A. Purpose and Intent. To ensure the health, safety and welfare of the residents of the Village, all wireless communication facilities in the Village must comply with the following standards and regulations.
B. Definition. Wireless communication facility means infrastructure such as antenna, support structures, equipment, accessory buildings, parking, and other uses associated with and ancillary to wireless communication transmission.
C. Exceptions. Dish antennas less than one meter in diameter, private residence antennas, and private residence amateur radio equipment are not regulated by this Code Section.
D. Authorization. No Person, firm, partnership, corporation, trust or other legal entity shall install or modify a wireless communication facility without obtaining Village authorization as described below.
E. Application.
1. An application or petition submitted to the Development Services Department for a wireless communication facility will require an administrative review for wireless communication co-locations, or a special use permit for new monopoles or utility sub-stations (e.g. communication shelters). See Section 5-101 General Procedures, Requirements and Regulations for process details. The following required documentation must be submitted as part of any petition:
a. As-built plat of survey of the subject lot showing the exact location and dimensions of the proposed wireless communication facility;
b. Complete description of the proposal.
c. A scaled elevation drawing showing all proposed visible equipment.
d. Structural plans and a structural analysis report prepared and stamped by a licensed Structural Engineer. No approvals or permits shall be issued until all engineering reviews have been completed and approved by the Village. All plans must meet all applicable building codes and current industry standards.
e. Letter of authorization from the property owner.
2. No project shall be constructed without meeting all required building codes and obtaining necessary building permits.
F. General Standards of Wireless Communication Facilities.
1. Wireless communication facilities shall whenever and wherever possible co-locate on existing vertical infrastructure (e.g. towers, buildings etc.) and use stealth techniques and technologies to minimize their visual and physical presence on a tower or building and shall employ methods that blend wireless infrastructure into the surroundings so that they are not visible or noticeable, particularly from neighboring rights-of-way, parks and single family homes. Wireless communication facilities must minimize or avoid whenever possible any adverse aesthetic and visual impacts to the land, property, building or tower on which they locate and neighbor.
2. Landscaping and opaque fences shall be used to mitigate the effects of any ground equipment and/or utility sub-stations per the design standards for new freestanding wireless communication facilities of Section 6-311.G.3.g below.
3. Wireless communication facilities shall comply with all site and structural requirements as outlined in the Land Development Code unless otherwise stated in this Code section, and shall be compatible in terms of architecture and site design with the surrounding neighborhood.
4. No equipment shall be operated so as to produce noise above 45 dB as measured from the nearest property line of the lot on which the wireless communication facility is located.
5. Wireless communication facilities shall not be artificially lighted or marked except as required by law.
6. The color and materials of wireless communication facilities shall blend with the surrounding environment for visual harmony and to reduce physical masses. This may include matching or complementing building colors and facades, rooftop units or infrastructure, and/ or more generally the sky.
G.
Location and Standards of Wireless Communication Facilities.
1. Wireless communication facilities may co-locate as a permitted use via administrative review on existing vertical infrastructure such as towers (e.g. existing lattice towers & monopoles), utility transmission towers (with ComEd approvals), and on water towers provided they do not include accessory buildings like shelters, which are considered utility sub-stations. Monopoles and existing legal non-conforming lattice towers hosting co-locations shall be allowed a single increase in height of not more than 50 feet over the original tower height via administrative review to accommodate co-locations. If a tower is existing legal non-conforming because it is within 500 feet of a residential building, the height shall not be increased. Water tower co-locations shall be allowed a single increase in height of not more than fifty (50) feet over the first co-location, which is considered the original height.
a. Placement of additional equipment on a non-conforming structure shall not be considered an expansion of the non-conformity provided all building code safety and structural requirements are met.
2. Wireless communication facilities may co-locate as a permitted use via administrative review on non-residential buildings outside of the Old Orland Historic District and on non-landmarked buildings using stealth techniques and technologies provided they do not include accessory buildings like shelters, which are considered utility sub-stations. The co-location shall not increase the height of the building more than 15 feet in any zoning district and shall meet all building code and structural requirements.
3. Wireless communication facilities may locate as a new freestanding monopole via a special use permit on any non-residential parcel located in the VC Village Center District, BIZ General Business District, MFG Manufacturing District, COR Mixed Use District or ORI Mixed Use District, or on institutional parcels in any zoning district provided proximity requirements to residential buildings are met.
a. The parcel must meet the minimum lot size requirement of the zoning district in which it will be located. (Ord. 3837 - 12/1/03)
b. Freestanding wireless communication facilities must meet all setback requirements of the zoning district in which they will be located.
c. Freestanding wireless communication facilities can not be located in the required landscape buffers of the zoning district in which they will be located.
d. Freestanding wireless communication facilities must be a minimum of 500 feet from any residential building.
e. Freestanding wireless communication towers shall be no taller than 100 feet.
f. All new wireless communication towers shall be self-supporting monopoles. Guyed or lattice towers are prohibited. All towers shall be constructed with at least one release point so as to bend and fold over on themselves when necessary and meet current industry standards for engineering.
g. The base and ground equipment of new freestanding wireless communication facilities shall be screened with an 8 foot tall solid, opaque fence enclosure constructed of either wood or neutral colored (e.g. non-white) vinyl material. The base and ground equipment enclosure shall be landscaped using Type 2 Bufferyard requirements as outlined in Section 6-305, “Landscape and Tree Preservation,” of this Code. If the required bufferyard cannot be accomplished due to spatial constraints, other incremental improvements or a fee in lieu of landscaping may be required to mitigate the visual impact to the surrounding area. (Amd. Ord. 5061 1/18/16)
h. Existing on site vegetation shall be preserved or enhanced where possible, and disturbance of existing topography shall be minimized, unless such disturbance would reduce the visual impact on the surrounding area.
4. A special use permit shall not be granted for a new freestanding wireless communication facility unless one or more of the following reasons is found to support it:
a. The planned wireless communication equipment would exceed the structural capacity of an existing or approved tower or structure within the search radius, as documented by a qualified and licensed professional structural engineer, and the existing or approved tower or structure cannot be reinforced, modified, or replaced to accommodate the planned or equivalent equipment at a reasonable cost;
b. The planned wireless communication equipment would cause interference impacting the usability of other existing or planned wireless infrastructure, as documented by a qualified and licensed professional engineer, and the interference cannot be prevented at a reasonable cost;
c. Existing or approved towers and structures within the search radius cannot accommodate the planned wireless communication equipment at a height necessary to function reasonably, as documented by a qualified and licensed professional engineer.
5. Freestanding wireless communication towers and accessory structures shall avoid environmentally sensitive areas and historically, culturally, or architecturally significant areas and their associated view-sheds.
6. New freestanding wireless communication facilities not within the jurisdiction of the Village of Orland Park but within the one and one-half mile extraterritorial jurisdiction of the Village of Orland Park shall fully comply with the standards and regulations of this Section concerning proximity to residential lots.
7. A small wireless facility (as defined in Section 3-10-3 of Ordinance Number 5314 entitled "An Ordinance Amending The Municipal Code Of The Village Of Orland Park Relative To The Permitting, Regulation And Deployment Of Small Wireless Facilities") shall be a permitted use in all rights-of-way in any zoning district established by Section 6-101 of this Land Development Code and a permitted use on private property in the BIZ General Business, MFG Manufacturing and ORI Mixed Use Office, Research & Industrial Districts. In addition, to the extent of any conflicts or inconsistencies between the provisions of this Subsection G and the provisions of said Ordinance Number 5314, the provisions of Ordinance Number 5314 shall govern and control. (Ord. 5336 – 9/17/18)
H. Removal of Facility.
1. The Village, through proper legal procedures, may require the owner of a wireless communication facility or owner of the land where the facility is located to remove it upon occurrence of any of the following events:
a. The facility was not constructed in accordance with the Village requirements.
b. The facility has deteriorated from lack of maintenance.
c. The facility has been inactive for a period of at least six months, which shall be considered abandoned.
2. The Village reserves the right to retain the authority to remove a freestanding wireless communication facility when the above events occur and when the owner and/or the land owner do not comply with these regulations. The facility and all associated ancillary equipment, batteries, devices, structures or supports for that system will be removed at the owner's and/or land owner's expense and the costs of removal shall be a lien against the property. The owner shall be notified via a violation notice and must comply within 60 days from the time of notification.
(Entire Section updated Ord. 4442 - 12/15/08; Amd. Ord. 4880 - 2/3/14)