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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-13 Statement of JustificationSTATEMENT OF JUSTIFICATION Conditionai i sp Permit Application Statement of Justification Applicant: Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless Name of Project: Wilde Acres Property Address- 2250 Back Mountain Road, Winchester, Virginia 22602 Magisterial District: Back Creek Parcel ID No: 49-A-28 Zoning Classification: RA Property Owner: Bertha McIlwee Et.Als. Trustees Background The applicant, Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless, seeks a Conditional Use Permit under §§165-103.01-165-103.08 of the Frederick County Zoning Ordinance for a wireless telecommunication facility. The proposed facility will consist of a new 195 feet tall monopole with an overall height of 197 feet including lightning rod at the top of the structure. The facility will be located on Property Identification Number 49-A-28 at 2250 Back Mountain Road, Winchester, Virginia 22602. The monopole will include fifteen (15) antennas mounted at one hundred ninety feet (190') above ground level (AGL). An associated equipment shelter measuring thirty feet (30') long by eleven feet seven inches (117') wide and ten feet seven. inches (107") high will be located in a forty feet (40') by forty feet (40') equipment compound adjacent to the monopole and screened by a six foot (6') tall chain link fence with screening slats. Access to the facility will be from Assateague Trail Road near its intersection with Rappahannock Trail in the Shawnee Land community. The proposed telecommunications facility will have no impact on air quality, water quality, radiation exposure, light pollution, noise pollution, or traffic congestion or circulation. The antennas emit no noise, light or odors. The facility will be unmanned with infrequent visits of four or fewer per year by personnel for routine maintenance. There will be limited access to the facility with parking for no more than one standard sized vehicle. The Property consists of approximately two hundred eighteen point forty two (218.42) acres and is zoned RA, Rural Area District. Adjoining properties are zoned RA to the east, south and far west and far north. Properties to the immediate west and north in the Shawnee Land community are zoned R5, Residential Recreational Community. Northeast of the site at the intersection of Back Mountain Road and Rosenberger Lane there is a B1, Business Neighborhood District property. The Property is owned by Bertha. McIlwee Et.AI. Trustess. It is currently a rural farm use improved with a residential dwelling and related farm accessory buildings. The majority of the acreage is in pasture or woodlands. Verizon Wireless will enter into a lease agreement with the property owner to install and operate the wireless telecommunications facility on the Property. The monopole and associated compound will be sited on the western edge of the subject Property, near Assateague Trail and the Wilde Acres community. The facility will be within a wooded area that will mitigate its visibility from the immediate area to the west. Due to existing vegetation, distance, and topography, the proposed structure should have minimal visual impact on properties and public roadways to the north, south and east of the site. Requirement and Site Evaluation The Telecommunications Facility ("Facility") will be part of Verizon's Wireless telecommunications network as shown on the attached engineering plans and propagation maps. The objective of the site is to provide Verizon Wireless services along Back Mountain Road and enhance coverage on secondary roads in the vicinity. The site will not only fill service gaps but will enhance 4G -LTE data service to all residences in the surrounding area. Currently due to the high demand of high-speed data the existing surrounding cell sites do not support the capacity needs for the area. This site will offload these existing sites and enhance data speeds. There are no existing structures within the search area to support Verizon's antennas. Including the selected site, Verizon Wireless formally considered a total of nine sites to provide coverage to this area: Winchester Tower Farm, Valley View Trail west of site. The site was rejected because the existing tower will not meet Verizon's coverage objective. The maximum available height, either in its present form or as a rebuilt structure, is obstructed due to the topography and the ground elevation is too high to give coverage to the valley and the community of Shawnee Land to the east. Two other towers on the site owned by the Virginia State Police were rejected because of the ground elevation and inability to meet coverage objectives. All of the utility lines in the two transmission paths were reviewed; one south of Mountain Falls Park and one between Mountain Falls Park and Shawnee Land. While south of the search area these lines were considered because the transmission lines they would negate the need to build a new structure in the area. However, they did not meet coverage objectives. Two raw land sites were reviewed closer to the proposed AT&T tower in this area and again the topography was a challenge and the coverage objective could not be obtained because of the ground elevation. Two raw land candidates near Mountain Falls lark to the southwest of the selected site were rejected because the topography minimized any potential ability to meet coverage objectives. A site with an existing tower to the northwest along Firetower Road was also considered but was too high and too close to the existing Verizon Wireless site of "Bowling Green". This site is also outside of the Verizon search area. A parcel directly within the Shawnee Land community was a preferred site but due to the small lot residential development of the community, the proposed facility would be too close to the residential development in this community. Zoning Ordinance Analysis Section 165-204.19 of the Frederick County Zoning Ordinance provides the performance standards for telecommunication uses. The proposed facility compares to the applicable performance standards as follows: (1) The Planning Commission may reduce the required setback distance for commercial telecommunications facilities as required by § 165-201.03B(8) of this chapter if it can be demonstrated that the location is of equal or lesser impact. "en a reduced setback is requested for a distance less than the height of the tower, a certified Virginia engineer shall provide verification to the Planning Commission that the tower is designed, and will be constructed, in a manner that if lite tower collapses Jor any reason the collapsed tower will be contained in an area around the tower with a radius equal to or lesser than the setback, measured from the center line of the base of the tower. In no case shall the setback distance be reduced to less than 1/2 the distance of the tower height. Commercial telecommunications facilities affixed to existing structures shall be exempt from setback requirements, provided that they are located no closer to the adjoining property lint, than the existing structure. Applicant's Response: The applicant is seeking a waiver of the setback requirement. The telecommunication monopole structure will be setback a minimum of 98.5 feet from the boundary of all property lines, a distance that is one-half of the monopole's overall height of 197 feet including the lightning rod at the top of the structure. As the setback is less than the height of the proposed structure, veriffication from a certified engineer is provided with the application concerning the monopole's design and construction, as required by the Zoning Ordinance. (2) Monopole -type construct>on shall be required for new commercial telecommunications towers. The Board of Supervisors may allow lattice -type construction for new telecommunications towers when existing or planned residential areas will not be impacted and when the site is not adjacent to identified historical resources. Applicant's Rftsponse: The proposed commercial telecommunications facility will be a monopole -type construction, (3) Advertising shall be prohibited on commercial telecommunications facilities except for signage providing ownership identification and emergency information No more than two signs si!tall be permitted Such signs shall be limited to 1.5 square feet in area and shall be posted no higher than 10 feet above grade. Applicant's Response: There shall be no signs or advertising on the proposed telecommunications facility. (4) When lighting is required on commercial telecommunications facility towers, dual lighting shall be utilized which providers daytime white strobe lighting and nighttime red pulsating lighting unless otherwise mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration or the Federaif Communications Commission Strobe lighting shall be shielded from ground' view to mitigate illumination to neighboring properties. Equipment buildings and other accessory structures operated in conjunction with commercial telecommunications facility towers shall utilize infrared lighting and motion -detector lighting to prevent continuous illumination. Applicant's Response: The telecommunications facility will not be lighted unless required for aircraft warning or other safety reasons. (5) Commxrcial telecommunications facilities shall be constructed with materials of a galvanized finish or painted a noncontrasting blue or gray unless otherwise mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration or the Federal Communications Commission. Applicant's Response. The telecommunications facility will be of a galvanized finish. (6) Commercial telecommunications facilities shall be adequately enclosed to prevent access by persons other than employees of the service provider. Appropriate landscaping and opaque screening shall be provided to ensure that equipment buildings and other accessory structures are not visible from adjoining properties, roads or other rights-of-way. Applicant's Response: All associated equipment at the base of the monopole structure will be within a forty feet (40') by forty feet (40') compound area surrounded by a six feet (6') tall chain link fence with screening slats so as not to be visible from adjoining properties and road. (7) Any antenna or tower that is not openUed for a continuous period of 12 Months shall be considered abandoned, and the owner of such tower shall remove same within qD days of receipt of notice frorti the Frederick County Department of Planning and Development. Removal includes the removal of the tower, all tower as -d fence footers, underground cables and support buildings. If there are two or More users of a single tower, then this provision shall not become effective until all users cease using the tower. If the tower is not removed within the ninety -day period, the County will remove the faciiity and a lien may be placed to recover expenses. Applicant's response: if the structure is not used for a continuous period of 12 months it will be removed along with all associated equipnaent and fencing. conclusion We respectfully submit that the special use permit should be approved as it is in conformance with the County Comprehensive Pian for Telecommunications. In addition, this application meets all of the standards in the Frederick County Zoning Ordinance, with the exception of the buffer yard requirements contained in Sec. 32-24^.10 (7), for which we are requesting a modification and/or waiver, as outlined above.