Santa Rosa board weighs telecommunications ordinance update, seeks clearer concealment and siting standards for wireless facilities

Santa Rosa — On June 19, 2025, the Design Review and Preservation Board heard a staff presentation and legal briefing on proposed updates to the city's telecommunications ordinance and offered feedback on aesthetic and siting standards for wireless facilities.

Amy Nicholson, the city's supervising planner for advanced planning, and Suzanne Hartman, city planner, joined outside counsel Bennett Givens of the law firm BBK for a review of federal and state constraints, local code provisions and draft design preferences. Nicholson said the item was before the board "to seek your feedback on standards that we can include in this ordinance update, before it moves to public review as well as the planning commission and city council later on in the process." Hartman told the board the Planning Department had received seven wireless applications over the past three years and showed examples of water-tower, faux-tree and rooftop concealment approaches.

Why it matters: The update is intended to give the city clearer, pre-published aesthetic rules as wireless carriers expand both macro sites and small cells. That expansion is governed by federal and state rules that limit local…