Wednesday, December 6, 2000
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Wednesday, December 6, 2000 |
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P&Z gets first tower variance request By DAVE
HAMRICK For the first time since new rules governing communications towers were enacted last year, Fayette County is being asked to grant an exception. BellSouth Mobility is asking for permission to put a 253-foot monopole tower on 150.08 acres owned by Paul and Betty Ann Bowlden on Harp Road. Regulations governing such towers have established a 180-foot maximum unless the tower is in a major highway corridor. The county Planning Commission will hear its request for a variance during its regular monthly meeting Thursday at 7 p.m. at the County Administrative Complex. The Planning Commission's recommendation will be considered by the County Commission during its Jan. 11 meeting, same time and place. When the tower ordinance was originally adopted in 1999, it allowed no exceptions, but after cell phone companies and tower builders complained that the ordinance was too restrictive, the Planning Commission recommended and the County Commission adopted amendments allowing variances. During tomorrow's meeting, the Planning Commission also will consider amendments to county regulations regarding soil erosion and sedimentation control, bringing county rules in line with recently tightened state regulations. Among proposed changes will be a minimum fine of $250 per day for each violation. Current law provides a maximum fine of $2,500 per day, but no minimum. New state regulations are incorporated into the proposed changes anywhere they are mor stringent than the county's regulations, but not where they would weaken it, civil engineer Dave Borkowski told the Planning Commission in a work session last week. "I didn't want our ordinance any laxer than it is," he said. "If it wasn't more restrictive than what our ordinance has, I just didn't include it here," he said. In another proposed change, county inspectors will no longer have to wait five days before imposing fines on violators. Planning commissioners also will consider a request from Bertha Morris to change the zoning category of her 34.8-acre tract from A-R, which requires a minimum of five acres for each home, to R-50, which allows homes on one-acre lots. Agent Randy Boyd proposes to build 23 homes on the property. Commissioners also will consider three preliminary plats for subdivisions, a total of 54 homes on 163.3 acres. The land in all three cases is already zoned. The Planning Commission can approve the preliminary plats without further review by the County Commission.
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