CITY MOVING TO TIGHTEN SITING RULES FOR CELL TOWERS

[Rich]

CITY MOVING TO TIGHTEN SITING RULES FOR CELL TOWERS

The Oregonian
Summary: A draft ordinance controls tower appearance and limits possible locations in historic neighborhoods

The city is in the process of placing new limits on cell-phone towers that would make it harder to build them in historical districts and residential areas.

Renate Mengelberg and other planning commissioners pushed for the new rules as some towers were being built recently in Oregon City, including a 130-foot Clackamas County emergency communications tower just off Molalla Avenue.

Planners found that the city's existing guidelines didn't contain many specifics and didn't give the city much say in how the towers look or where they are located.

Without some control, the towers could proliferate throughout the city, said Linda Carter, chairwoman of the Planning Commission.

The new rules would virtually ban new towers in several historic areas, including the Canemah Historic Neighborhood, the McLoughlin Conservation District and the Oregon Trail-Barlow Road Historic Corridor, or within 500 feet of the Willamette Greenway Corridor.

The ordinance allows an exception in those areas if a communications company can show that communication service to an area would be prevented if a tower couldn't be built in that area.

In the rest of the city, the rules first try to get communications companies to put their antennas on buildings, utility poles or existing towers -- especially if they must be in residential areas.

Hoops and rules If there's no suitable spot to share, and a new tower must be built, the proposed ordinance would make it much easier for applicants to build the towers in industrial or commercial areas. Builders would have to jump through more bureaucratic hoops and follow more rules if they wanted to build a tower next to homes.

"If the only place they can do it is a residential district, we can't say no," said Tony Konkol, an associate planner in Oregon City who oversaw the writing of the new ordinance.

John Hartsock, a consultant who is overseeing Clackamas County's effort to construct new emergency communications towers, said the Telecommunications Act of 1996 ensures that restrictions on cell tower placement can't interfere with service.

The proposed ordinance includes provisions that:

* Limit towers to 120 feet in light or heavy industrial areas that have no adjacent residential parcels. If the tower is in a limited office or neighborhood commercial zone, the maximum height is 75 feet.

* Require new towers to be designed so that they can have other antennas added to them later. The ordinance also encourages communications companies to put their antennas on existing structures, such as utility poles, water towers or buildings.

* Require towers to be set back 25 feet from any adjacent residential property lines, even if the area in which they are built is industrial or commercial.

* Require more public notices and more opportunities for public comment when a tower is proposed near residential areas.

* Ask builders to give the city a visual study showing how the proposed tower will look from five points within a one-mile radius.

West Linn restrictions The Oregon City rules are somewhat more flexible than across the river in West Linn, where a cell tower ordinance effectively limits construction of towers taller than 40 feet to industrial land only, said Gordon Howard, a West Linn senior planner. The only time towers taller than 40 feet are allowed in single-family residential areas is when the antenna is placed on an existing utility pole or other structure or contained inside a building, Howard said.

Hartsock said a 40-foot limit isn't likely to interfere with service because communications companies are moving toward shorter towers anyway.

West Linn's rules came about after a tower was built along Oregon 43 at a Presbyterian church. Residents objected to the tower, but the city couldn't prevent it from being built. The city finally allowed the structure but required it to be disguised as what is described as a church bell tower.

"We've had a lot of different comments about it in terms of aesthetics, most of them negative," Howard said. "On the other hand, no one has ever said, 'Oh, it looks like a cell tower.' "

Oregon City's ordinance won't require such drastic disguise efforts, but it will encourage neutral coloring, trees or other camouflage.

Kevin Martin, a planning consultant who helps communications companies find sites for cell towers, said most cities have fairly reasonable standards for the towers, but locating them can get tricky when a city tries to shut them out of specific areas.

He said in most cities, wireless phone companies already have pretty good coverage on major street corridors and in commercial areas, where Oregon City's ordinance makes it easiest to locate towers.

"Where the coverage needs to go is into neighborhoods," Martin said. At his house, he said, "We use them (cell phones) like second phone lines."

Carter said city officials realize that the city shouldn't try to limit phone coverage, but she wants new towers in residential areas to be a last resort.

"Nobody would like to see these in the city, but we have to have them because everyone has their cell phones," Carter said.

The Planning Commission has unanimously recommended that the proposed ordinance be approved, and the City Commission is expected to consider it sometime in May.