An example method is provided in one example embodiment and includes receiving a first message indicative of whether a first cell is non-interfering to at least one neighboring cell, determining whether the first cell is non-interfering to the at least one neighboring cell based upon the first message, and responsive to a determination that the first cell is not non-interfering to the at least one neighboring cells, reducing a power level of one or more downlink resources of a fractional frequency reuse portion of a frequency spectrum associated with the first cell.