Last updated April 12, 2019
A county in Indiana in the United States is drafting tough new rules to clamp down on the construction of used cell phone towers. The Board of Commissioners of Johnson County says that local residents, the value of properties and the general landscape of the state needs to be protected against the number of cell phone towers that are being erected and has given the go ahead for tough new rules that will force cell phone companies to prove that a new tower is necessary before they are allowed to create them.
Before a cell phone tower can even be considered for placing in a residential area, cell phone companies will need to provide definitive proof that there is not only a gap in cell phone coverage in the location, but also that they have tried to find a place for the tower in a less populated area. If any towers are constructed in a residential area, they must not have signs and will be forced to be surrounded by shrubs and trees in a bid to prevent them from becoming an unsightly blemish on the state landscape.
There are already no less than 40 towers in Johnson County and Commissioner John Price says that wireless companies are almost certainly going to want more and place them near to residential areas, a tactic he hopes the new rules will help to prevent.