(a) Purpose:
(1) Minimize adverse visual effects of towers through careful design, siting, and landscape screening.
(2) Avoid potential damage to adjacent properties from tower failure and falling ice through engineering and careful siting of tower structures; and
(3) To maximize the use of any new transmission tower to reduce the number of towers needed.
(b) Shared-Use Towers.
(1) Prior to submitting a proposal to construct a new transmission tower, the applicant shall contact owners of the site of all existing or approved towers if the base elevation of an existing or approved tower site is equal to or higher than the base elevation of the proposed site. The applicant shall request each contacted owner to identify the site by address and legal description; and, assess whether the site could accommodate the proposed tower without changing an existing or approved tower.
(2) If a proposed tower cannot be accommodated on each existing tower site, the applicant will assess whether the existing tower site could be changed to accommodate the proposed tower, and describe the means and projected costs of shared use of the existing tower site.
(c) Applicability. Transmission towers and accessory facilities for the following uses are permitted in the IP and GI Industrial Districts:
(1) VHF and UHF Television
(2) FM Radio
(3) Two-way Radio
(4) Common carriers
(5) Cellular Telephone
(6) Fixed-point microwave
(d) An application for a new transmission tower shall include:
(1) A site plan drawn to scale and identifying the site boundary lines; tower(s) guy wire anchors; existing and proposed location of structures; vehicular access and parking; existing vegetation to be retained, removed or replaced; and land uses and the location of structures on surrounding properties.
(3) A report from a professional engineer describing:
A. The technical reasons for the type of tower design; and
B. Capacity of the tower, including the number and type of antennas that it can accommodate and the basis for the calculation of capacity.
(e) The applicant shall request the Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Communications Commission and the Ohio Department of Transportation to provide the City Planning Commission with written documentation that the proposed tower complies with all applicable regulations administered by the appropriate agency or that the tower is exempt from those regulations. If each applicable agency does not provide written documentation, after the applicant has made a timely good-faith effort to obtain it, the application is complete.
(f) Approval Standards.
(1) Structures shall be setback a distance equal to one hundred percent (100%) of the tower height or the distance between the tower base and the guy wires, whichever is greater.
(2) Guy wire anchors shall be setback fifty feet (50’) from abutting properties located in a residential development or residential zoning district.
(3) The tower shall be setback from other on-site and off-site towers and supporting structures far enough so one tower will not fall onto another tower or support structure if a tower or support structure fails.
(Ord. 01-50. Passed 12-6-01.)