Planning commission approves Verizon monopine with cleanup condition, tighter road-assessment requirements

The Mendocino County Planning Commission on Thursday approved a use permit allowing Cellco Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless, to construct a 65-foot tall “monopine” cellular antenna tower, with conditions that require the property owner to remedy existing code violations before issuance of a building permit and to document and repair any damage to the private access, Timberline Road.

Commission staff said all required findings for the permit had been made and recommended adoption of a negative declaration under CEQA. Planner Keith Groenendijk told commissioners the project calls for a 65-foot monopine with four antenna sectors and three antennas per sector, and that staff had posted a red-line version of the resolution and conditions of approval to the county website before the hearing.

The commission added several substantive conditions during the meeting. Commissioners approved a revision to technical setback language on antenna projection that allows the antenna array to extend up to 36 inches from the supporting structure, replacing an earlier 30-inch limit. The commission also added a condition requiring the applicant to provide a pre-construction assessment of Timberline Road — including photos, video and a narrative — and to repair any construction-related damage and submit a post-construction assessment within two weeks of completing repairs.

The commission debated whether it could require cleanup of portions of the broader parcel not under lease to the wireless provider. Deputy County Counsel Matthew Kudrowski advised the commission that the county’s nexus and proportionality standards limit conditions to the leased area because the applicant does not control the rest of the property. Several commissioners voiced concerns about visible refuse, substandard structures and abandoned vehicles shown in the applicant’s site photos and asked whether the commission should refer the matter to the county’s code enforcement division.

After discussion, the planning commission adopted the resolution and conditions, adding a special condition that “prior to issuance of the building permit, existing code violations on the property will be remediated.” The motion passed 4–1, with Chair Babbini recorded as the lone dissenting vote. The resolution also includes the new road-assessment condition and the change to allow 36 inches of antenna projection.

Applicant Matthew Moore, the authorized agent for Verizon Wireless, said the site would comply with FCC and ANSI standards and that the generator fuel tank would be triple-walled and monitored off-site. “If anything goes wrong at any point, there’s any leak, anything starts to overheat, they’re alerted, they can shut the site down remotely, send technicians out immediately,” Moore said. He added that Mendocino County Fire would conduct a full review during the building-permit process.

Commissioners and staff also noted procedural limits: code enforcement is complaint-driven and, as a separate process, could be asked to investigate the remainder of the parcel. Staff advised that the planning commission could condition the lease area but would need to refer broader parcel concerns to code enforcement for separate action.

The permit was continued from the June 5 meeting and was considered at the same public hearing where staff and the applicant presented photo simulations, site plans and a recommended resolution. No members of the public spoke on the item during the hearing.

Details added by the commission — including the Timberline Road pre- and post-construction assessments, the antenna-projection change to 36 inches, and the remediation requirement for existing code violations — will be recorded as conditions of approval attached to the use permit.