pf09-032 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

4.O BACKGROUND 4.1 City of Roseville owns the property at 286 County Road C, which has a Comprehensive Plan designation of Park & Open Space (POS) and an identical zoning classification of Park & Open Space (POS). 4.2 This cotvD�1'coNAL 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. An initial request originally came before the Planning Commission in October 2009, but the timing of the request was such that the question of the exact height and location of the facility had not been finally resolved between the various City Departments prior to the public hearing. For this reason, the Planning Commission tabled the item, opting to continue the public hearing at a later date in order to make a recommendation once all of the outstanding issues have been resolved. S.O INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY COMMENTS 5.1 During staff discussions, Terrence Heiser, Director of Information Technology, 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 in addition to several within Roseville's boundaries. 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 whether such towers will appear and more about it•here they will be installed and how continuous the wireless network will be. 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 specitic 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, but the area around Acorn Park remains a critical void. 5.3 A 125-foot-tower in the proposed location within Acorn Park would satisfy Clearwire's minimum height requirements but, without the possibility of increasing the height of the pole, such height would most likely preclude other service providers from co-locating on the tower. And although none of the area's cellular providers indicated to Mr. Heiser an immediate interest in installing transmission equipment in Acorn Park, the current location was selected as a place in which additional providers' equipment could be installed in the future with minimal marginal impact on the aesthetics or functionality of the surrounding park. PF09-032 RPCA 010610 Page 2 of 6 i •