06-B Wireless Facilities Ord - Laserfiche WebLink

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AGENDA INFORMATION SHEET PROJECT: Consider adoption of an ordinance amending the Zoning Ordinance of the City of Paris to add a new Section 28 Regulating Wireless Telecommunications Towers and Facilities. BACKGROUND: At City Council's July 9, 2001, regular Council meeting the City Attorney presented a detailed agenda information sheet setting out various issues for City Council to consider and resolve related to the regulation of wireless telecommunications towers and facilities. As a consequence of that Council meeting and Council's deliberation of those issues, the following directions were given to City Staff regarding any proposed new ordinance: 1. Consistent with the remainder of the issues resolved by City Council, the stated purposes of the ordinance as presented at the prior meeting seemed to be acceptable to City Council. Any proposed ordinance should regulate only elevated wireless telecommunications facilities; that is towers or other structures containing elevated antenna arrays, and no regulations were intended for ground antennas and antenna dishes. The question was presented as to whether or not governmental entities should be exempted from the new ordinance. The direction was that as long as towers erected by governmental entities are used primarily for governmental purposes, and not primarily for commercial purposes or financial gain, those towers erected by governmental entities could be exempted from the new tower ordinance. The Council directed that the new ordinance would permit towers as a matter of right in areas of heavy industrial, light industrial, commercial, and agricultural zoning. While the Council discussed the concept of requiring a specific use permit for towers placed in agriculturally zoned areas, the final conclusion was that no such specific use permit would be required. As a consequence, the permit required for a tower under the new ordinance will basically be an administrative permit, and will not require review by either City Council or the Planning & Zoning Commission. For information purposes, the areas currently zoned as Agricultural (which is a zoning classification commonly used by the City as transition zoning for newly annexed areas), is included as an attachment to this agenda information sheet. The City Council agreed that amateur radio station antennas used by licensed radio operators or antennas which are used exclusively for receive only purposes would be exempted from the ordinance provided they were under seventy (70) feet in height. The City Council determined that a maximum height standard for towers within the City would be two hundred sixty (260) feet. In addition, the Council imposed the same two hundred sixty (260) foot height limitation on additions to existing structures, such as towers added to buildings, towers for transporting electricity, etc.