Conditional Use (Regular) - Southern One LLC/Coral Towers LLC/Verizon Wireless - 185 Foot Above-Ground-Level Monopole Wireless Communications Facility in an A-R Agricultural-Residential District - North Central Pasco County - On the North Side of St. Joe Road, Approximately One-Half Mile West of Roberts Barn Road File Number PDE25-CU02

1:13:48Uh P seventy eight.

1:13:51With the publication, Tampa Bay Times, October 27, 2024, and by affidavit of certified mailings and site postings, we do have a speaker signed up for this item.

1:14:01Liebe Divine, Planning Development and Economic Growth Department. Just some housekeeping before I begin for P78. There is a typo in the memo. It's in the background summary section. It currently reads Petition Number CU 25-01, AKA CU 24-15. It should read petition number CU 25-02, AKA CU 24-15. Mm.

1:14:28So again, item P seventy eight. And I'll just wait for the PowerPoint. It is PDE25-CU um zero two. Um it is a conditional use.

1:14:43Conditional use request for 185 foot above ground level monopole wireless communication facility in AR Agricultural Residential District. It's in the name of Southern One LLC Coral Towers LLC Verizon Wireless.

1:15:07Um The applicant proposed originally a hundred and eighty-five foot above ground tower, which includes a a five-foot lightning rod. The site would be suitable for co-location of three additional carriers proposed for the location. It's on the north side of St. Joe Road, approximately one half mile west of Roberts Barn Road.

1:15:29At the June 6, 2024 Planning Commission meeting, PC requested the applicant slash owner to consider an alternative location on the subject property, explore alternative locations on the surrounding properties, provide site selection information, and have both the site selection expert and radio frequency engineer available at the next Planning Commission meeting on July 19th. The owner slash applicant modified the compound location, moving the fence compound area approximately two hundred and

1:15:59fifty-five feet north of their original location and approximately two hundred and thirty feet east onto the adjacent parcel, which is under the same ownership. Um, with the proposed placement at the approximate three hundred and ninety foot from the front property line. Um Prior site plan proposal was for 140 feet from the property line and approximately 230 feet east of the original location. The applicant did r um revise and modify their application

1:16:29from an 185 foot tower to 195 foot tower, so 190 feet of communication tower and then five feet for the lightning rod. This was due to the lower grade elevation with the new proposed site.

1:16:45It's located in the north-central Pasco County. It's on the north side of St. Joe Road, approximately half a mile west of Roberts Barr Road. The surrounding zoning is all AR. A R. The surrounding future land use is Res1.

1:17:04Access to the overall site is from St. Joe Road. The facility's compound will be accessed through a proposed 30-foot-wide access utility easement.

1:17:18Yeah. This was the original proposed site plan for the location, which was closer to Saint Joe Road. With the a hundred and eighty five foot tower. And this is the new proposed location.

1:17:30Yeah.

1:17:37And the proposed tower.

1:17:40The applicant did provide for fo photo simulations. Here are the subject sites. The first photosimulation is looking west southwest at the intersection of Reffing Road and Roberts Barn Road. Um to the right is to the top right, um position one would be the existing and then proposed.

1:18:04Position two is looking southwest from Roughing's Road and just north of St. Choe Road. Again, same thing. Position two on the top right with the existing and then per below it is the proposed.

1:18:19Position three is looking northwest on Saint Joe Road. With the existing proposed.

1:18:28In the last position, position four is looking southeast on Swift Road. Again, top right is the existing. Below is the proposed. And this is coming with recommendation for approval with conditions.

1:18:46Okay. I assume you saw it.

1:18:48We do.

1:18:49Okay.

1:18:50Sean Terry.

1:18:56Yeah.

1:18:57Yeah.

1:19:01May have the applicant first and then we'll we'll take the person signed up. Okay.

1:19:12Good afternoon. I'm Matt China John, 935 Main Street, Suite C4, Safety Harbor, Florida, 34695. I apologize if I sound rushed today. I know you have a full agenda. Um so I will try to move as quickly as possible and not duplicate the items that staff showed you. Uh If I'm And you have them sworn. I have been sworn. Have David Smith with Verizon Wireless available to testify. Should you have any questions as to

1:19:43Verizon's RF need? I also have James McNichol who oversaw the or who headed up the team that handled site acquisition and he's available to answer any questions on the site acquisition agents uh challenges that in bringing this. Finally, I do have David Tolby, a certified property appraiser available, and they have all uh taken an oath. Alright, and all maps I show you today up will be north unless I state otherwise.

1:20:15So just working through our base project information, um, you can see a map from the property appraisers website. You can see a line that's sneaking through the pro through the map from west to east. And that's Saint Joe Road. And I have applied an orange uh arrow to the property. That was the original location of the Monopol Tower as it was brought to your planning commission back in June. You'll also notice a north wet a north south um line running through Commissioner

1:20:45Starkey. That's the old Orangebelt Railway, but that does not coalign with the current proposed alignment of the trail.

1:20:52Sadly. Sadly.

1:20:56This is just a closer aerial. And again you can see St. Joe Road running east and west. You can see Roberts Vault Road on the eastern side of the pro or off to the east of the property. And you can also see on the parent parcel an arrow pointing to an to a um pasture. That is the proposed location as it is now. Previously it had been proposed further to the south and the west in this old remnant of an orange grove. Uh, that

1:21:26was significant to your neighbors to the west and also to your planning commission because on these wooded parcels to the west I do have some single family homes.

1:21:37And you can see the properties along St. Joe Road. Uh one thing that you will notice is that the residential uses in the area have tree coverage intervening between them and the the parent parcel. And the orange arrow points to the location of the monopole. This is just your zoning and feature land use map. I won't waste time on it. This is an example photo of a monopulsile communication tower. You've probably heard me say this Um more times than you care to recount, but a monopole is a type of communication tower with a single support

1:22:08pole with no guy wires or ironworks extending out from it. It does have external antennas up top so there's adequate space and airflow necessary to operate the antennas and the radios.

1:22:21This is the original Sheet C one that was brought before your Planning Commission in June. You can see the location of the monopole in that lower southwest corner of the ranch property.

1:22:35At that time, the nearest residential structure was 1.2 times tower height to the west-southwest of the proposed monopole. Your Planning Commission asked us to go back, relook at some of our site acquisition, and also look to see if this project could be modified to provide additional spacing from residential units and from St. Joe Road. We're pleased to be able to say that we were able to do that. At this time, the nearest residential structure is 2.8 times tower height to the west, so

1:23:05we've more than doubled it. Of course you have the intervening uh trees in between. And it's moved to over four hundred feet north of uh the Saint Joe Road corridor. This is the original site plan sheet that was provided, and then this is the new sheet C2 that is in the record. Again, that's just for context to show the move.

1:23:30Verizon will be the anchor tenant. They will be located with in the equipment compound. This is sheet C3 of the plans on file. The red arrow just shows Verizon's equipment pad. And then you have three green arrows just to show that the monopole is designed to co-locate up to four users. Your code encourages this so as to minimize the need for additional towers in the area. So the idea is that Verizon comes along, they need this tower, this tower gets approved. But once, let's say AT ⁇ T comes along, they

1:24:00are your code encourages them to co-locate on existing towers. And then this is the elevation sheet. Verizon will be located at the top. On the left hand side is the original monopla as proposed. On the right hand side, um is the monopole as it's seeing as it's proposed now. It is ten feet taller but 15 feet downgrade for a net five feet shorter. Essentially Verizon's trying to keep their antenna height the same above ground to keep their coverage area. It's no different than if

1:24:30I took these lights over your head and brought them down closer to the floor. They would cover a smaller area of the floor. It will have the code required um opaque um fence at the base. I'm going to skip over the photo simulations. Those were just presented to you, but I am available to answer any questions that you may have on them. We did also provide line of sight analyses for these properties to the west, since I can't get onto private property and take photos. And the first one is

1:25:00to my south-southwest. And a line of sight analysis is basically just applying I want to say trigonometry, but it's probably just basic geometry to um to the view shed so they know the loc they have the average height of the trees in the area and the topography and then also the average height of a person they can plot the view sh the um view field and I've highlighted that in blue. You can see the view field is generally blocked by the tree lines.

1:25:31And then also off to my northwest, same story.

1:25:40This as I stated, this is for Verizon Wireless.

1:25:44You can see a map showing Verizon's existing towers in the area. The blue dots are existing sites. So you can see I-75 off to the west. You can see Dade Road off to the east. Landon is just out of screen off to the north. And the yellow dot with the orange arrow applied is the proposed St. Joe site. You can see the existing towers. There's also a yellow dot at the very far north. That's the Verizon's proposed Blanton site that was approved earlier this year. And basically

1:26:15what Verizon is trying to do Um is provide coverage along Saint Joe Road with this property. Um and also soak up traffic from Lake Jovita to the south. And that has the benefit of making Well first putting in the coverage in is just like when you added Ridge Road. As areas developed up, you had to add the road to hold the traffic. But then as the area developed, so when I was young I used to Uh I remember State Road fifty four was a two lane

1:26:45road. You had to add lanes. Capacity uh does the same thing on our front. And so approving this tower makes the additional towers to the south or to the west and the south function better because it frees up lanes for them.

1:27:04All right.

1:27:09This monopole will have a dull gray finish and be completely dark at night. Um as I stated, I do have my side acquisition agent available, though that those granular questions were more dealt by your planning commission. Um and I would respectfully remind you that communication towers are an essential service. It's part of our um everyday life. Um Matter of fact, in Hillsborough County over eighty actually in Pasco County in two thousand

1:27:4121, 83.9% of all 911 calls received by your 911 center came via wireless numbers. And that's before I go into economic and educational impacts from the Internet of Things and how we are continuing to connect to the network. That concludes my presentation and I'm available for any questions that you may have. Thank you. Any questions?

1:28:02Nope.

1:28:03Okay.

1:28:06Yeah.

1:28:09John Terry.

1:28:10John Perry.

1:28:11John Terry.

1:28:11Yes, sir. Name and address for

1:28:15record. Yeah, my name's John Terry. It's uh [address removed]. And I just happen to

1:28:24And you've been and you've been sworn. You've been sworn.

1:28:29You need to say that for the record. That's um

1:28:34I'm not a public speaker, so bear with me. But you know, I d I I bought this land twenty years ago and I would expect You know, it's an AR residential and yeah, kind of hope the government would you know, keep it that way. But I understand, you know, growth but I just I'm opposed to the to the s cell tower for just, you know, personal reasons, you know, health reasons. Nobody really knows about

1:29:05that. But just the aesthetics of it all. And it just appears that I mean just recently in the last ten years in this county it's I mean the uh it You know, the unbridled growth it's uh It's just I think it's detrimental 'cause that one lady was talking earlier it says Pasco is known for its quality of life. Maybe not so much now. Hello. But you know, the the thing busts all kinds of it it's it's not Be

1:29:35the most. Consistent with the The neighborhood. You know, this cell tower and then it's it's three times as tall as the is the supposed, you know, height restrictions. So At the end of the day I I just You know, I know it's I'm just gonna be a little bit more than a little not gonna get anywhere with this, but I just d wanna you to know I'm opposed to it. I'm sure that there's some other place they could put it. I mean hell they were trying to put another one down a mile

1:30:05down the street, so Well. That's all I got.

1:30:10Okay. Thank you for your comments.

1:30:15Does anyone in the audio else in the audience wish to speak to this item?

1:30:21So you know what?

1:30:22You know, um

1:30:27I helped write that cell town ordinance and I guess and I d I'm just dismayed at how high they have to go now. But I guess if we don't have them h as high then we have to have a lot more of them lower. So it's It's an unfortunate situation that we all use our cell phones. And um most of the new homes don't even have landlines anymore. So, uh

1:30:54Yeah, we depend a lot on Wi-Fi now.

1:30:57I know where I where um my house is in Aristida nestled into the woods there. Many of y'all have called me. I I have to walk outside half the time to uh be able to make a phone call. And we've kept our landline even though we don't answer it. I I don't The same messages have been on there for the last three years. I've never even listening listened to the messages that are on there. But I I have to keep it for nine one one purposes. Because if my cell phone isn't gonna work, how am I gonna

1:31:28make a phone call? if we have an emergency. So it's really frustrating that I don't have better cell service and have to waste all that money for for an emergency. Um I understand the uh No one no one would choose to have one, you know, right next to their home I think, just for especially for the aesthetics. We're not allowed to even discuss what health risks there might may be. That's that's taken away from us. But um Uh

1:32:00so it's it's just a fact that we we need to have these as as part of our infrastructure. Um did you sorry, did you mention if you were landscaping around it? And that and

1:32:12Mm-hmm. This is Matt and I John and yes this will have the code's required landscaping buffer.

1:32:18But uh is is that uh gonna be around the fence around the site or is there anything on the road looks like there's n looks like there's uh that's an improved pasture and there's no landscaping where you're putting it now, is that correct?

1:32:30It is on an improved pasture, yes. Um the landscaping is proposed around the base of the monopole um at the fence line.

1:32:40The thing that I find that helps these and you know, this is not a requirement but maybe the landowner will think about it is if you have Landscaping along the front of the road. you put in a few oak trees or whatever. Then when you're driving along, at least that You know, that can soften your view of seeing that tower from far away. So that's That's a suggestion I would have to keep help keep the r the the um site a little bit um camouflaged but other

1:33:10than that I'm gonna be for approval.

1:33:13Chair? Yeah, so yeah question. Matt Matt is this is this another location that was running parallel with the Hell Road location? So like if this go I mean so this is we all looking at two different sites this was following through Planning Commission. So this if this were approved that would make up For that other site.

1:33:35Commissioner Weightman. Um Mattaniah John again. And while this will not replace the other site that was planned, the site I believe was called Vista Walk. Um that was planned as the eastern handoff as they are trying to pick up more traffic than you can imagine there from the Vista Walk community primarily. Um it's even more critical now that Vista Walk is not happening. So Um

1:34:05they weren't meant, they weren't applied through some form of gamesmanship. Well if we get one we'll you know go with the other. They were planned as part of Verizon's overall commitment to improving its network in eastern Pasco County, like you see with the Blanton site up to the north. but it's even more important now that Fista Walk has gone away. Did I give you a five dollar answer to a one dollar question? I apologize. Okay.

1:34:36Yeah,

1:34:36one more question. Completely.

1:34:40So Liam Devine, Planning Development and Economic Growth Department. Um I believe you were referring to the tower that's on Saint Joe and Mount Zion Road. That item was withdrawn from consideration. That was P sixty-five. So so that one's not even can under consideration anymore. That applicate application is Withdrawn and

1:34:59So this'll this will this so though and then the customer there he's asking what kind of sound does this do these cell towers Radiate.

1:35:09I can answer that. Matt China and Charlene again. And um the only sound that a communication tower makes is from its emergency backup generators. So the idea because these are part of the E911 system, they have to be able to operate when the power goes out when we have something like a storm event. Th those generators are tested once a month at most, and they are compliant with your

1:35:39noise ordinance. So usually they're enclosed in soundproofing, and they're rated for 65 decibels, usually at the compound fence. For um reference, 65 decibels is akin to a conversation. Thank you.

1:35:56Okay. If you have rebuttal, you might as well do it now while you're at the podium. Absolutely. Uh

1:36:03so Um I would respectfully um I would respectfully submit that mere opposition to growth in the state of Florida is not sub Uh competent substantial evidence, the case that goes back to that, and I apologize I don't have that citation memorized, is called a PUPCA. Um I will take and place a copy of the Telecom Act of 1996 codified in 47 USC section 332 into the record, just for my malpractice purposes, that

1:36:33states what the DIS has acknowledged, that communication towers cannot be regulated on the basis of RF emissions. Um Must be received and file. Um thank you. Second.

1:36:50Got a motion to say mayor five. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion passed 5-0.

1:37:04One last thought if I may. Uh, just because of the remark about how you know, some peop you know, how you have to keep a hard line Um in your house, Commissioner Starkey, for 901 purposes. I had an RF engineer down in Collier County remark about that because we had people sending coming up saying, Well if I go in my If I go outside in my front yard I'm just fine. And the RF engineer is thinking, well, what if you hurt yourself in your house and you can't c drag yourself

1:37:34outside? What are you gonna do? So um having reliable service where we use it is important. That concludes my presentation. I would respectfully request that you grant approval of this. Thank you.

1:37:50Right.

1:37:53Report.

1:37:56What if I deal with this?

1:38:01Just that's what the sticky note says.

1:38:03There you go.

1:38:10Is it to us? Is it to us? Okay, um move approval.

1:38:14Okay.

1:38:15I got a motion. Well second. It's um I typically sport cell towers are uh unfortunate part of the way we communicate in today's world and um there's really not a way around them. Maybe in a couple of decades we can get rid of cell towers and we use them a different way, but I'll stay consistent and second the motion.

1:38:37And under discussion, we do have a provision in our code that if the tower is not being used they have to lower it. 'Cause there was a time when those we call they're called P W S Fs, right? Um were lower. And um now all of a sudden they've gone back higher, but there was a time when they were lower and we could we could have had people take off the top twenty or thirty feet, but

1:39:04All right, I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion passed 5-0.