Council narrows UDO change for communication-tower setbacks after Duke Energy technical briefing

Florence City Council voted to amend the Unified Development Ordinance to replace a strict foot-for-foot setback from residential lot lines for communication towers with an engineered, site-specific fall-zone setback certified by a professional engineer. The council limited the change to public utility providers.

Sarah Spruill, an attorney representing Duke Energy, said the change was prompted by modern tower design and the need to replace aging towers that predate current zoning. "Under modern engineering, the way towers are designed now, if you put up a new tower, they don't — they would never just fall straight over," Spruill told council and introduced technical staff who explained the engineering basis for site-specific setbacks.

Duke Energy engineers described design practices that place likely points of structural failure in locations that cause a tower to fold inward rather than topple end-for-end. The engineers said the particular replacement tower under discussion is roughly 300 feet tall, is considered a utility-grade asset with roughly a 50-year design life, and that final tower setbacks would be calculated for each site and certified by a licensed professional engineer.

Council members asked whether the change would enable non-utility tower installations; staff and the city's attorney clarified that the text amendment would be narrowly written and that any tower application would still proceed through the special-exception review process before the zoning board.

Council voted in open session to approve the ordinance amendment after limiting its scope to public utility providers and preserving engineer certification and special-exception oversight.