Back in 2000 the city was concerned about telecommunication
towers and had recently seen the construction of the KLKS radio tower. At that time the city established an
ordinance that regulated the location, size and siting of these types of
facilities. The regulations reflected
many concerns of unknowns at that time as mobile phones were starting to become
popular and having large towers all over the place was disconcerting.
An ordinance was established that provided limited
accommodations for these with the mindset of being restrictive. Today these concerns have changed to the
accommodate communication towers as the majority of the population utilizes
wireless technology. The issue of
capacity to handle wireless traffic becomes more important while the advent of
communication towers is not seen as being as detrimental as they were once thought
of in the past. That being said there is
still a need for regulation but also a need for reasonableness in providing
service.
The Planning Commission, after receiving a request for a
cellular communication antenna, recognized that the current regulations no
longer met the needs of the public or the industry providing the service. They noted that the current regulations were
not codified in the code so it was time to update the regulations. They also
recognized a need for communication towers to serve public safety needs.
The Planning Commission was grateful to have discussed the
issues of regulations with Rick Adams of Mid-Country Tower Services giving them
insight into the issue. With additional
work over a period of a few months they were able to recommend a revised
ordinance to the city council for adoption.
Ordinance 14-06 was presented and approved establishing section §153.102
in the zoning code. The section is
entitled: Governing Telecommunications Towers, Antennas, and Related
Facilities. The city council adopted the
ordinance at their September 2, 2014 meeting.
