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12-11-01KALISPELL CITY -COUNTY PLANNING BOARD �\ MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF DECEMBER 11, 2001 CITY PROJECTS CALL TO ORDER AND Chairman Greg Stevens called the meeting to order at 7:00 ROLL CALL PM. Members present were: Don Garberg, Dale Pierce, Ron Van Natta, Bill Rice, Greg Stevens, Brian Sipe, Don Hines, Rob Heinecke and Don Mann. Narda Wilson represented the Tri-City Planning Office. There were approximately 10 people in the audience. APPROVAL OF MINUTES There was a motion by Sipe and second by Pierce to approve OF THE NOVEMBER 13, the minutes of the meeting of the November 13, 2001 as 2001 MEETING presented. TRI-STAR A request for a conditional use permit by Tri-Star COMMUNICATIONS Communications to allow the construction of a cellular CONDITIONAL USE communication tower located in a B-5, Commercial/ PERMIT Industrial zoning district on property located 59 Third Ave W.N. in Kalispell. STAFF REPORT #KCU-01-3 Narda Wilson of the Tri-City Planning Office gave a O presentation of staff report #KCU-01-3 saying this was a request for a conditional use permit to allow the construction of a cellular communication tower on the eastern portion of the property. Wilson said the tower would be a monopole on a concrete foundation that would be between 160 to 180 feet in height with room for four to six wireless service providers. Staff is recommending approval subject to the conditions listed in the staff report. APPLICANT/AGENCIES J.R. Reiger of Tri-Star Communications, Billings, MT spoke in favor saying the communications tower was co -locatable and would accommodate four to six major carriers and he was in weekly contact with numerous carriers around the country that hopefully in the future move in to Kalispell. Reiger said the tower would provide the infrastructure for those carriers, and because it was co -locatable it would also accommodate multiple small wireless companies that provide wireless internet services. Reiger said the tower would be located in a heavy commercial zone and he had an option to buy the property if the conditional use permit was approved. Reiger said there would be no need to build other wireless towers within a mile or more, and the abandoned building on the site would be used to house the wireless companies' 1 equipment. CJMann asked if the tower could be camouflaged. Kalispell City -County Planning Board Minutes of the meeting of December 11, 2001 Page 1 of 5 Reiger said there were no trees in the area so he couldn't really conceal it, but the tower was just a thin needle that was colored flat gray that blends in with the sky. Van Natta asked what the diameter of the tower was. Reiger said the base diameter was probably four or five feet. Sipe asked what the range was. Reiger said it depended on where the carrier located on the tower, but at the top the range would be the entire city limits, and at 90 feet it would probably be a three-mile radius. Hines asked whether the grain elevators could be used, and whether he had approached the MDOT to use their tower. Reiger said he had approached the owners of the elevators but the price they were asking was exorbitant and his business was not locating on someone else's equipment, but was to bring in carriers to locate on his towers. Reiger said he had not contacted MDOT because he had designed the system for Kalispell and their tower didn't fit Ointo the search ring. Heinecke asked if he had any concerns with the conditions. Reiger replied he didn't. PUBLIC HEARING The public hearing was opened to those who wished to speak on the proposal. PROPONENTS There was no one who wished to speak. OPPONENTS Nora Karens spoke in opposition, saying she owns the two lots at the end of Third Avenue W.N. and felt it would devalue their property by having the tower located at the proposed site, and that she objected to towers in town no matter who owned the property. Karens also asked if there was any danger associated with the towers. Reiger said in there were two safety issues at hand - radio waves or microwaves, and the other was what happened if the tower falls. Reiger said these towers had been through hurricanes, such as Hurricane Andrew, tornadoes in Texas, and they just don't' fall because they were unbelievably over - engineered as far as the foundation goes. Reiger said if something should ever happen to cause the tower to fall they, are engineered so that he knew where the exact break point was because it was designed in the tower and it will fall to a certain angle and place on the ground. Reiger said in Kalispell City -County Planning Board Minutes of the meeting of December 11, 2001 Page 2 of 5 regards to the radio waves surf technology was nationwide, 1 there had never been a proven case that they cause danger, - J and the FCC monitors the towers constantly. Reiger reiterated that this area was a heavy commercial zone inside Kalispell. There was no one else who wished to speak and the public hearing was closed. MOTION Van Natta moved that the Kalispell City -County Planning Board adopt staff report #KCU-01-3 as findings of fact and recommend to the Kalispell City Council that the conditional use permit be granted subject to the six conditions as listed. Mann seconded the motion. BOARD DISCUSSION Van Natta said Reiger was correct in saying that federal law that these towers be allowed, and felt the Board had done the best they could to get these towers located in a commercial area mandated it. Van Natta said it would be a matter of getting used to it and he would vote for it. ROLL CALL The motion passed with a vote of nine in favor and none in opposition. OLD BUSINESS Heinecke asked if the County staff could be present for the O old business. Stevens said if there had been old business, it should be on the agenda. Heinecke said it had been agreed that there would be County vicinity map in the packet showing the zoning from the County Planning Office, but there weren't any, and now the County staff had already left the meeting so they wouldn't know if there had been old business unless they read the City portion of the minutes. Heinecke said it would be easier if they worked with each other. Heinecke asked about the status of the parking standards. Narda said nothing had happened yet but it was on the work program list. NEW BUSINESS Stevens said they had received a letter from Pam Kennedy, the City of Kalispell Mayor Elect that asked the Board to move the regularly scheduled meeting of January 8th to January 15th so that board appointments could be made. Stevens said they had discussed it at the last month's meeting and he didn't have any objections, but did asked if any of the applicants would be put in a time frame bind. Kalispell City -County Planning Board Minutes of the meeting of December 11, 2001 Page 3 of 5 Wilson said there wouldn't be any problems with the City applications but was unaware of the status of County projects. MOTION Van Natta moved that the January 8th meeting of the Kalispell City -County Planning Board be rescheduled to January 15, 2002. Mann seconded the motion. On a vote by acclamation, all members voted aye. Rice said he would like to discuss the letter that Stevens had written on behalf of the Board that had been sent to the Commissioners. Stevens said the letter had been written on behalf of only those members of the Board who had signed it, and it had not been intended as official planning board action. Stevens said he purposely did not ask any one who would be subject appointment by the City on this board or other boards to sign the letter because he thought it might put those appointments in jeopardy. Stevens said the members who signed the letter were members who were appointed by the County or who were not reapplying for appointment by the City. ORice said the media had reported that it was from the City - County planning board and it was too bad they reported it incorrectly. Rice said he still felt the Board should discuss the issue and asked if any one else wanted to talk about it. Stevens said it was not an agenda item for tonight and any discussion at this point was moot since the city manager and the commissioners were presently discussing the issue. Garberg said he felt it would be appropriate for the Board to discuss the issue. MOTION Mann moved to have the issue put on the January meeting. Sipe seconded the motion. Garberg said they should talk about it because they were all here, it was a public meeting and they may not have a January meeting. Heinecke said the place to discuss the issue was at the Commissioners public hearing. Heinecke said the Board had worked well as a group and didn't understand where the conflict was coming from, and that he disagreed with Van U Natta opinion that the Board was polarized. Heinecke said he had been aware of the letter but chose riot to sign it, and feels the Board should remain a joint board. Kalispell City -County Planning Board Minutes of the meeting of December 11, 2001 Page 4 of 5 Rice said he was surprised that the Commissioners and Council had not asked to have it put on this evening's �-` agenda so that the board could provide them with a recommendation. J Van Natta agreed they should not disband but did say at this point in time that new faces would not hurt a bit. Van Natta said he had not had the opportunity to have a workshop with the Board on planning, but feels that there are members who are looking out for a specific thing as opposed to what was best for the community as a whole. ROLL CALL VOTE On a roll call vote the motion passed on an eight to one vote, with Stevens, Van Natta, Hines, Sipe, Pierce, Heinecke, Mann and Garberg voting in favor and Rice voting against. Hines said he would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to Garberg for all his years of hard work on the Board since he would not be doing this again in January, as he was a "past tense". Stevens said he would like to endorse that because Garberg's service on the Board was typical of the character of several of the members because they think independently and work for what they think is right. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 8:10 p.m. G eg tevens, Chairman Sandie Mueller,, Recording Secretary APPROVED as submitted: 1// corrected Date: �� ' fr,1 `-0// Kalispell City -County Planning Board Minutes of the meeting of December 11, 2001 Page 5 of 5