Florida League of Cities and three communities filed a renewed constitutional challenge to a state law that is expected to help telecommunications companies install wireless technology on city-owned utility poles and in public rights of way. The league and the FL cities of Fort Walton Beach, Naples, and Port Orange filed the lawsuit Aug 12  in Leon County circuit court, about three months after filing a similar challenge to a 2017 state law. The new case incorporates changes the Legislature made in 2019 to the law, which involves the installation of antennas and other equipment that telecommunications companies need for new 5G technology. The revised case, in part, targets a change that lawmakers made in 2019 that could open cities to lawsuits in state or federal courts — including being required to pay costs and attorney fees — if they violate the wireless-technology law. Attorneys for the cities contend that the change violates the constitutional separation of powers. Other parts of the new case are similar to the earlier lawsuit, including challenging the constitutionality of a limit on how much cities can charge for telecommunications companies to install equipment on publicly owned poles. The lawsuit contends that the limit, $150 per pole per year, is an unconstitutional taking of property because it is below the market rate for use of the poles.