Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Legal Services Department

 

TO:

David L. Corliss, Interim City Manager

 

FROM:

Toni Ramirez Wheeler, Staff Attorney

 

CC:

Chris Stewart, Assistant Utilities Director

Mark Bradford, Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical Dept.

Sandra Day, Planner

Date:

May 4, 2006

 

RE:

T-Mobile’s Proposal to Construct 120-Foot Monopole on City’s Property on Harper Street

 

 

The Proposal

T Mobile proposes to construct and operate a 120-foot wireless communications facility on the City’s property near 2100 Harper Street.    T-Mobile offers to work with the City to design a facility that is in keeping with the City’s property and surrounding property.  Depending upon the structure design, T-Mobile advises that it could accommodate additional communications carriers.  T-Mobile proposes a lease agreement that provides for an initial five (5) year term with four (4) automatic 5-year term extensions.  This would result in a 25-year agreement.  T-Mobile offers to pay monthly rent of One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00) for the first 5 years.  Upon the anniversary of each five year term, T-Mobile proposes to increase the monthly rental rate to 15% of the previous term’s rental amount. T-Mobile Proposal

 

The Property

The property is zoned RS-2 (Single-Family Residence).  The surrounding zoning and land use include RS-2 (Single-Family Residence) District to the north, east and south; Douglas County Fairgrounds to the north and manufactured housing park to the east and south; RM-D (Duplex Residential) District and RM-1 (Multiple-Family Residence) District to the west, an existing residential development.

 

Currently, the property is occupied by Fire Station No. 2 and a City water tower.  The Lawrence Police Department has communications equipment installed on the water tower.   A proposal by Sprint PCS to install antennas on the water tower is pending.

 

Issues Identified by City Staff

City staff from the Utilities, Planning, Fire and Medical and Legal Services Departments met to discuss the T-Mobile proposal.  The departments all prefer that if T-Mobile installs communications equipment on the City’s property, it be mounted on the existing water tank.  This conforms to Chapter 20, Article 14B of the City Code.  Section 20—14B03 states:

 

10-14B03       Same, General Provisions.

(a) A proposal for a new communications tower shall not be approved unless the applicant can document that the telecommunications equipment planned for the proposed tower cannot be accommodated on an existing or approved tower or other structure due to one or more of the following reasons:

 

(1)   The planned equipment would exceed the structural capacity of existing or approved towers, considering existing and planned use of those towers, and existing and approved towers cannot be reinforced to accommodate the planned or equivalent equipment at a reasonable cost.

(2)   The planned equipment would cause frequency interference with other existing or planned equipment for these towers, and the interference cannot be prevented at a reasonable cost.

(3)   Existing or approved towers do not have space on which planned equipment can be placed so it can function effectively and reasonably in parity with other similar equipment in place or approved.

(4)   Other reasons that make it impracticable to place the equipment planned by the applicant on existing and approved towers.

 

Installing on the existing water tank also provides the City with maximum flexibility in its future use of the property.  The high elevation of the property makes it attractive to communications carriers.  The high elevation of the property is also important to the Utilities Department, especially for future storage capacity.  The Utilities Department staff provided the following information:

 

Locating a new tower on the site has the potential to interfere with the City’s ability to construct a future water tower on the Harper site and provide appropriate maintenance to the existing water tank. The latest Master Plan did not address the issue of construction of a new tank at this site.  However, previous reports provided an option for a new booster system in this area.  This may require available land to accommodate an elevated storage tank or a booster pumping station.  Thus, it is very important for the Utility Department to keep as much land available on this site to accommodate future needs. 

 

In addition, the requirement for additional storage capacity could change as growth occurs and demands increase.  We do not want to eliminate the most desirable locations (the higher elevations) that the City already owns.

 

The Utilities Department prefers T-Mobile communications equipment mounted on the existing water tank. If this cannot be done, then we may entertain the idea of placing a monopole to the eastern most side of the property if it does not interfere with a possible layout for future facilities.  As we discussed, this would most likely require a variance of the set back requirements. The site layout would need our review and approval prior to accepting to be reviewed and a lease agreement should include the requirement to terminate the lease and remove existing equipment if the City has a need to construct the public improvements at the site.

 

The Lawrence-Douglas County Fire and Medical Department also prefers that an alternative to construction of a monopole be considered.  Maintaining the appearance of the premises is important to the Department.  It recommends the agreement for any use of the premises provide for appropriate screening of the equipment at the base of the tower with a privacy fence of the same quality and appearance as the existing fencing on the premises and maintenance, (including replacement if it is damaged during construction of the communications facility) of the lawn irrigation system.  An access road to a new tower should be paid for by the lessee. 

 

The lease terms offered by T-Mobile are not favorable to the City.  In 2001, the City approved T-Mobile’s request to construct a monopole at the site of the Clinton Water Treatment Plant, located at 1900 Wakarusa Court.  The rent proposed by T-Mobile for the Harper Water Tower Property is the same as that agreed to by the City five years ago for the tower on Wakarusa Court.  Also, T-Mobile proposes to sublease space on the tower to other carriers, but does not offer to provide the City with a portion of the additional rents it will collect from the co-locators.  Additional carriers co-locating at this site, will mean more parties accessing the site.  Finally, a 25-year term is longer than the City now offers to carriers at other City properties.  The City prefers 15-year agreements.

 

Staff recommends that if T-Mobile pursues installation of equipment on the Harper water tower site, it be directed to pursue approval to install on the existing tower (subject to review and approval of plans by staff).  Staff recommends T-Mobile first secure the appropriate land use approval from the Planning Department to co-locate on the water tower.  If T-Mobile is authorized to pursue constructing a tower on the Harper water tower site, staff recommends that a more favorable location for the tower and more favorable lease terms be negotiated.   Staff also recommends design alternatives which camouflage the tower be explored.  If construction of a tower will be pursued, staff recommends that T-Mobile first obtain the appropriate land use approval.