No More Delays in Pasadena’s 5th Circuit Appeal, Judge Warns City

Judge Edith Brown Clement for the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied the motion by the city of Pasadena, Texas, for a 30-day delay to Dec. 30 to file the principal brief in its appeal to vacate a lower court’s Aug. 2 order granting summary judgment to Crown Castle (see 2212010001), said an order she signed Friday (docket 22-20454). Clement granted Pasadena a seven-day stay to Dec. 8. Pasadena is “CAUTIONED that no further extensions will be given,” said her order. Crown Castle opposed Pasadena’s requested 30-day extension but consented to a seven-day postponement. It was Pasadena’s third extension request since its appeal was docketed Sept. 1 and the first that Crown Castle opposed. Crown Castle sued Pasadena in September 2020, asserting the Telecommunications Act preempts the spacing requirement in the city’s design manual because that manual significantly limits the locations where it may install small-cell nodes and node support poles in the public rights of way (ROWs). In granting summary judgment for Crown Castle, U.S. District Judge David Hittner for Southern Texas in Houston said a “plain reading” of the manual shows the spacing requirement for small-node networks is “clearly more burdensome” than the requirements applicable to other users of the public ROWs.