Agenda - Council - 04/11/2000 - Laserfiche WebLink

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At the January 25, 2000 City Council meeting, Council tabled the request by US West for a conditional use permit to construct a personal communication service tower and referred it back to the Planning Commission for additional review along with the current tower ordinance. Notification: State law requires that properties within 350 feet of the subject property be notified of the public hearing. Staff attempted to notify properties within 1,000 feet of the January 4 public hearing pertaining to the request. Staff also attempted to notify the residents that were present at the public hearing that the case was again being reviewed by the Planning Commission on April 10 and the City Council on April 11. Observations: Subsequent to the January 25, 2000 City Council meeting the applicant amended their proposed site plan and aerial map to reflect that the toWer is in Mr. Gobernatz' backyard, the relocation of the access to 177~ Avenue N.W., and the addition of fencing and landscaping to the base of the tower. The U.S. West application and the tower ordinance were placed on the March 6 Planning Commission agenda. It was a very full agenda and in the interest of time, U.S. West simply reported that they were researching alternate sites and would report back to the Commission in May. The Commission has not completed their review of the tower ordinance at this time. In the meantime, the decision time frame relating to the Gobernatz site expires on April 13. The City has had the application for 60 days plus one 60 day extension for a total of 120 days. The applicant is not willing to grant another extension to the decision time frame. Therefore, the application from U.S. West relating to the Gobernatz site was added to the Special Planning Commission Meeting agenda for April I 0 and the regular City Council agenda for April I 1 in order that Council can either approve or deny the request prior to April 13. There are currently four cell towers in Ramsey, all of which are located on commercial or industrial parcels. The height limit in commercial districts is 165 feet and 175 feet in industrial zones. One of the towers is 120 feet in height and the other three are 165 feet in height. The cell tower in Rum River Plaza on 167~ Avenue is on commercial property but adjacent to a residential zone and is one of the 165 foot towers. Staff surveyed other communities for tower height restrictions in residential districts and determined the following: Andover- 150 feet (parcel must be 20 acres in size) Ham Lake - allowed on City owned property Blaine - not allowed in or within 1,000 feet of a residential zone East Bethel - 120 feet with special permit (199 feet in agricultural zones) Oak Grove- 175 feet Burns - 200 feet Champlin - not allowed in a defined residential area Elk River - 150 feet if required rezoning is achieved (199 feet for multi-user towers)