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County attorney outlines clarifying amendments to cell-tower ordinance
Summary
At second reading, the county attorney described changes to Chapter 78 to clarify preferred-site criteria, expand industrial/commercial designations, and add a 5-mile setback rule with enumerated exceptions; the county plans to adopt the tower ordinance after the reading.
At the June 18 meeting, county attorney Willard reviewed edits to the county's Chapter 78 tower ordinance intended to remove ambiguities about preferred-site placement and exceptions. Willard told the commission the revisions add more properties to the industrial/commercial designation, clarify preferred-site definitions, and add a provision that generally prevents new towers from being located closer than five miles to existing towers unless technological need or structural capacity constraints justify an exception.
Willard described the changes as corrective language to prevent developers from using preferred-site language to avoid placement restrictions. "We just wanted to make it clear so we didn't have to keep having the same arguments for the same people," Willard said. The attorney indicated the cell-tower ordinance was at second reading and, following the reading, would be adopted. The county announced a public hearing will be held for related matters; staff encouraged residents to submit comments before the second reading adoption.
The discussion also signaled related code updates to ensure consistency with lot-size provisions for on-site sewage systems under chapters 18 and 44, which Willard introduced during the meeting.
