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HomeMy Public PortalAboutOrdinance No. 826-97 11-11-1997 • ORDINANCE NO. 8 2 6- 9 7 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 12 "ZONING" OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES OF THE CITY OF RICHLAND HILLS, TEXAS, AS AMENDED, BY THE ADDITION THERETO OF A NEW SECTION 26 "COMMUNICATION TOWERS AND TELEVISION RECEIVERS' ; PROVIDING REGULATIONS FOR LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION OF COMMUNICATION TOWERS AND TELEVISION RECEIVERS; PROVIDING FOR PERMITS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION, MAINTENANCE AND USE OF COMM[IIVICATION TOWERS AND TELEVISION - RECEIVERS; IMPOSING A REQUIREMENT OF SHARED USE FOR COMMUINICATION TOWERS AND TELEVISION RECEIVERS WHENEVER POSSIBLE; PROVIDING FOR CONTINUATION OF NON-CONFORMING USES HEREUNDER; PROVIDING A SEVERABILTTY CLAUSE; PROVIDING A SAVING CLAUSE; PROVIDING FOR REPEAL OF CONFLICTING ORDINANCES; AND AN EFFECTIVE DATE. WHEREAS, the public demand for new telecommunications services has increased dramatically in recent years; and WHEREAS, such demand generates a need for additional towers and antenna installations to service such demand for telecommunications services; and WHEREAS, the unregulated proliferation of telecommunications towers and antennae contributes to visual blight, decrease in surrounding property values and other deleterious effects on surrounding properties and the community as a whole; and WHEREAS, the existing regulations of the City of Richland Hills, Texas, on the subject have proved outdated and inadequate to address the challenges imposed by the demands for new and increased telecommunication services; and WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Richland Hills, Texas, hereby finds and determines that the following regulations will balance the interests of telecommunications providers and consumers of such services, and property owners and citizens within the City of Richland Hills, Texas, and will promote the health, safety and general welfare of its citizens. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF RICHLAND HILLS, TEXAS: I. That Chapter 12 "ZONING" of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Richland Hills, Texas, as amended, be hereby amended by the addition of a new Section 26 "COMMUNICATION TOWERS AND TELEVISION RECEIVERS", which new section sh~.ll hereafter be and read as follows: • ORDINANCE NO. PAGE 1 SECTION: 26 COlVZMUNICATION TOWERS AND TELEVISION RECEIVERS • A. PURPOSE These regulations are intended to: Provide for the appropriate location ar?d development of communications towers and antennae to serve the residents and businesses of Richland Hills; minimize any adverse visual impact of towers and antennae through cazeful design, siting, landscaping and screening; avoid potential damage to adjacent properties from tower failure through engineering and cazeful siting of tower structures; maximize use of any new or existing communication towers so as to minimize the need to construct new towers and minimize the total number of towers throughout the City; maximize and encourage use of alternative tower structures as primary option rather than construction of additional single-use towers; these regulations shall not govern any tower, or the installation of any antenna, that is under thirty-five (35) feet in height and owned and operated by afederally-licensed amateur radio station operator or is used exclusively for receive only antennas. Alternative tower structure shall mean manmade structures such as clock towers, bell towers, church steeples, water towers, light poles, electrical transmission towers and similaz alternative design mounting structures that camouflage or conceal the presence of antennae and towers. • Antennae means any exterior appazatus designed for telephonic,. radio, or television communications through the sending and / or receiving of electromagnetic waves, excluding satellite dish antennas. FAA means the Federal Aviation Administration FCC means the Federal Communications Commission. Height, when referring to a tower, or other structure means the distance measured vertically from the finished grade to the highest point on the tower, antenna or structure. Tower means a structure constructed as a freestanding structure or in association with a building, other permanent structure or equipment, on which is located one or more antennae intended for transmitting or receiving television, AM/FM radio, digital, microwave, cellulaz, telephone, or similar forms of electronic communication. The term includes radio and television transmission towers, microwave towers, common carrier towers, and cellular telephone towers. A tower does not include areceive-only home television antenna, or any satellite dish antenna two meters or less in diameter. ORDINANCE N0. 826-97 PAGE 2 B. Building Permit and/or Special Use Permit Required. • No communications tower or antenna shall be constructed without prior approval and issuance of a building permit. Furthermore, where specified in this chapter, no communications tower shall be constructed except with approval of a Special Use Permit (SUP) by the Planning & Zoning Commission and the City Council. The application procedures contained in this chapter relating to the application, processing, and determination of whether to grant a special use permit as specified herein, are in addition to any other provisions and requirements contained in other sections of these zoning regulations relating to Special Use Permits. (1) Antennas are permitted in all districts on existing non-residential buildings or on alternative tower structures with approval of a building permit, but without obtaining a special use permit if the non-residential building or alternative tower structure exceeds fifty (50) feet in height and the antenna will add no more than twenty (20) feet total to the height of the existing building or structure. (2) The effects of radio frequency emissions on persons or the environment shall not be considered in a proceeding involving an application for a special use permit for a communications tower. • (3) No communications tower may be constructed if there is a technically suitable space available on an existing tower within the service area that the new tower is to serve. C. Application Procedures for Constructing a Communications Tower Application for a building permit or a Special Use Permit to construct a communications tower must contain the following information and will not be considered until all information is complete: (1) An inventory of the applicant's existing towers that aze either within the City or within one mile of the border thereof, including specific information about the location, design, and height of each tower. The zoning administrator may shaze such information with other applicants applying for administrative approvals or special use permits under this Article or with other orgazuzations seeking to locate antennae within the City; provided however, that the zoning administrator is not, by sharing such information, in any way representing or warranting that the sites are available or suitable. (2) A disclosure of all the co-location and alternate sites that were considered, including justification for rejection of the other sites. • (3) A site plan drawn to scale clearly indicating the location, height, and design ORDINANCE NO. 826-97 PAGE 3 of the proposed tower, equipment cabinets, transmission buildings and other • accessory uses, access, pazking, fences, masonry screening walls, and landscaped azeas. (4) A legal description of the site. (5) The sepazation distance from other towers within a one mile radius of the proposed tower site. (6) Technical performance goals (i.e., desired signal strength) (7) A description of anticipated maintenance needs, including frequency of service, personnel needs, equipment needs, and traffic, noise or safety impacts of the maintenance. (8) A report from a professional structural engineer licensed in the State of Texas, documenting the following: (a) Tower height and design, including technical, engineering, economic, and other pertinent factors governing selection of the proposed design. A cross-section of the tower structure shall be included. • (b) Total anticipated capacity of the structure, including the number and types of antennae which can be accommodated. (c) Evidence of the structural integrity of the tower structure. (d) Failure characteristics of the tower and evidence that site and setbacks are of adequate size to contain a failure within the site. (e) Certification that the tower will meet all applicable FCC/FAA and local building codes. (9) A letter of intent to lease excess space on the tower structure and to lease additional excess land on the tower site, if structurally and technically possible. (10) The zoning administrator shall maintain and provide, on request, records of response from each owner. Once an owner demonstrates an antenna of the sort proposed by the applicant cannot be accommodated on the owner's tower as described below, the owner need not be contacted by future applicants for antennae of the sort proposed. (11) Shared use is not precluded simply because a reasonable fee for shazed use • is charged, or because of reasonable costs necessary to adapt the existing and ORDINANCE NO. 826-97 PAGE 4 proposed uses to a shazed tower. The City Council may consider expert • testimony to determine whether the fee and costs are reasonable. (12) Any other information which may be requested by the zoning administrator to fully evaluate and review the application and the potential impact of a proposed tower or antenna. D. Documentation of Need of Communications Tower No new communications tower shall be permitted unless the applicant demonstrates to the reasonable satisfaction of the zoning administrator or, when applicable, the Planning & Zoning Commission, that no existing tower, building, structure, or alternative technology that does not require the use of a tower can accommodate the applicant's proposed antenna. The applicant shall submit information related to the availability of suitable existing towers, other structures or alternative technology which will demonstrate that no existing tower, structure or alternative technology can accommodate the applicant's proposed antenna. Such information may consist of any of the following: (1) Current RF coverage prediction maps showing the area to be served before the addition of the new cell and an RF coverage prediction map that shows coverage after the new site is operational. • (2) No existing towers or structures are located within the geographic area which meet the applicant's engineering requirements. (3) Existing towers or structures are not of sufficient height to meet the applicant's engineering requirements. (4) Existing towers or structures do not have sufficient structural strength to support the applicant's proposed antenna and related equipment. (5) The applicant's proposed antenna would cause electromagnetic interference with the antenna on the existing towers or structures, or the antenna on the existing towers or structures would cause interference with the applicant's proposed antenna. (6) The fees, costs, or contractual provisions required by the owner in order to shaze an existing tower or structure or to adapt an existing tower or structure for sharing are unreasonable. (7) The applicant demonstrates that there aze other limiting factors that render existing towers and structures unsuitable. • (8) The applicant demonstrates that an alternative technology that does not require ORDINANCE N0. 826-97 PAGE 5 the use of towers or structures, such as a cable microcell network using • multiple low-powered transmitters/ receivers attached to a wireline system is unsuitable. Costs of alternative technology that exceed new tower or antenna development shall not be presumed to render the technology unsuitable. (9) The zoning administrator may require adrive-out test to confirm or refute the projected coverage maps. (10) If the zoning administrator is satisfied that the applicant has provided adequate documentation of need for the proposed site, the application shall be automatically scheduled for the next available public hearing by the Planning & Zoning Commission for consideration as a Special Use Permit. E. General Requirements (1) No advertising sign shall be allowed on a communications tower. (2) No signs or illumination shall be allowed on a communications tower unless required by the FCC, FAA or other state or federal agency of competent jurisdiction, in which case the zoning administrator may review the available lighting alternatives and approve the design that would cause the least • disturbance to the surrounding uses and views. (3) All buildings or equipment cabinets, shall meet the construction and material requirements of that particular zoning district F. Spacing and Development Requirements (1) Maximum height and setback - No communications tower shall exceed 130 feet in height. Every communications tower shall be set back from residentially zoned property at a ratio of three (3) feet of setback for each one (1) foot of tower height. (2) Spacing -All communications towers constructed shall conform to the minimum tower sepazation requirements listed in Table 26-1. An antenna mounted on an existing communications tower or on an alternative tower structure shall be exempt from these minimum sepazation distances. ORDINANCE NO. 826-97 PAGE 6 • TABLE 26 -1 SEPARATION DISTANCE EXISTING TOWER HEIGHT PROPOSED TOWER HEIGHT <65' 65' -130' <65' 1,000' 1,250' 65'-130' 1,250' 1,500' • (3) Maximum Number of Towers - No more than one communications tower shall be allowed on a lot or parcel, provided, however, that additional towers may be approved on the lot with a Special Use Permit. (4) Safety - A communications tower should be located in such a manner that if the structure should fall along its longest dimension it will remain within property boundaries and avoid habitable structures, public streets, utility lines and other towers. (5) Landscaping -The City Council may require additional landscaping to mitigate an adverse condition or may waive such landscaping requirements when considering a request for a Special Use Permit. (6) Masonry Screening Walls -The City Council may require additional masonry screening walls to mitigate an adverse condition or may waive such masonry screening wall requirement when considering a request for a Special Use Permit. G. VisualImpacts • Communications towers and any equipment building and related structures shall, ORDINANCE NO. 826-97 PAGE 7 • to the extent possible, use materials, colors, textures, screening, and landscaping ; that will blend into the tower and related facilities to the natural setting and built environment. (1) All towers shall either maintain a galvanized steel finish or, subject to any applicable standards of the FAA or other applicable federal or state agency, be painted a neutral color, so as to reduce visual obtrusiveness. (2) If an antenna is installed on a structure other than a tower, the antenna and supporting electrical and mechanical equipment must be of a neutral color that is identical to, or closely compatible with, the color of the supporting structure so as to make the antenna and related equipment as visually unobtrusive as possible. (3) All towers shall be monopole construction unless the City Council approves an alternate design. • H. Shared Use All new towers shall be designed to structurally accommodate the maximum ~ " number of additional users technically practicable. (1) To encourage shared use of towers, no special use permit shall be required for the addition of antenna(e) to an existing tower so long as the height of the tower or structure on which the antenna is placed is not increased and the requirements of this section aze met. (2) Any Special Use Permit which is granted for a new communications tower is specifically subject to the condition that the tower owner abide by the following provisions relating to shazed use, regazdless of whether or not the ordinance granting the permit contains such conditions: (a) The tower owner shall respond in a timely, comprehensive manner to a request for information from a potential shazed use applicant; (b) The tower owner shall negotiate in good faith for shared use by third parties; ORDINANCE NO. 826-97 PAGE 8 • (c) The tower owner shall allow shazed use where,. the third party seeking the use agrees in writing to pay reasonable, pro rata charges for sharing, including all chazges necessary to modify the tower and transmitters to accommodate shazed use, but not total tower reconstruction, and to observe whatever technical requirements are necessary to allow shared use without creating interference. (d) The willful failure of an owner whose tower was approved under this section to comply with the requirements, of this section shall be grounds for withholding approval of any application by the owner for a building permit for the approved tower, for revoking the special use permit granted for the tower, and for refusing to approve a new special use permit for any new tower or antenna. I. Removal of Unsafe Antennas and Towers • All towers and antennas shall be maintained in compliance with standards contained in applicable building codes so as to ensure the structural integrity of the towers. If upon inspection by the Building Official the tower is determined not to comply with the code standazds or constitutes a danger to persons or property and the tower is not made safe or removed within sixty (60) days of notification from the City notifying the owner of the unsafe tower or antenna, the City may remove the tower or antenna and place a lien upon the property for the costs of the removal. J. Abandoned Towers Any antenna or tower that is not operated for any continuous period of twelve (12) months shall be considered abandoned, and the owner of such antennae or tower and the owner of the property where the tower is located shall remove the tower or antenna within ninety (90) days after notification from the City to remove the tower or antenna. (1) If the tower or antenna is not removed within the notification time period, the City may remove the tower or antenna and place a lien upon the property for the costs of the removal. • (2) If the owner of an abandoned tower or antenna wishes to use the ORDINANCE NO. 826-97 PAGE 9 abandoned tower or antenna, the, owner first must apply for and receive all applicable permits and meet all of the conditions of this article as if the tower or antenna were a new tower or anterma. K. Pre-Ezisting Towers and Non-Conforming Uses All communication towers operative prior to the effective date of this ordinance, shall be allowed to continue their present usage as anon-conforming use and shall be treated as anon-conforming use in accordance with the zoning regulations. Routine maintenance shall be permitted on the existing towers. New construction other than routine maintenance on an existing communication tower shall comply with the requirements of this section. L. Public Property Antennas or towers located on property owned, leased or otherwise controlled • by the City shall be exempt from the requirements of this Section. • ORDINANCE N0. 82b-97 PAGE 10 • II. That Ordinance No. 811-97, passed by the Richland Hills City Council on February 11, 1997, be and the same is hereby repealed in its entirety. III. That paragraph 67 of Subsection C "USES PERMITTED" of Section 13 "C-2 GENERAL COMMERCIAL DISTRICT" of Chapter 12 "ZONING" of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Richland Hills, Texas, as amended, be hereby repealed in its entirety. IV. Severability Clause. That it is hereby declared to be the intention of the City Council that the sections, paragraphs, sentences, clauses and phrases of this ordinance are severable, and if any phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section of this ordinance shall be declared invalid or unconstitutional by the valid judgment or decree of any court of competent jurisdiction, such invalidity or unconstitutionality shall not affect any of the remaining phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs and sections of this ordinance, since the same would have been enacted by the City Council without the incorporation in this ordinance of any such invalid or unconstitutional phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section. V. . Saving Clause. That Chapter 12 of the Code of Ordinances, City of Richland Hills, Texas, as amended, shall remain in full force and effect, save and except as amended by this ordinance. VI. Effective Date. This ordinance shall be in full force and effect from and after its passage and publication as provided by the Richland Hills City Charter and the laws of the State of Texas. PRESENTED, GIVEN FIRST READING AND APPROVED at a regular meeting of the Richland Hills City Council on the llthday of Novembe?: 1997, by a vote of 5 ayes, 0 nays, and 0 abstentions. APPROVED: ~`'l C. F. Kelley, Mayor ORDINANCE NO. 8 2 6- 9 7 PAGE 11 k~4 ~'r'cL~: , wr~~.by ~ ~ u~.. F A bin Yp~ n ES y °jP r , ~ ATTEST: ~ - - 9 ~ Terri Willis, City Secretary ~'d,, - ~ 1 KY . i t 3 APPROVED AS TO FORM AND LEGALITY: ti P ul F. Wieneskie, Cit orney rhlib298/110697 • • ORDINANCE NO. R ~ 6 - 9 7 PAGE 12