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reasonable satisfaction of the City, that none of the City water towers can be feasibly used from an engineering standpoint. If the City water tower site is not feasible, the Code requires the applicant to consider the following locations in order of priority: 1. On existing towers or structures within any industrial, civic -center, or business district; 2. On new towers in any industrial civic -center, or business district; 3. Any existing towers or structures located within any residential district; then, 4. Any new towers or structures located within any residential district. The Zoning Code also includes co -location requirements. In the event that a new antenna support structure is demonstrated to be needed somewhere in the City, it must be built to allow for other future antennas. The purpose of this requirement is to limit the number of new towers or monopoles by grouping equipment in a particular location. The existing ordinance requires that all new antennas and towers require a conditional use permit, including adding antennas to existing towers and to the City water towers. As already noted, the Reiling and Arden Towers are considered legal non -conforming uses. Since these towers are legally non -conforming uses, it is not possible to add antennas to those towers, beyond what was permitted in the underlying CUPs, without a variance or a change to the Zoning Code. The City water towers do not have the same limitation. Antenna Review Process As stated above, the Zoning Code requires applicants to consider the City water tower sites and existing towers before any other location or before building a new tower. However, the Code also prohibits the addition of new antennas to the existing Reiling Tower because it is considered legally non -conforming under the code. This creates a contradiction in the Zoning Code because if the water tower sites were deemed infeasible from an engineering review, a potential applicant would not be able to consider the Reiling Tower due to its non -conforming status. This could result in a request for a new antenna tower, which the City is trying to avoid if possible. Despite the priority list for antenna location in the Zoning Code, the Code also does not really encourage the use of the water towers and existing towers. New service providers are required to come before the Planning Commission and City Council for a CUP in order to place antennas on existing communications towers and water towers, which adds time and expense. Since it is the same process for placing an antenna on existing structure or building a whole new antenna, there is less incentive to consider the water towers or existing antennas. To address this issue, it may be worth eliminating the CUP process for placing antennas on the existing water towers or freestanding towers. In place of the CUP, the applicant would be subject to an administrative review for existing water towers and freestanding towers. The administrative review for proposed antennas on the water towers or freestanding towers would require the following: • An independent structural engineering review to determine if the tower can accommodate the additional antennas; City of Arden Hills City Council Work Session for December 21, 2009 I IMetro-inet. us lardenhills 0anninglPlanning Cases12009109-023 Reiling Tower Zoning and CUP Amendment (Pending)112-21-09 - Work Session - Memo - Antennas and Towers. doc Page 5 of 6