COUNTY SETS NEW RULES ON CELL TOWERS, VANCOUVER, WA

[Rich]

COUNTY SETS NEW RULES ON CELL TOWERS

Wednesday April 17 12:00am
The Columbian (Vancouver, WA.)

Wireless communication companies hoping to build new cell towers in unincorporated Clark County can start submitting their applications May 1, but they will face new restrictions.

On Tuesday, Clark County commissioners unanimously voted to lift a nearly year-old ban on new cell towers and adopt rules on their placement.

Commissioners imposed the moratorium in May after a surge of permit requests spurred opposition from neighbors who view the towers as ugly, harmful to property values and perhaps even damaging to their health.

Though neighbors didn't get everything they wanted in the new ordinance, they were generally pleased.

"Anything is better than what we had," said Susan Gilbert, president of the Enterprise/Paradise Point Neighborhood Association. "We have to wait to see how it bears itself out."

Here are the main elements of the new ordinance:

. The county will require a conditional-use permit and a public hearing to place a tower in residential, commercial, agricultural or forest zones.

. Wireless communication companies planning a tower must notify neighbors within 660 feet in urban areas and within a quarter-mile in rural areas and invite them to a public meeting.

. A hearings examiner can call for a third-party review to determine whether a communications company made a good-faith effort to place antennas on existing towers first.

. A cell tower would have to be at least as far from the nearest house as it is tall.

Richard Eten, who fought a cell tower near his Woodland-area home, had hoped the county would require cell towers to be placed farther from neighboring property.

The county planning commission recommended a 300-foot setback from property lines in rural areas. Commissioners instead took the suggestion of a task force of neighbors and industry representatives, which they said was more realistic.

[larry]

This is exactly what's wrong with the current zoning process. No city or county should be allowed to ban applications for new towers for any longer than 3 months. The one year ban could easily be challenged in court for being unreasonable. In the past Sprint and other carriers have sucessfully sued various zoning boards for being unreasonable and have won.