Ordinance No. 20072 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council adopted the current ordinances. Currently, wireless communications facilities such as towers, antennas, etc.} can be permitted only through the conditional use permit process, which can authorize uses not otherwise permitted such as uses resulting from new technologies and therefore not contemplated at the time the code was adopted}. Section 9.492 of the Eugene Cade ~"EC "} provides that uses not otherwise authorized by the Eugene Code, or for which there is ambiguity concerning the appropriate procedure, may be permitted only through the conditional use permit process. Wireless communications facilities such as towers and antennas fall within this category. Testimony by telecommunications providers asserted that the City's requirement that providers obtain a conditional use permit SCUP} fully protects the City, thereby obviating any need for the moratorium. The providers supported their assertion by acknowledging that through the CUP process, the City can require co-location and the use of tower designs and technology which makes co-location possible. At present, the criteria contained in EC 9.702~a} related to compatibility and minimization of impact will a11ow consideration of some of the issues related to siting, design, height and ca-location. It will a11ow the City to require co-location where technologically possible. However, the conditional use permit process SEC 9.69 - 9.722} could not possibly enable the City to fu11y protect against the proliferation of wireless communications facilities at this time. Absent the City-wide siting analysis covering the various forms of wireless communications providers including cellular, PCS, SMR and paging services}, it will not be possible to determine whether a proposed site is the best site in terms of serving other providers as well. In addition, absent a study of the various technologies related to tower construction, it will not be possible to evaluate in a comprehensive manner whether the proposed design is the one best able to accommodate the maximum number of wireless communications providers. 4rily with the gathering of additional information, and possibly a change in the zoning code, can the City ensure that all providers are able to construct the facilities they seek in locations and on towers that minimize the number and impact of those facilities on the public. At least one provider has suggested that the City Council is adopting a moratorium in order to require providers to locate on City-owned sites. Any such suggestion is false. Neither the Council nor the CCT has made any decisions, or even had any discussion, about limiting tower locations to City-owned sites. 14. The moratorium is sufficiently limited to ensure that a needed supply of affected housing types and the supply of commercial and industrial facilities within or in proximity to the City are not unreasonably restricted by the adoption of the moratorium. Indeed, the moratorium is limited to permitting and construction of towers and antennas for wireless telecommunications. The moratorium does not affect in any manner the supply of housing types, or the supply of other commercial or industrial facilities, one provider testified that PCS wireless communications facilities are "needed commercial" facilities that must be allowed to be constructed, since there are no such facilities today. There are, however, cellular facilities already located within, and in proximity to, the City. There is no evidence of an immediate need for PCS services. A 120-day delay in the construction of towers or antennas to provide their new technology will not unreasonably restrict commercial facilities. The City cannot, consistent with the Telecommunications Act, exempt from the moratorium towers far one PCS provider, without also exempting towers for other similarly situated telecommunications providers; to do so would violate the non-discrimination requirement of that Act. 15. There are no satisfactory alternative methods of achieving the objectives of the _5_