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4.0 BACKGROUND 4.1 City of Roseville owns the property at 2660 Civic Center Drive, which has a Comprehensive Plan designation of Institutional (IN) and a zoning classification of Park & Open Space (POS). 4.2 This COtvD�T�ONAL USE request has been prompted by the applicant's desire to erect the tower, convey it to the City, and lease space for their telecommunication equipment on and at the base of the tower, which makes the City a potential partner in the application in addition to being the landowner. For this reason, the comments of several departments and divisions of City staff have been included in this report. S.O INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY COMMENTS 5.1 Terrence Heiser, Director of Information Technology (IT), explained that Clearwire provides both fixed (i.e., home) Internet access as well as mobile access. Once their system is deployed in the metro area subscribers will be able to take their Internet connection with them if they have a notebook computer, and Twin Citians will have another option in addition to Qwest DSL or Comcast Cable Modem for Internet access. To accomplish this, Clearwire will need hundreds of sites throughout the metropolitan area. Current tower owners were contacted first and, to fill in the holes, Clearwire is exploring the development of new towers, making the question less about titi�hether such towers will appear and more about where they will be installed. 5.2 The current communication technology being used by Clearwire is being called Wi- Max"; a Wi-Max antenna can cover a radius of .3 to 1.2 miles. Given this coverage it is expected that there will be 7- 9 antenna sites in or around Roseville. Clearwire is specific about the elevation, keeping the antennas about 120' from the ground: in Roseville (and most suburban communities) this creates a challenge since there are very few 10-story buildings to attach antennas. So they need to find free-standing towers. Currently there are 5 free-standing towers in Roseville, three of which are owned by the City and the other two owned by AT&T. 5.3 Roseville has completed applications to co-locate Clearwire antennas on two of the City's exiting towers: Fairview (Fire Station #2) and Alta Vista (Reservoir Woods). An engineering analysis has indicated that the third tower — on City Hall Campus, next to the Public Works garage — is at its structural capacity and cannot accommodate the proposed equipment. Another tower on Campus, the former UHF/VHF transmitting/receiving tower adjacent to City Hall, is no longer active. This tower was also evaluated but, at only 80 feet in height, it does not meet Clearwire's needs. This is why a new tower is being proposed. A 120-foot-tower would satisfy Clearwire's minimum height requirements, but such height would most likely preclude other service providers from co-locating on the tower. The proposed tower height is 150 feet, identical to the other active communications tower on Campus. 5.4 Mr. Heiser strongly supports the proposed tower at City Hall Campus not only because he's routinely asked by residents about when city-wide wireless Internet service will be available, but also because it would be of significant value in the City's own operations. It would be used for backup wireless connections (pending funding for equipment) to the water booster station, water tower, and Dale Fire Station. The tower would also contribute to the plan to deploy wireless water meter reading that is currently being reviewed by the water department. The project requires a"reader point" on Campus to PF09-031 RPCA 110409 Page 2 of 5 • �