Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Roll call, please. Mrs. Clancy, here. Mr. Wagner, here. Mrs. Shrepto, here. Mr. Basic, here. Mr. Dulyak here. Is there any old business? No, sir. All right. On to new business and uh PC25-8.

Thank you. Uh this application is at 29, excuse me, 2978 North River Road. Uh this property is on the south end of North River Road. This is the Summit County wastewater treatment property which is owned by the county. Uh the property is zoned R1 residential. This is a conditional use and site plan for under our code what is considered a public utility substation. Um but really it's for a new cell tower. Public utility substation is the only applicable use we have in our code for these. So, real quick on this on this site map, um just showing that the cell tower will be located at the north end of the property. Uh on the site plan, this would be a 60x60 leased area. It' be located 20 220 ft from the North River Road rightway. There is a small piece of property just to the west of it, which is 200 feet from that property line. And then this would be served through a 30-foot access and utility easement. Um mostly just for maintenance purposes connecting to North River Road. Uh this tower would be 173 ft in height. It' be a monopole style. Um, this would include an 8 foot chain link fence surrounding the base. And the supplemental regulations for this um number one stain that substation shall be only permitted when such is essential for distribution of service to the immediate neighborhood. Um, number two, site location should offer natural or man-made barriers to lessen any intrusion into residential areas. It's important that point out the word should which is a recommendation rather than a

requirement. Uh number three, storage material shall be within a completely enclosed building. Uh there's no outdoor storage materials as indicated. And number four, they have to be at least 100 ft from a dwelling or residential district. Um it is in a residential district. So that is um missing the word inconsistent with uh the code requirement, but it is 200 ft from the nearest residential property directly to the west. So that's all I have for this. Um I'd be happy to take any questions. Uh the applicant does have a presentation that they like to go over for you, but I'll be happy to take any questions. Thank you.

Okay. Anybody have any questions? So I just have one question on the uh uh storage facility. Um so we're not building any storage facility, any type of enclosed facility at all. Will there be nothing stored here on site period? Ever? Is that the plan? I guess

correct. And typically there aren't, you know, they'll have utility boxes and equipment at the base of the tower. Um there won't been wouldn't be any outdoor storage materials though. I also think I was reading something about I was looking for it again. I should have noted it about a backup generator um um which oftentimes is part of these facilities. Um do you remember recalling that in any of the notes in any of the discussion that was supplied to us? uh are you referring to a code requirement or

uh there was a discussion uh and I can't find it maybe it was from the engineering port about uh no backup generator uh typically that would be part of the site development um but was not included uh as part of this submission that would have likely been from a was that from the fire department comments I believe it was from the fire department. Yeah. Yeah. I I think they just indicated that there wasn't going to be a there wasn't a generator on the plan. It still met the fire code, though. Okay.

All right. Um, please, when you get up there, you have to turn it on and then state your name and address. Okay. Sean Gallagher. Can you hear me? All right. Yep. All right. Yep. Uh my address is 501 Grant Street, uh Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, uh 15219. Uh on behalf of Crown Castle, I have with me Yes. My name is Mike Herko. The address is 2000 Corporate Drive, Canisburg, Pennsylvania 15317. Okay. You both uh swear what you're about to say will be the truth. Yes, we do.

Very good. Go ahead. Um, and I I mean I think Zach did a good overview of um our plan. We do uh comply with the requirements in the the zoning code. Um we just wanted to go over give you an explanation of how typically the cell phone towers, you know, we go juris jurisdiction to jurisdiction. We are a uh provider of telecommunication services and we're subject to the federal telecommunications act. So what we need to do is provide service for the providers and make sure there's not a gap in service. And this tower is a replacement tower for it's I think uh an existing tower that's going away. So we need to find somewhere in what I'll call the Goldilock zone to replicate that coverage uh as best as possible. Um, and this was the only candidate that uh we were able to locate. Um, originally the tower was supposed to be 195t and that would have been ideal. Um, however, because of the FAA clearance, uh, the highest we could go is 173 feet and we can't go any lower. So, um, Zach, I just wanted to run through. You can skip a ahead, I think, to you already showed this. This is, you already showed this, too. I didn't realize that you were going to do this. So, what you're seeing right now, the dead center, and Mike, that is where the existing tower is, right?

Yes, correct. We're the number 876202 is where the existing tower is right now. Okay. And um if you could just explain to the board what I just referred to as the Goldilock zone. And

yeah, so typically when you're looking for a replacement site, you want it to get as close to the existing tower as possible. If there's any changes in ground elevation or tower height, that could also have an impact and may need to be compensated. And it's kind of even really different with a replacement site because all of the carriers already have coverage in that area and they kind of build their network fitting almost like a jigsaw puzzle. So, you know, it's ideal to get the site as close as possible to to have the best chance to replicate the signal that they currently have today so they don't lose any signal or have a degraded network. So, this one um while I you can go to the next.

Okay. How far is that site from the new site? This one is roughly 3/4 of a mile. Okay. And these are the estimated coverage plots that I can go through in a few minutes. Um, typically in my experience, um, 3/4 of a mile is a good distance to move away from a site. Um, a lot of times that wouldn't work. In this specific example, the proposed location has, and I don't know the exact numbers in my head, but a higher ground elevation than the existing. So, that is able to make it compensate for the move distance of 3/4 of a mile.

So, can you explain what um uh to the commission what we're looking at here on the left and right side? Yes.

Well, who Well, who first off, who are the carriers on the existing tower that we're trying to replicate? We there's currently AT&T, Dish, Network, and T-Mobile, and they're all providing wireless coverage. So, I've done slides for each of the three carriers, and they're all the similar format, but what you're looking at is estimated coverage plots. The plot on the left shows what, in this case, it's AT&T, what their network looks like currently today with the existing tower. uh chose the the bluish color that you're seeing as chose a threshold that would represent that the carriers would have a very or I'm sorry the customers would have a very high likelihood of having solid inbuilding coverage within those contours. The plot that you see on the right is what their network would go to if this tower were to go away and not be replaced. So there would be a significant loss of signal and potentially complete loss of network in the area that's being covered today.

You go to the next one. And then the next one is this shows again the plot on the left is exactly the same. It is estimated coverage of what their network looks today and the plot on the right is estimated coverage with this proposed candidate location. And you can see that it is, you know, further to the northwest, but with the ground elevation, it's covering a larger footprint at the higher ground elevation. So, it really does look like it would be a very suitable candidate to basically restore and replicate the covers that there already is today so that it wouldn't be lost in the area. Yeah. So, there would be a gap in service without this tower

there. Yes, there would be significant degradation up to and including complete loss of service in particular areas. Okay. And then the next two that we're going to look at would be similar. It's similar format. Again, this is just go ahead. Sorry. Impact of the site were to go away, what the new site would do to replicate that coverage. And then on the next two, it would be for uh T-Mobile. Same thing. big negative impact, but the new site makes up for that if uh yeah, as opposed to losing all the Is the other tower currently out of service or is it is coming down after this? It's not It's still in It's still in service.

It's Yeah, I believe it is currently still in service. Um I don't know. Unfortunately, I don't know the time frame, but once the replacement, if it were approved and built, that one would come down. But currently, it's still transmitting. What is the typical construction time? Six Six months. Okay. All right. And that's I mean that everything else we have is what Zach had already shown. So, we can happy to answer any questions anybody may have. Any questions?

So, why does the other tower need to be replaced? They uh lease has expired and the land owner typically that's what happened. They don't want to renew. So, we have to find somewhere else to go. So, this brings up the comment that I was looking for from the fire department. So there's no backup generator. So where how is this thing how is power fed to this? Just off the main line off the street. Is it is it a big power draw? That's a Yes. I mean it is fed from electrical. Yeah.

Um I I don't think this is like a a power draw you'd see from like a data center or anything like that, right? It's not that kind of like power. But does this does this would require backup generators for a top rated tower like this? Would that be part of the build? I'm surprised it's not part of it when it was called out by the fire department. If it wasn't included in the set, no because because if that came into play, would this site still work? Yes. For the noise and all the other things go along with backup generators or something like that. Absolutely. Okay.

Any other Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Anyone care to make a motion? I have a comment. Is there anybody any emails? I didn't receive any. Just some questions that we answered. Are you wanting to comment at all? Sorry, I I just want to get everything on record. If we if we can step up to the microphone, anybody ask question.

Thank you. And you're going to need to state your name and address, please. Uh Cynthia Goldsmith, 2849 North River Road. I'm going to be across the street, it looks like. And and will you swear that what you're about to say will be the truth? Yes. Thank you. It's just a question. That's That's it. That's fine. Um so there's no lights. How far away from the road? Because if something happens and this topples over, is it is it pretty far away from the

Yes, it is. But we've done a structural analysis. Um, it's more than 200 feet, but the the towers don't fall like timber. They clap. They're, trust me, they're not designed to fall at all. So, okay. They fall. They're designed to like collapse it on themselves. Okay. So, but it is if you if there was somebody who cut it like a timber, it would still fall short. Okay. Okay. Are you a cross river? Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Thank you. Any other questions? I'll make a motion to approve PC 2025-00008 um plans as submitted. Second. It's been moved and seconded to approve PC2-8. Any further questions? Roll call, please. Mrs. Clancy, yes. Mr. Wagner, yes. Mrs. Shrepto, yes. Mr. Basik, yes. Mr. Duliaak, yes. Motion carries.

Thank you. Thank you. Anything else? Uh we have our first reading on council for the zoning code update. Um still hoping to get that adopted by the end of the year effective in February. Uh so we had another reading at the November 6 meeting and then hopefully the last one December 4th. But we'll keep you guys updated. And city council overruled us on the sheets on on which one? on the uh Paul sign uh the monument sign for sheets with the pricing at the top. Yes. Okay.

Yeah, that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. What? Oh, yeah. The sign isn't in your yard. It's gone. It's not in your yard. It may be the the new sign. It's not there. The new sign should be starting construction this week and should be completed within 3 weeks. Great. And Taco Bell is under construction. Yes, it is. Yep. Amphitheater is not. We're getting there. Okay. Um, is there a motion for adjournment?

Second.