Agenda - Council - 07/22/2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

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The Telecommunications Act of 1996 states that: 1. Local government regulations. may not unreasonably discriminate among providers of functionally equivalent services. 2. Local regulations may not prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting the provision of personal wireless services. 3. Local units of government must act within a reasonable period of time on any request by a provider to place, construct, or modify a personal wireless service facility. 4., A decision by a local unit of government to deny a request. must be in writing and . supported by substantial evidence. 5. A local regulation .may not regulate the placement, construction, or modification of a - facility based on the environmental effects of radio frequency emissions to the extent that such facilities comply with FCC regulations. It appears-that the southern half of the community has the ability to be well served based on the current ordinance due to the proximity to industrial and commercial parcels which allow for cell towers.. However, various sections of the City show potential gaps in coverage as shown on the attached exhibit and will require construction of towers on residential parcels in order to achieve basic service needs. The major change as a result is amendments to the Tower Overlay District to allow for coverage within those gaps. Staff studied lot size and site conditions (natural resources, topography, etc.) to determine the new overlay district. A parcel located in the overlay district does not force-the property owner to lease or sell to a wireless provider. The intent of the overlay district is to provide wireless telecommunication providers options for to site towers. Some of the proposed parcels are currently land-locked. Part of the negotiations between. these property owners and the wireless provider will need to be in relation to access to the parcel. The proposed overlay district was intended. to look into the future, and some of these land-locked parcels may no longer be land-locked at some time in the future. Furthermore, there exists an opportunity to co-locate antennas onto existing utility transmission lines in the northern section of the City to enhance coverage in that area. Attached is the proposed ordinance to amend City Code requirements for cell phone towers. The following is a summary of the proposed changes to the ordinance: • Antennas may be co-located on existing structures in parks; however, no new towers may be constructed within parks • Height limits have been adjusted to 100 feet (from 175' in industrial) in all zoning districts; an additional 20' maybe granted if a minimum of two services are co-located on the tower • The 10 acre requirement for lot size has been eliminated; lot size will be regulated by setback, which is the height of the tower plus 10 feet on residential. and public/quasi public parcels • Setbacks for towers in industrial and commercial areas will default to the underlying zoning district except when adjacent to a residential zone; when adjacent to a residential zone, the setback shall be the height. of the tower plus 10 feet adjacent to the residential zone -156-