The council's decision to move forward with the ordinance came despite Live Oak Manor Park residents' request to extend the moratorium for at least 90 days. Carlester Drive residents Sam and Lucille Weidman retained the services of wireless planning consulting firm Kreines & Kreines Inc. to evaluate drafts of the ordinance as proposed by the town and by their neighborhood.

According to this evaluation, the residents' proposed ordinance received a score of 5, or "fair," on a scale of 1 to 10. The version of the ordinance drafted by town staff received a mark of 6, or "pretty good." However, the evaluation also said the town's ordinance "has flaws that could result in the town losing a lawsuit."

While five people from the Live Oak Manor Park neighborhood urged the council to extend the moratorium, three other town residents spoke in support of the ordinance as was drafted.

The council asked for modifications to the ordinance, including changing use of the word "may" to "shall" on certain policies. The council also modified the policy that companies provide a radio frequency emission report either annually or biannually and made the requirement a biannual report across the board.

Council members eventually decided to keep the ordinance and standards drafted by town staff as two separate documents rather than combining the two.

Since technology evolves so quickly, it makes sense to keep the standards separate so the town can update the document efficiently, said Councilwoman Diane McNutt. By keeping the standards document as a resolution, the town can make changes without having to go through a public hearing, which it must do for changes to the ordinance.

Councilman Joe Pirzynski suggested that the mention of artificial trees and rocks to try to mask antennas not only be "strongly discouraged" but "prohibited" outright. But the majority of the council chose to keep the language unchanged.

Pirzynski also asked that a pre-application meeting between cell phone companies and the town's planning department be required rather than "strongly recommended."

"The more we front-end this, the better off we'll be," he said.

Vice Mayor Steve Glickman was not a fan of this suggestion. "I don't want to unduly burden the process," especially if the company going through the process is a repeat applicant already familiar with town policy, he said.

Mayor Sandy Decker, however, supported Pirzynski's suggestion, saying this initial meeting would allow staff to identify holes in the application early on so that the application would not be held up at the public hearing level later.

As a compromise, the council directed staff to make provisions whereby repeat applicants who have already gone through one pre-application meeting with the town won't have to do so again.

With these changes, the council voted unanimously to introduce the ordinance, which will be brought back for a final adoption on June 16. The ordinance, if passed, will go into effect 30 days after adoption.