02/12/2001 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Qwest Rezone February 12, 2001 page 2 Federal Law: Section 704 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 addresses local zoning authority and provision of personal wireless services. Personal wireless services includes mobile phones and pagers. The following summary is just that a summary. The Act states that local zoning authority is preserved. However: The regulation of the placement, construction, and modification of personal wireless service facilities by any State or local government or instrumentality thereof — (I) shall not unreasonably discriminate among providers of functionally equivalent services; and (II) shall not prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting the provision of personal wireless services. In other words, the City must allow wireless providers to provide service. If there is a gap in their coverage, the City must provide sites for filling the gap. The City cannot allow one company to provide service while preventing a competitor from doing so. Zoning: City Ordinance No. 01 -98 added to the zoning ordinance requirements for towers in the City. The requirements include which zoning districts will allow new towers, which allow antennas on existing structures. New towers are allowed only in PSP and GI districts. Other districts allow antennas on existing structures such as buildings and water towers, but do not allow new towers. Also, there are some differences between requirements for wireless service towers and towers for radio and television. The applicant for a new tower must demonstrate that the location of the new tower is necessary to provide wireless coverage and that there is no existing structure that can accommodate the antenna. We required Qwest to submit information on these points. The City's consultant has analyzed the information. All new wireless communication towers must be monopoles, and the design of new towers must accommodate "co- location," which means that the tower must be able to support several antennas. This requirement reduces the need for a new tower for every new antenna. The tower setback from the property line must be the height of the tower, but exception is possible if it is demonstrated that the tower failure will occur in a lesser distance. That is, if the tower fails, it will crumple rather than just fall over. The proposed tower is 135 ft. tall and is located more than 300 ft. from both Rondeau Road West and Main St. The City land is actually two parcels. The tower location is approximately 110 feet from the property line of the two City parcels. Because of the monopole design, tower would not topple its full 135 feet.