All wireless telecommunications facilities shall be designed, located and maintained to minimize visual, aesthetic, noise, and other impacts on the surrounding community. They shall be planned, designed, located, and erected in accordance with the following:
(A) General guidelines.
(1) No new wireless telecommunications facility may be located in areas where collocation on existing facilities would provide equivalent coverage, new capacity, and service quality with less environmental or aesthetic impact.
(2) The overall development footprint of a wireless telecommunications facility shall be as small as technically feasible.
(3) There may be no net loss of required parking or landscaping when siting a wireless telecommunications facility.
(4) The applicant shall employ screening, undergrounding, and stealth design techniques in the design and placement of a wireless telecommunications facility in order to minimize its visual intrusiveness and negative aesthetic impact.
(5) Screening shall be designed to be architecturally compatible with surrounding structures using appropriate techniques to camouflage, disguise, and/or blend into the environment, including landscaping, color, and other techniques to minimize the facility's visual impact, as well as be compatible with the architectural character of the surrounding buildings or structures in terms of color, size, proportion, style and quality.
(6) All facilities shall have subdued colors and non-reflective materials that blend with the materials and colors of the surrounding area and structures.
(B) Design guidelines. The city shall promulgate additional detailed design guidelines for the design and installation of wireless telecommunications facilities, which the city shall consider in reviewing an application. The design guidelines will accord with this chapter but will provide greater detail, description, and examples of acceptable wireless facilities. In addition, the design guidelines shall provide administrative and procedural guidance to applicants such as a list of minimum application requirements. The provisions in this section shall not limit or prohibit the city's discretion to promulgate and make publicly available other information, materials, or requirements in addition to, and separate from, the design guidelines.
(C) The design guidelines shall be reviewed and approved by the Planning Commission before being finalized. The Director shall have authority to update or supplement the design guidelines to address relevant changes in law, technology, or administrative processes. Any revisions to the design guidelines that would materially modify the physical design requirements for wireless telecommunications facilities to make them more obtrusive or materially modify the standards and locations for wireless telecommunications facilities shall be presented to the Planning Commission for review and approval. In the event of any conflict between the design guidelines and the standards articulated in this chapter of the Santa Fe Springs Municipal Code, the language of this chapter takes precedence over the language of the design guidelines.
(D) Speculative equipment prohibited. The city finds that the practice of "pre-approving" wireless equipment or other improvements that the applicant does not presently intend to install but may wish to install at some undetermined future time does not serve the public's best interest. The city shall not approve any equipment or other improvements in connection with a wireless telecommunications facility permit when the applicant does not actually and presently intend to install such equipment or construct such improvements.
(Ord. 1090, passed 9-28-17)