SALT LAKE CITY PLANNING COMMISSION
451 South State Street, Room 126
Present from the Planning Commission were Ralph Becker, Jim McRea, Kimball Young, Diana Kirk, Judi Short, Gilbert Iker and Aria Funk. Rick Howa and Ann Roberts were excused.
Present from the Planning Staff Were Deputy Planning Director Brent B. Wilde, Doug Dansie and Ray McCandless. Planning Director William T. Wright was excused.
A roll is being kept with the minutes of all who attended the Planning Commission meeting. The meeting was called to order at 5:00 p.m. by Mr. Becker in Mr. Howa' s absence. Minutes of the meeting are presented in agenda order, not necessarily as cases were heard at the Planning Commission meeting. Tapes of the meeting will be retained in the Planning Office for a period of one year after which they will be erased.
Mr. Becker served as Chair in Mr. Howa's absence.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Mr. Young moved to approve the minutes of October 5, 1995 as presented. Ms. Kirk seconded the motion. Ms. Funk, Ms. Short, Mr. Young, Ms. Kirk, Mr. McRea and Mr. Iker voted "Aye." Mr. Howa and Ms. Roberts were not present. Mr. Becker as Chair, did not vote. The motion passed.
Subcommittee report on communication tower issues
Mr. John Bristol, representing Western Personal Communication Services and Mr. Fred Brown, representing JM Consulting, were present for this portion of the Planning Commission and participated in the discussion on this matter.
Mr. McRea, Chair of the Communication Towers Subcommittee, led the discussion on this matter and stated that commercial wireless communications would be a more accurate way to describe this issue than communication tower issues. Mr. McRea stated that representatives from AT&T Wireless Services, Western Personal Communication Services, US West, the Planning Staff and the Planning Commission had met and developed a work program and agenda of items that needed to be discussed through the subcommittee process. He informed the Planning Commission that the mission of the subcommittee was to be able to arrive at a regulation that would balance industry needs with the City's planning goals to maintain integrity of our master plan policies and urban design.
Mr. McRea stated that the subcommittee had reviewed height issues, zoning classifications, industry needs and technical issues, and the need to separate the foothill communication tower issues from commercial wireless communication issues. Mr. McRea stated that their key recommendation at this point was there were some uses that should be permitted during the time that the subcommittee took to address a permanent ordinance, such as antennas mounted on buildings, and that structures such as large antennas and towers that require a conditional use approval process should not be approved during the interim period. He stated that their second recommendation would be to have any types of towers, some of which would probably need to be 60-80 feet in height in order to meet industry needs, go through the conditional use approval process before the Planning Commission.
Mr. Wilde stated that the current ordinance would allow any tower in a nonresidential zone as long as the structure met the building height requirements of the zoning district. Mr. Wilde explained that this would allow a five foot tower on a thirty foot building if the building height for the zone were 35 feet, or a 35 foot high stand-alone tower in that same zone. He added that if the Planning Commission was not comfortable allowing stand-alone towers during the subcommittee time frame the staff could proceed with permitting wall and roof mounts only.
A lengthy discussion followed on wall and roof mount towers versus stand-alone towers, design issues, line-of-site requirements to ensure quality transmissions, interference issues relative to height issues, permitted uses versus conditional uses, licensing costs relative to timing issues, anticipated growth of the industry over the next three years, a need for standards and evaluation criteria to apply to all applications, and a request to see the anticipated sites of towers mapped out citywide, particularly in residential areas, in order to facilitate the Planning Commission in their consideration of this matter.
Mr. McRea stated that they wanted to get several community council chairpersons involved in the next subcommittee meeting in order to get their input on this matter.
It was agreed the Planning Commission was not comfortable allowing the approval of stand-alone towers during the subcommittee process but that wall and roof mounts could be allowed as permitted uses as long as they did not exceed the height limitations of the applicable zoning district. It was agreed that this matter would be further evaluated following the next subcommittee report.
Briefing on Chapter 23 of the Zoning Ordinance. Sign Regulations
Mr. Brent Wilde and Mr. Doug Dansie led the discussion on the sign ordinance briefing and handed out copies of policy issues, Intermountain Sign Association's comments to the proposed ordinance and a response to those comments. Copies of those documents are filed with the minutes.
Mr. Wilde outlined each of the policy issues. Mr. Wilde stated that the staff had worked with the sign industry on the ordinance and had held a public briefing meeting on this matter. Mr. Wilde stated that there had not been a lot of interest or concern expressed by the community on this matter even though the opportunity for issues to be addressed and questions answered had been provided by the staff. He added that the Historical Landmark Commission had been briefed on the sign ordinance the previous evening.
Mr. Dansie gave a slide presentation demonstrating the various types of signs as defined in the ordinance.
Mr. Wilde stated that the staff would prepare a staff report responding to each of the items on the policy issues list for the hearing on this matter and added that the hearing was scheduled for their November 2, 1995 meeting. Update on status of major planning projects and master plans
This item was postponed until a future Planning Commission meeting.
OTHER BUSINESS
Planning Commission Elections
Mr. Young moved to elect Ralph Becker as Chairperson and Diana Kirk as Vice Chairperson of the Planning Commission for the next year. Mr. McRea seconded the motion. Ms. Funk, Ms. Short, Mr. Young, Ms. Kirk, Mr. Becker, Mr. McRea and Mr. Iker voted “Aye." Mr. Howa and Ms. Roberts were not present. The motion passed.
There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 7:45 p.m.