Introduction

• The Planning Process
• How the Plan Will Be Used

At their December 13, 2001 public hearing, the Planning Commission directed MPC staff to develop a plan to be used as a guide in making decisions on applications for approval of new telecommunications towers. Commissioners noted a number of concerns arising out of a period of several months when disputes between neighborhood groups and tower applicants seemed to dominate the public hearing agenda. Some of the commissioners' concerns were:

• Lack of technical guidance in sorting out conflicting, complicated opinions on the necessity for tall towers near residences
• Lack of standards for making subjective, but necessary judgments concerning the impact of towers on the landscape and residential neighborhoods
• Absence of a plan for telecommunications towers; we have plans and policies for other types of development reviewed by the commission, but there is no plan for telecommunications towers
• A piecemeal approach to approving one tower at a time, without understanding how many more towers are "in the pipeline"
• A perception that the tower applicants could get by with lower towers than they are asking for
• A desire to know what alternatives are available
• Frustration at being presented with proposals for new towers without any explanation of how the towers relate to provider's long range plans for additional towers
• Frustration with the time involved in tower debates, which severely cut into the time available for discussion of other development issues

MPC staff presented a proposal for a plan and recommended that action on telecommunications towers be postponed until June 2002, with exceptions for towers that met the following criteria:

• Towers located in industrial or commercial zones
• Stealth towers (towers disguised as church steeples, trees, silos, etc.) less than 125 feet in height
• Towers less than 90 feet in height

During the postponement period, the commission approved four towers that met the above criteria.

The Planning Process

MPC staff publicized and conducted six public workshops, which were attended by members of the wireless telecommunications industry and neighborhood activists. Information used in developing the plan was also posted on MPC's website. The staff researched the wireless facility planning experiences of other communities and received advice from a radio frequency engineering consultant and an attorney specializing in wireless facility planning and regulation.

How the plan will be used

The plan has four purposes:

1. Provide a policy framework for the Planning Commission's decisions on telecommunications facilities under the use on review provisions of the Knoxville and Knox County Zoning Ordinances.
2. Provide standards and visual guidelines for construction and siting of telecommunications facilities, particularly towers or alternative tower structures.
3. Make recommendations for future improvements to the zoning regulations and review process for telecommunications facilities.
4. Provide a greater degree of predictability for the telecommunications industry and community residents and business owners who may be concerned about the placement of these structures.

The plan will be adopted as an element of the Knoxville-Knox County General Plan and will be the basis for other planning proposals included in the sector plans and the City of Knoxville Development Plan (the "One Year Plan"). When telecommunications towers are submitted to MPC as "uses on review", the Planning Commission is required to review the towers under specific standards for commercial telecommunications towers and general standards for all uses on review.

Among the requirements of the City and County Zoning Ordinances for approval of a use on review are findings by the Planning Commission that any proposed towers are "in harmony with" adopted comprehensive plans. The stated intent of the use on review process is "to integrate properly the uses permitted on review with other uses located in the district." To accomplish this, the Planning Commission routinely attaches design or appearance related conditions to approval of uses on review. Additionally, the section of the ordinances containing specific standards for approval of telecommunications towers state that the intent of the regulations is "to enable telecommunications providers to furnish comprehensive and efficient wireless communication services to the community, while minimizing the adverse impacts their facilities may have on neighboring properties." The ordinances also emphasize protection of the local landscape and avoiding unnecessary proliferation of towers. The policies and guidelines in this plan will provide the Planning Commission with a basis to make the findings necessary for approval of applications and will provide the designers of telecommunications installations with a tool kit of design principles to help ensure that approved towers comply with the intent of the zoning ordinances.