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Home My WebLink About15-04 Statement of Justificationcingu gar WIRELESS June 24, 2004 Frederick County Department of Planning and Development 107 North Kent Street Winchester, VA 22601 Re: Statement of Need and Justification for Conditional Use Permit for a Telecommunication Facility including a 250' self-support tower at 3035 Cedar Creek Grade Road, Winchester VA 22602, tax parcel 61-A-117 owned by M & M LP, LLP. Statement of Need Cingular Wireless is expanding their wireless network in the Winchester area and particularly along Route 622 West of Interstate 81. A copy of the "Search Ring" issued by Cingular Wireless is attached to this statement. The coverage objective is to build a new in -fill site in Frederick County, VA area. This site will improve coverage and capacity along Rt 622 to Winchester City. Cingular Wireless is requesting approval of a Conditional Use Permit to allow for the construction of a new 250' self-supporting lattice tower and placement of related radio equipment and antenna. The new Telecommunications Facility will provide coverage to areas along Route 622 that currently do not have wireless signal in the Cingular network. The proposed new structure will provide space for at least five (5) additional wireless communications companies. There are no existing structures that will provide the required coverage needed by Cingular Wireless. Justification The Cedar Creek Grade location is a good location for a telecommunications facility. The current use of the property is and active orchard containing over l000 acres which will buffer the facility from adjacent homes. A Radio Frequency (RF) Engineering Design Justification Statement has been provided with this Conditional Use Permit Application to document the need for the proposed facility at Cedar Creek Grade location. It also shows that a facility at this location will improve Cingular's wireless network in the area by providing the needed coverage to the West of Cingular's two adjacent sites, Stephens City and National Fruit and the proposed site at Shenandoah University. The RF statement justifies the proposed location by showing that the proposed site will provide the new "coverage" along Route 622 and overlapping the existing Cingular Wireless 7150 Standard Drive, Hanover, MD 21076 coverage provided by the adjacent "Cell Sites." The KF statement includes two maps with "coverage plots" over top of the area maps. One map shows the network coverage without the proposed site and the other one shows the coverage with the proposed site included in the network. The additional coverage is shown as the "boxed" area on the map with the proposed site. The RF statement is attached for review. Design of the Facility The proposed Telecommunications Facility will be located on a 44.76 acre parcel of land. The compound area will be a 7o' by 7o' fenced area that will include the proposed 250' tower, equipment shelters and related utilities for the facility. This location was selected because it is on high ground and away from any adjacent communities. Drawings have been included which show the proposed tower and related communications equipment. The 250' height is required to meet Cingular's coverage needs in the area by providing enough "overlap" to the adjacent "Cell Sites" and over coming the terrain in the area. Additional space will be available in the compound for other carriers to locate equipment and space will be available on the tower below Cingular's platform for their antenna. Cingular will light the facility as required by findings of the FAQ,. or the local Winchester Regional Airport authority. Cingular Wireless requests a Waiver of Section 165-48.6B(1) of the Commercial telecommunication facilities Ordinance for setback distance and section 165- 48.6B(2) which requires a Monopole -type construction for new commercial telecommunication towers. The setback waive of section 165-48.6B(1) is requested from the tower to southwest property line only. The other three setbacks are met and exceeded. The adjacent parcel on the southwest, parcel ID # 61 -A -i18 is also owned by M & M LP, LLP. The second Wavier request of Section 165-48.6B(2) is requested as a result of structural limitations of Monopoles when antenna mounting is required above 200'. The ordinance allows for the Planning Commission to "allow Lattice -type construction for new telecommunication towers that are located outside the Urban Development Area and are not adjacent to properties that are identified historic sites." The proposed location is outside the Urban Development Area. Specifically, lattice type towers are used when the required antenna heights exceed 200'. The lattice tower and foundation designs can be built to higher heights and support more antenna than a Monopole design. When mounting heights exceed 200', towers are proposed because they are safer and more economical to construct. Please see the attached drawings for more details. Cingular Wireless 7150 Standard Drive, Hanover, MD 21076 Other Locations /Candidates Considered Cingular Wireless has considered several "Candidates" including all existing structures and towers through out the area. It should be noted that according to the date Cingular has, there are no existing towers or Monopoles within the Search Area. The proposed location and height are required to allow Cingular Wireless to meet it's objectives of the Search Area which are: to add new coverage and call capacity along 622 and provide continuous coverage and hand off between adjacent "Cell Sites." There are no existing structures that are high enough for Cingular's to mount their antenna to meet the objectives so a new Telecommunications Facility must be built. Additional antenna may be located on the Tower by other companies in the future. Attachments: RF Design Justification Memorandum Maps/Coverage Plots Photo Simulations Design Drawings Cingular Wireless 7150 Standard Drive, Hanover, MD 21076 x cinguiar fits you best-°' RF Design Justification Memorandum For the Opequon Site The design objectives for the "Opequon Search Area" are to build a new in -fill telecommunication site and to add coverage and increase call capacity along Cedar Creek Grade Rd (RT 622) between the existing "on air" sites National Fruit and Stephens City in the Cingular Wireless network. Moreover, the proposed Opequon "cell site" will fill in the coverage holes and provide better signal in surrounding residential areas off of Cedar Creek Grade Road. It will also provide coverage to major commuter routes and areas where Cingular has received customer complaints for poor cell phone coverage. Coverage Plots have been generated to show the lack of coverage along Cedar Creek Grade Road and how the proposed Opequon site will provide the needcd coverage to the area. The coverage plots represent accurate coverage information of both the existing Cingular Wireless network and proposed new cell sites and how the additional coverage affects the network. Radio Frequency engineers use these tools along with "drive test" data to assess new cell site potential coverage to the network. The coverage from the existing Cingular Network is shown as the solid blue area on both sets of plots. This coverage is from the existing cell sites called National Fruit to the Northeast and Stephens City to the Southeast. The blue area represents sufficient signal strength for Cingular Wireless customers to use their phones. The areas of white on both plots are where there is insufficient signal to complete calls in the Cingular Network. The first plot without the coverage from the Opequon site shows the lack of coverage along Cedar Creek Grade Road beginning about 1/3 of a mile west of State Highway 37 and continuing to the west and south along Cedar Creek Grade Road for several miles. This area is shown all in white, again meaning no signal or coverage. The second coverage plot shows the additional coverage generated with Opequon site added to the Cingular network. The additional coverage is represented by the "boxed" shading that both covers a large section of the white area and overlaps and "fills in" coverage gaps in the existing network, the blue area as well. As shown in the coverage plots, the proposed Opequon site (the boxed in area) will provide continuous coverage along RT. 622 for several miles. Additionally, it will provide approximately a radius of more than three miles of new coverage sufficient to make calls from Cingulars customer's homes and communities. The Proposed site will offer good overlapping coverage to the existing neighboring sites, adding capacity and signal strength. This will help to enhance the performance of the existing network and provide successful call hand -over between the Stephens City, and National Fruit sites. Cingular Wireless 7150 Standard Drive • Hanover, MD 21076 Page 1 of 2 Cingular fits you best" To achieve the desired signal strength, coverage, and successful hand -over between the two existing cell sites, Cingular needs to have an antenna mounting height of 248 feet_ Cingular Wireless will require a structure of at least 250' to mount the antenna at the 248' level. The terrain and topology in this area have a big affect on the wireless signal and the distance that it travels. According to the RF engineer's analysis, a lower antenna height will reduce the coverage and will not provide the desired signal strength, overlapping, and successful hand -over to the neighboring sites. Furthermore, in rural areas such as this, it is very important to maintain similar footprint with neighboring sites. This prevents one cell site from causing interference to an adjacent cell site by having the signal travel to far across the existing coverage. Many of our existing cell sites in this area have an average height above ground in excess of 200'. For example the Stephen City site has antenna height of 210 feet, the Winchester site has an antenna mounting height of 259' and the proposed antenna mounting height of the proposed Opequon site is about 248'. Due to topology, ground elevation and distances to the existing adjacent cell sites, an antenna mounting height of 248 feet antenna height will be required and is proposed for the Opequon site. This site will provide a similar coverage area or "foot print" as its neighboring sites. Cingular Wireless has plans to expansion and to improve the performance and coverage of their network in Frederick County. Several new cell sites have already been added to the existing network by placement of antenna on existing towers to improve and provide additional coverage within the County. These sites include Middletown, Winchester 2, Lost Corner and Gainesboro, all of which are "collocations" on existing towers. These sites have either already been added to the network or are approved to be added in the near future. Collocation is always Cingular's first choice for adding a cell site to the network. However when there are no existing structures in the area where Cingular needs to locate a cell site, a new structure must be requested. The proposed Opequon site is one of those situations where no structure exists in the area that would provide the required coverage. Haroon Ajaz 6/16/04 RF Engineering Manager - Cingular Wireless Telephone: (410) 712 7815 Cingular Wireless 7150 Standard Drive • Hanover, MD 21076 Page 2 of 2 MM ., . .� .... ■ ... ■ r� S �• • ". �. ■ • w. ■� .mommommommounmas GO■ MM ., . .� .... ■ ... ■ Washington - Baltimore Cingular Wireless Current coverage without Proposed Opequon Site 1 /i4 r ■ .STEP14,ENS C 37 C� Proposed Opaquon - Cedar Creek Coverage GSM Current Coverage Aylor Rd . GSM On Air Sites ■ �m ■ Proposed Sites r ■ Property and Confidentail Cin q�ular Wireless and Authorized Clients C)nlyJ e�a m 0 Pa,;)Pr. St ve O ■ iiISjv"j Q J 1 �..•. r 7 l "� SEARCH RING CINGULAR WIRELESS-Baltimore/Washington DC Name: Opequon Design Site Information Fixed Asset # 1475 LONGITUDE: 78 15 40.7 - W GE 892 Region: North-East LATITUDE 39 9 9.24 - N RC 220 County Frederick State: VA AMSL Range Released Date 10/21/2003 SR Radius (Miles) 1.4 Min AMSL 1082 Max AMSL 1142 Obiective To build a new in -fill site in the Frederick County, VA area. This site will improve coverage and capacity along Rt 622 to Winchester City Prepared By: Reviewed By: ,C- G -P Fro�w o 30 N admAak. 0� Yx ve .H M UME— ,P.Q1.-n Rdp o zo.o nvm.. tm..wr. oxw oi000 cn Saajed Ali Haroon Ajaz Director RF Engineering Jim Jimreivat Date: Ill R/03 MEW LOING STH X c i n g u lar SZERKEL9 FROM CEDARCREEGRADE CLARK+Nt:xsc OVER MARKER-MILLER ORCHARD h"e�a.Js"I +f,...o;_ r t i;-+.�; ais��y'�rerr'.='14.Yi!a.lY:eK :�s'.'Xih..•� � .b. y.. `:w9 ...,. ... .4 ,-. - .. Illy u I CI I FROM DIRT ROAC MARKER. -MILLER OR, I X• 'Z'E L' VI EW MCEDA CREEK GR CLARK *NI,XSEN c i n g u! a r ZERKEL FROM CEDAR CREEK GRADE ! V OVER MARkEP-MILLER ORCHARD