The Wireless Telecommunication Tower Overlay District (WTTO) is created to provide locations for the construction and use of wireless telecommunication towers and facilities as a permitted use, conditional use, or accessory use depending upon the specific land areas of the City and circumstances under which they are proposed to be located. The purpose of the WTTO is to balance the competing interests of telecommunications providers, who were granted rights by the federal Telecommunication Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-104), and the interests of the City in regulating wireless telecommunication towers and related facilities: to provide for orderly development within the City; to maintain property values; to promote the aesthetic appearance of the City, including its rural and historic character; to provide for and protect the health, safety, and general welfare of the residents of the City; to protect residential properties, parks, open spaces, the City Square and the nonintensive commercial zoning districts which are characteristic of the City from the adverse effects and physical impact of towers and related facilities; to promote colocation of wireless telecommunication antennas and related facilities to decrease the number of towers in the City; and to maintain, to the extent permitted under federal law, the integrity of the City's zoning regulations.
The Wireless Telecommunication Tower Overlay District regulations shall control when they conflict with other requirements of the Planning and Zoning Code.
The Wireless Telecommunication Tower Overlay District establishes a hierarchy of acceptable land areas for location of wireless telecommunication towers and related facilities as a permitted use in certain land areas, as a conditional use in other land areas, or as an accessory use for erection of antennas on existing structures. The classification is dependent upon the location and characteristics of the land area.
(Ord. 2635. Passed 1-13-11.)