Rick Smith wrote:
We went and built 4 towers (rohn 25g, 50 footers each) on an island
where we needed to setup a wireless
Backbone around the island.
The town came blasting guns, we threw OTARD at them and they bought it.
My partner's a good sales guy, though :)
We ended up paying $250 per tower in fines, and the $75 permit fee, and
we went on our way. YMMV :)
Your lucky.
I got a lease signed by the city for the water towers.
Before I got to go on the tower the city told me I needed to have a
building permit.I debated the need for a building permit, but ended up
"buying" one anyways, I could be wrong and figured it's just a permit a
and some money. And who cares if the city wants to get a few more bucks
out of me, it's my city and they gave me a smoking deal on the towers,
which I am grateful for.
So, then I am about ready to build out the tower, with my lease and
permit in hand and I get a call from another city dept head telling me
that there was some codes that required me to get a conditional use
permit, that nobody realized before they signed a lease and gave me a
permit.
We debated my need for that as well. Then I was told that the city had
adopted a tower ordinance for 'telecommunications' sites. They said that
if the antennas were to be placed at more than 9' above the structure
that I would have to go in front of the planning commission and get a
conditional use permit. So I told them that the antennas were being
mounted on the railings of the water tank which is like 20' below the
top of the tanks. She comes back with in our ordinance it also says 9'
above the ground or above the top of the structure. And your antennas
are 9' above the ground.
So we debated this abit. I also tossed out there that what I do is not
telecommunications but information technology and the FCC says so and
the ordinance did not apply to me, just telecommunications.
I talked to several other city hall people who you would say are at the
top of the chain of command who agreed with me.
But I kept having this one person who ultimately was the one to approve
and she kept reading the ordinance and disputing what those above her
said. There is a protocol involved.
I also have on our server a copy of all the city council meetings,
planning commission meetings, etc.
I found a copy of the meeting where the city council and mayor
unanimously approved me building out on the water tanks and directed the
city manager to write up a lease.
To no avail.
I just couldn't get this one person to get with the program.
Finally I get everyone involved, it gets discussed at a city council
meeting and again they say yes George belongs on the tower and he doe
NOT need a conditional use permit.
Relief, or so I thought.
I actually applied for and paid 900.00 for the conditional use permit
"application"
Then finally I get city hall telling me to go pick up my check that it
wasn't needed seeing I didn't have to get a conditional use permit.
Tiffany goes to pick up the check an she is told, you need to have a
design review and that costs 800.00.......
I came back with that there must have been a design review done because
I was given a building permit and I had my guy who is an architectural
grad draft up an auto cad of the entire installation right down to the
clamps used to scale.
She comes back with, we gave you a permit for the bottom of the tower
not the top.........
I couple of phone calls later I got final approval and a call from her
saying that she was going to allow me to proceed, but she didn't agree
with the i saying it was against the code and she was only giving it to
me because her boss is making her .
All it takes is one person, regardless if you have 99 other people
rooting for you, to stick a spoke in your wheels.
Cingular also is in the process of signing a lease on one of these
towers and they were grilled by the planning commission who had stacks
of letters from neighbors who said they didn't want a cell phone site so
close to their homes. They might get cancer from fr radiation.
In our county they do have an ordinance saying that all cell phone sites
have to be at least 1000' away from a residence.
Lucky for me, I wasn't really in a hurry because I've been waiting for
the final version of Lonnie's war boards to come out.
I just today got the approved set of prints back and will start this
week on my tower project.
George
--
WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org
Subscribe/Unsubscribe:
http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
