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HomeMy WebLinkAbout3.0 PC Staff Report 12.13.2000Planning Commission — 12/13/00 PROJECT INFORMATION AND STAFF COMMENTS REQUEST: Special Use Permit for a Telecommunication Facility APPLICANT: NTCH Colorado, Inc. ClearTalk PCS LOCATION: Between County Roads 315 and 331 and approximately one mile south of Silt. SITE DATA: A cellular phone repeater station consisting of an 80 -foot lattice tower, a 100' X 100' enclosed equipment area at the base of the 35 tower, and a concrete pad to support the 1 ` base transmitting station equipment. WATER: Unmanned facility. SEWER: Unmanned facility. EXISTING ZONING: A/R/RD ADJACENT ZONING: A/R/RD L RELATIONSHIP TO THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN This proposal is located in Study Area III of the Comprehensive Plan. 11 INTRODUCTION / DESCRIPTION OF 1 JIE PROPOSAL NTCH Colorado, Inc. (Clear Talk) has approached the planning department for permission to construct an 80 -foot self-supporting tower lattice tower near the Manure Creek drainage basin. This site was chosen because it allows an obstruction -less view of that part of the I-70 corridor and the self-supporting lattice tower will blend in with the existing high voltage power lines in the background. The proposal consists of an 80 -foot lattice tower on which the required three -sector panel antennas will be flush mounted. At the base of the tower and surrounded by a six foot mesh -screen fence will be a 100 -by -100 foot area to house the tower and support facilities. Support facilities being a base transmitting station (BTS), radio -receiving equipment set on a concrete pad (blueprints and narrative are attached). The size of the tower and the area enclosed by the fence will allow for collocation of additional carriers as they enter the valley. Access to this unmanned site will be from a twenty- foot private access easement off Mustang Mesa Road. Initially there will be construction activity on this site mostly consisting of medium duty trucks and possibly a heavy crane truck, after construction site activity is generally limited to one maintenance visit a month per carrier. III. GARFIELD COUNTY ZONING RESOLUTION There are two section of the Zoning Code that this proposal must be weighed against before the recommendation of approval or denial can be made. Section 5.03, number 3 of the Garfield County Zoning Resolution dealing with Conditional and Special Uses states: Design of the use is organized to minimize impacts on and from adjacent uses of land through installation of screen fences or landscape materials on the periphery of the lot and by location of intensively utilized areas, access points, lighting and signs in such a manner as to protect established neighborhood character. In any location an 80 ft tower is hard to screen, but the applicant is trying to minimize the visual impacts by locating their unlighted, lattice tower next to existing high voltage lattice towers. Screening of the ground facility becomes somewhat more problematic, the proposal is isolated enough that very few people will travel past this site. Planting shrubbery to screen this site could become self-defeating. If the shrubbery isn't attended to it could die creating a fire hazard. Further in the same Section, 5.03.13 Broadcasting Studio and/or Communication Facility: Such broadcasting studios and/or communication facilities shall be approved by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), where appropriate (A84-78; 97-60). In addition, the following standards will be used in the review application for a communications facility: 1. All facilities shall comply with frequency emission requirements of the FCC and any facility in compliance cannot be denied. 2. The co -location of telecommunication facilities on one site is encouraged and the denial of a landowner/lessor of the co -location of a site shall be based on technical reasons, not competitive interests. It is the County's policy to minimize the number of communication facilities by the encouragement of co -locating such facilities. 3. A freestanding telecommunication facility, including antennas, shall not exceed the maximum structure height in the applicable zone district unless an exception is approved by the Board based on the applicant demonstrating the following: (a) Use of existing land forms, vegetation and structures to aid in screening the facility from view or blending in with the surrounding built natural environment (b) Design, materia! and colors of antenna and their support structures shall be compatible with the surrounding environment, and monopole support structures shall taper from the base to the tip. (c) It is consistent with existing communication facilities on the same site. Cleartalk PCS gets its right to operate from licenses purchased for this area from the FCC. There is no other communication tower in this area that Cleartalk can collocate on. The tower, as presented to the planning department, exceeds the zone district height limitation by fifty-five feet. Building or structure height in the A/R/RD district is limited to twenty- five feet. The applicant is requesting an 80 -foot tower height so this facility has an unobstructed view of the I-70 corridor. This tower will be part of a system that stretches from the Garfield / Eagle county line in the east to the Garfield / Mesa county line and then down the State 82 corridor. Design material and colors of antennas and antennas will be non -reflective metallic "gray" which should be compatible with the surrounding environment. The applicant is proposing a lattice tower, not a monopole, because of the existing lattice towers in the background. And lastly, to paint the ground equipment to match background colors. Item "c" is not applicable to this review. IV. REFERRAL AGENCY COMMENTS The following agencies have been contacted for their concerns and comments: 1. Garfield County Airport, Kenneth Maenpa (copy attached) 2. Town of Silt 3. City of Rifle Kenneth Maenpa of the Garfield County Airport had these comments. 1. Submit to the FAA a Form 7460-1 "Notice of Proposed Construction" to the Northwest Regional Office for review. 2. The detail of the tower should include globe instruction lights per FAA and FCC specification. 3. The plans should include the site elevation as well as the overall height of the structure above mean sea level. 4. If the structure is less than 10,000 feet from the nearest runway the elevation should not exceed the horizontal surface of 5696' MSL. There was no mention by either agency that ClearTalk's radio frequency of 1.895 GHz to 1.990 GHz could affect aircraft communications. V. STAFF COMMENTS In the past week two separate communications have been received by the Planning Department concerning this proposal. One was a letter from legal council representing the Grass Mesa Homeowner's Association (copy attached), the second communication was from the owner of the aforementioned twenty -foot easement. The owner of the easement wasn't opposed to letting Clear Talk use the easement they just wanted to be contacted. VL RECOMMENDATION Staff recommends Denial based on the concerns raised by the Grass Mesa HOA and lack of access to this site.