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Tom King - August262002.doc - _. _. - Page 3 <br />W <br />work for the County's interest and the citizens. Craig Benedict explained that the consultants would be <br />looking out for the interests of the ordinance. The consultant would look at the application material and <br />the technical aspects. The County could also have a consultant to market public sites in the County. <br />This would be a different type of consultant. <br />Commissioner Brown asked how many towers would be out of compliance after this ordinance, <br />particularly with the lighting. Craig Benedict said that there are about 50 towers in the County. The FAA <br />regulates lighting. Commissioner Brown asked about lights around the base of the tower and Craig <br />Benedict said that we could control that. This is not specifically addressed in this ordinance, but can be <br />added. Commissioner Brown asked about going back into existing sites to fix the lighting problem. <br />Craig Benedict said that he thinks the industry can work with the County with light pollution. This will be <br />added into the ordinance. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis asked about the six -month moratorium and if it included the towns and <br />Craig Benedict said no. Commissioner Halkiotis asked about the tower behind Lowes on US 70 and if <br />we could invite the towns to be a part of the process. This tower has no aesthetics. Craig Benedict said <br />that the towns could be brought into our Master Telecommunications Plan. Commissioner Halkiotis <br />wants us all to work together. <br />Commissioner Gordon asked about something not in the hearing but in the Master <br />Telecommunications Plan. Craig Benedict referred her to page 16 of the agenda. He said that they will <br />bring to the Board of County Commissioners and the Planning Board a Master Telecommunications Plan <br />(MTP) and if they adopt it, it will become a part of the ordinance. <br />Commissioner Gordon asked about how the public sites would be specified. Craig Benedict <br />said that there would be a public hearing on all of the sites that want to be a part of the MTP. <br />Commissioner Gordon asked about the process if someone volunteers a site. Craig Benedict said that <br />this process has not been developed yet. If the MTP is not adopted, then this ordinance is still better <br />than the existing one. <br />Commissioner Gordon suggested that there be criteria and guidelines for the MTP. <br />Chair Jacobs said that they would put the Master Telecommunications Plan on the September <br />3rd agenda because of the short time left in the moratorium. <br />Chair Jacobs suggested that the ordinance state that there will be a sign about the balloon <br />tests for residents near a tower. <br />Chair Barry Jacobs referred to news articles about Person County's towers. Person County <br />hired some consultants from Greensboro that reviews all tower applications for compliance. He pointed <br />out some differences on page 12, item c -5. Person County has wording where they want the applicant <br />to show that the site is the least visually intrusive. He asked if there was anything like this in our <br />ordinance. Craig Benedict said that there were inferences. This can be added to the ordinance in item <br />C-5. <br />Chair Jacobs also pointed out that Person County uses 110 % of the height for a fall zone <br />instead of 100%. He asked Craig Benedict to look into this because it seems to add a margin of <br />additional safety. <br />Chair Jacobs asked about the general thrust of the ordinance. He wants to make it is as easy <br />possible to have co- location and make it as difficult as possible to have taller towers. He wonders if we <br />have adequately accomplished this in the ordinance. Craig Benedict pointed out the major incentive for <br />co- location will be to allow a class B if the tower has four users. He thinks this ordinance is trying to <br />meet the balance between height and amount of users and trying to bring the towers down overall. <br />Chair Jacobs stated that we need to investigate the balance of these towers both with <br />telecommunication and the environment. He distributed an article on birds and telecommunication <br />towers from the Internet and asked that we invite a bird specialist from one of the universities to look at <br />the flight patterns in this'area so that we do not put towers in bird flyways. <br />. Commissioner Carey asked the Planning staff how we would respond to any public versus <br />private sites and the criteria that we would use so that biases will not come up between the County and <br />other entities. Craig Benedict said that they were discussing making voluntary ag districts a preferred <br />