Agenda - Council - 02/09/1999 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! II ! ! ! ! ! ! CASE REQUEST FOR A CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT FOR A CELLULAR TELEPHONE BASE STATION; CASE OF AIRTOUCH COMMUNICATIONS, INC. By: Zoning Administrator Sylvia Frolik Background: The City has received an application from AirTouch Communications, Inc. to construct and operate a cellular telephone base station at 9539 Hwy. #10, which is occupied by Frank's R.V. Service owned by Frank Moody. The following items are enclosed for your information: a) b) c) d) e) Site location map Proposed site plan and related support documents Draft Planning Commission public hearing and regular meeting minutes of 1/5/99 Proposed findings of fact Proposed conditional use permit 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 500 feet of the public hearing pertaining to the request. At the request of the Planning Commission, a copy of the proposal was also sent to Dennis Peck, the Northfork Project Manager. Observations: The applicant is proposing to construct a 159 foot self-supporting tower (165 feet including antenna) in the northeast comer of the site. The tower will be encompassed on 3 sides by a security fence that abuts the 12' x 24' equipment building on the 4t~ side. The equipment building exterior will consist of a maintenance-free, brown mineral finish. Because the site is part of a parking lot, no landscaping is being proposed to screen the tower base and equipment building. However, there are some existing trees in the vicinity of the tower that fulfill the screening requirements. The Code requires that the tower and equipment building meet standard commercial structure setback requirements, which in this case is 35 foot rear yard and 10 foot side yard. The tower meets these setbacks. In the original site plan, the equipment building did not meet the rear yard setback requirement. Subsequent to receiving the City Staff Review Letter, the applicant submitted a modified site plan to the Planning Commission that corrected the equipment building placement to meet the setback requirements. City Code establishes that no new tower shall be approved unless the Council finds that the equipment planned for the proposed tower cannot be accommodated on an existing tower or building within a ½ mile radius of the proposed tower. There are no tall buldings in the ½ mile search area but there is an existing tower approximately .3 miles away from the proposed tower. The applicant states that this existing tower (120 feet) is not high enough to meet their transmission needs. Staff has engaged the services of a consultant to verify this information. At a minimum, there should be a verbal report of the consultant's findings available at the City Council meeting.