Planning commission approves amendment to PD 942 allowing 200-foot communications tower near Southaven neighborhood

The Dallas City Planning Commission on Aug. 21 approved an amendment to Planned Development (PD) 942 to allow a freestanding 200-foot communications tower and to make cellular equipment a primary permitted use on the site, an 81.85-acre parcel developed for an electrical substation owned by ENCORE.

The amendment was approved after staff recommended approval and after more than an hour of public comment in which residents of the adjacent Southaven neighborhood urged the commission to deny the request or require the tower be sited farther from homes and the neighborhood’s children’s park.

City staff planner Miss Garza described the request in the briefing as an amendment to PD 942 to allow a new radio, television or microwave tower and “a tower antenna for cellular communication towers.” Garza said the PD currently allows 150-foot structures and that the proposal would permit a 200-foot monopole to replace equipment now attached to a water tower.

At the hearing, city attorney Laura Morrison told the commission it must confine its review to land use. “The Telecommunications Act of 1996 prohibits government subdivisions from taking into account…