Anthony A. Dorland
Moss & Barnett
US Supreme Court decides T-MOBILE SOUTH, LLC v. CITY OF ROSWELL (January 14, 2015)
In its decision the US Supreme Court held that it would be considerably difficult for a reviewing court
to determine whether a locality’s denial was “supported by substantial evidence
contained in a written record,” §332(c)(7)(B)(iii), or whether a locality had
“unreasonably discriminate[d] among providers of functionally equivalent
services,” §332(c)(7)(B)(i)(I), or regulated siting “on the basis of the
environmental effects of radio frequency emissions,” §332(c)(7)(B)(iv), if
localities were not obligated to state their reasons for denial. Localities are not required to provide their
reasons for denying siting applications in the denial notice itself, but may
state those reasons with sufficient clarity in some other written record issued
essentially contemporaneously with the denial.
The City failed to comply with its statutory obligations under the Act. Although it issued its reasons in writing and
did so in an acceptable form, it did not provide its written reasons
essentially contemporaneously with its written denial when it issued detailed minutes
26 days after the date of the written denial and 4 days before expiration of
petitioner’s time to seek judicial review.