Orange County NC Website
16 <br /> 551 North Carolina Legislature have established deadlines for approvals, and some of the deadlines <br /> 552 are so tight, that means that the staff has to approve things. The number of towers that require <br /> 553 special use permits has been reduced and now special use permits are only required for towers <br /> 554 215 feet or taller, and it looks like there won't be very many of those in the future because the <br /> 555 technology is going to smaller towers to accommodate increased bandwidth for the 5G networks. <br /> 556 There are incentives for disguised towers,for stealth towers,for monopoles in terms of the <br /> 557 procedures are somewhat streamlined if you ask for those. The procedures are somewhat <br /> 558 streamlined if you build a tower on publicly owned property. Some, some new uses were added, <br /> 559 particularly small cell wireless facilities which are a mandate from the General Assembly. A few <br /> 560 years ago, North Carolina adopted a model ordinance for 5G structures, and it was adopted in 19 <br /> 561 or 20 other states last time I looked, probably more now. The idea was that there would be a big <br /> 562 quick build-out of small 5G towers. That didn't happen. So,there is a provision in here which is <br /> 563 required by general statute that the staff will approve pretty quickly any small wireless cell <br /> 564 structure up to 50 feet tall located in a public right-of—way. This has made a lot of consternation in <br /> 565 places like Carrboro because they don't want to have their right-of-way full of 50-foot towers <br /> 566 necessarily. Luckily, the county doesn't own roads, so that's not the county's problem. That's <br /> 567 DOT's problem. In the general statutes, there's three pages of rules about siting small cell <br /> 568 wireless in counties and in cities, and cities own roads, counties don't. There's one paragraph for <br /> 569 DOT, and it says DOT will allow this. DOT will make some rules, make with happen. So that's in <br /> 570 here because it has to be in here, but I don't think it will have much of an effect on Orange County. <br /> 571 The aversion of the federal and state deadlines which are called shot clocks in the industry are in <br /> 572 a table in the ordinance. The ordinance includes the definitions from the general statutes almost <br /> 573 verbatim because those are terms of art. We could write new definitions that would just confuse <br /> 574 everybody,so the general statutes definitions are in here. We got in feedback from Liz Hill from <br /> 575 American Tower and made some changes that she suggested. We have feedback from the CTIA, <br /> 576 the Industry Association. You have their letter. You have our response. We made changes in <br /> 577 response to their comments, and I think that six amendments are made all together. We think we <br /> 578 have addressed that. I want to thank,since Liz is here, I want to thank her for her,for her input <br /> 579 and, again, I'm happy to answer any questions. <br /> 580 <br /> 581 Lydia Lavelle: I just want to say, this is an area of law that was new to me. I've had a crash course the last <br /> 582 9 months at the foot of the master here, and I do think that,when you look at the old ordinance <br /> 583 and the way it's been rewritten and streamlined,as one who has spent time looking at this over <br /> 584 the years, I think it's much more logical, it's not only equivalent now with North Carolina law and <br /> 585 federal law, but it's just a lot easier to follow in the way it's all laid out. <br /> 586 <br /> 587 Lamar Proctor: Okay, great. Does anyone have any questions? <br /> 588 <br /> 589 Beth Bronson: I was just wondering about the maintenance and inspection because you were saying that one of <br /> 590 the leftovers from the 1988, or in the 2011 UDO was that there would be an annual meeting to <br /> 591 decide what the needs were. Did you create any kind of ordinance that would keep or make <br /> 592 mandatory, any kind of periodic review that was maybe, say 5 years versus annually? <br /> 593 <br /> 594 Patrick Mallett: Let me preface that by saying I came to the County 12 some odd years ago. Prior to that, I was in <br /> 595 the private sector fresh out of grad school in the early'90s. My first job,the City of Burlington was <br /> 596 ripe,the first telecommunications ordinance I agree with Al and Lydia. What we have now is not <br /> 597 too dissimilar with what I spat out years ago. There are some distinctions that the balloon test <br /> 598 requirement which we were deleting,which is redundant and not necessary,this annual meeting <br /> 599 is redundant and not necessary. It's a classic example of having the idea to have a grand <br /> 600 convention. Not everybody has the time or the willingness to come, or the ability to come. And <br /> 601 technology is such that people can provide us real time input about the need. Whether it's people, <br /> 602 community leaders or industry folks. <br /> 603 <br /> 604 Beth Bronson: And so, in the last 12 years here, how many of those meetings ever occurred?That you were a <br /> 605 part of? <br />