1. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

    Chair welcomed every one and read the above statement.

  Brown led in Pledge of Allegiance

2. INTRODUCTION OF MEMBERS – ROLL CALL  

 WILLIAM CHUKES --y

JOHN YOUMANS --n

FRANCES BROWN --y

CHARLES HAYES --n

CHARLES ROBERS --y

TRACEY STALLWOTH --n

WAYNE WILLAMS --y

ANTHONY POWELL --y

STEVE SCOTT --y

LORI BOUIE --y

REV. DR. JOE PARRAMORE –y

3.

DISCLOSURES AND DECLARATIONS OF CONFLICTS

   there are no disclosures and declarations of conflicts at this time.

WORKSHOP

4.

TELECOMMUNICATION TOWER REGULATIONS WORKSHOP (LDR 2021-01) – Discussion of proposed amendments to Section 5800 Communications Towers; amendments to definitions located in Subsection 2102, Specifically; and, amendments to Subsections 7201 Type 1 and Subsection 7202 Type 11 Procedures in the Gadsden County Land Development Code

   Jill gave a recap of the February 11^th workshop.

  The first issues was camouflage towers. Class two sight plan. Ads in three local papers. Noticed meeting. 5800. Changes is exemptions to sight plan review. FAA towers and towers for government uses. FCC guidelines for lights. Diane has some contacts for those. FCC has rules governing based upon FAA. Did not provide copies. Light shields are not allowed. Request for red lighting

   John Youmans entered the workshop at 5:11 pm

  Jill 

  Current

  Chair asked why staff chose not to include this. It does not add

  J stated that the county would have to hold the interest bond. Does not know how to handle that issue. Did

  Chair how are unused tower removed in a timely manner

  Code enforcement officer or staff would. We are not notified. Checking the towers

  Diane stated that the date of abandonment is… the owner operator. Send out code enforcement

  Chair asked if there

  Don’t track those at this time. Just check.  FCC website. 180 Days to reactivate or tear down after abandonment.

  Bouie asked about how many are there in the county. Is the maturation date

  FCC keeps a count of towers in the county. Noticed if di

  Is anyone checking on those.

  DO not have a limit. When they come in for the tower. 3-mile radius.

  evidence of service. Not having good service. Benefiting from allowing

  Chair stated there are multiple different types. How many in each tower are there are in each category. Need for cell phone tower. How

  Reconciled through FCC. Spacing and interference. Zoning stand point only. Loud and clear because of service issue that is needed. Compacity.

  Saturation of towers. Limiting cannot really be controlled in the area. Not get good service. County cannot regulate service just tower locations. FCC would be the best bet. Taking the information on the map. Co locates on the tower. Explore the tower location.

  Stallworth How do we hold them accountable on UpToDate. Tower was not emitting correctly. Damaged tower. Duty to the citizens.

  Can’t regulate them. Hands are tied in that matter. Types of service.

  Chukes states

  Chair asked if their a

  Regulate. Having the applicants preform. Interested that all the towers are being taxed. Ask the applicants have reports. Staff can say they don’t know. Limitations. Number are pay8ing taxes

  Knowles stated property taxes. Get some added taxes on certain land.

  Chair asked about the application process. FCC

  Provide FCC approvals. Submittal requirement of no hazards, environmental species act.

  all

  Brown asked about the other towers. Would help if we knew what types of towers. Problems with competing towers.

  FCC 2014 maps. Does not

  Towers on both sides

  Chair asked about the secure area. Is there an FCC regulation

  Required by the FCC.

  Youmans asked applications.

  Typ. Look for places for towers. Do applications. Have representative. FCC license. What services is very hard

  Record keeping. If they apply why do we not keep records.

  Some were there before they started being regulated.

  go to FCC. Try to map the towers. Some

  Almost impossible to get the information=on.

Can not to limit the/. Come to us.

  IS that something that the county is could look into. Start looking into. To help the citizens of the county.

  Staff resources. See if they can get located

  Volpe reparative. Tracking the towers. Have FCC permit number. FCC and FFA requirements. Like to put a tower in that area. Latitude. Lot involved for a few years. Also towers that are by government that are for other communication purposes. Staff has done an incredible job. Revised version is as good as it gets. Sites do have sings hat has the owner, FCC number, emergence num

  Dozen address

  owner of the property. The local contact. Information is given to emergency services. Mentioned tower company. Federal agencies. Determine. Co-location. Ask for information. Applications are lots of pages to provide service. Information is in lock step. There goal is to provide most service. Were these projects being in the process. Co locates multiple locations. Whatever agency needs that sight. What is seen in county lack of location. Demand for communications has sky rocketed. There is no way to provide service without putting up new towers. Several applicants. Taxes are added. Owner of the tower will pay the additional taxes.

  Chair asked there is no negative

  V said yes.

  chair asked staff. frequency of applications.

They come in cycles.

  at the current rate could

  wirless2fcc.  78 towers, some have been dismantled.

  do we have a threshold.

D stated that they do not. Do

  Roberts compared them to speakers. Over saturations of towers or signal. Signal versus infrastructure are two different things. Have ten towers that don’t do any

  Regular. Fill this in later.

  Knowles 29 of the 78.49 active.

  Fill in later.

  Chukes stated dot properties.

Ro

  Chair asked about tower location. Is placed. If it is dot or state.

D said yes.

  Moved to citizens to be heard at this time.                               

CITIZENS REQUESTING TO BE HEARD

   Marion Lashley

Stated that she is concerned that industry.  Industry wants to get done with least amount of money. Lighting should not be done with white lights. Only require lights that are red lights. Does not want to see white lights in county. Wording needs to be in there. Towers are allowed mile apart.  more towers. Options are available. Historical land use.  Table three. Conflicts with all towers. Will all towers have review. Type two procedure.

  PIO interrupted.

  Marion stated that she is frustrated. Does not like to be cut off

  J camouflaged are exempts. Right now, unless they have a deviation, they do not have to have a meeting. Under the current re

  Public meeting. Residential setbacks. Still do not uphold the standards.

Visual impact analyses. Should be required.

  Purpose and intent. Minimize environment. The citizens should get information on the towers that are being placed near their property.  Need to protect the properties. Currently there are too many. Citizen’s input. Not just right next to you.

  Chair asked if there

  Q.

Youmans/ brown.

Passed.   7-0 

PUBLIC HEARINGS

5.

TELECOMMUNICATION TOWER REGULATIONS PUBLIC HEARING (LDR 2021-01) – Consideration of Ordinance #2021-002 to approve  amendments to Section 580 Communications Towers; amendments to definitions located in Subsection 2102, Specifically; and, amendments to Subsections 7201 Type 1 and Subsection 7202 Type 11 Procedures in the Gadsden County Land Development Code as follows:

AN ORDINANCE OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF GADSDEN AMENDING THE LAND DEVELOPMENT CODE BY AMENDING SUBSECTION 2102, SPECIFICALLY IN CHAPTER 2, DEFINTIONS AND INTERPRETATIONS; SECTION 5800, COMMUNICATION TOWERS IN CHAPTER 5, DEVELOPMENT STANDARDS; SUBSECTIONS 7101, TYPE 1 PROCEDURES AND SUBSECTION 7102, TYPE 11 PROCEDURES IN CHAPTER 7, DEVELOPMENT ORDERS, DEVELOPMENT PERMITS, AD DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENTS; AND PROVIDING FOR REPEAL, SEVERABILITY, INCLUSION IN THE GADSDEN COUNTY LAND DEVELOPMENT CODE, MODIFICATIONS THAT MAY ARISE FROM CONSIDERATION AT PUBLIC HEARING, AND CORRECTION OF SCRIVENER’S ERRORS; AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE. 

  Chair read the above.

  Jill stated since the adoption. Changed greatly. Residents. setbacks

Bouie entered the meeting at 6:35 p.m.

Citizens. Various other government. Direction of the board to heart. Indicated before that this is a recommendation. Comments regarding equipment. 25ft. requested setback. Dimension of the tower. Located in the center. Within 25ft. lighting section. If the board wishes no white light. Does not have a separation. IN report there are three options. Approve, deny, change.

  Chair asked if there are any questions.

  Hearing no questions. Chair asked if there any citizens to be heard.      

  Chair asked it there

  Chukes addressed how many miles. What point does the frequency drop off. Congested with one mile.

    Chair stated that would the five-mile issue. You are not guaranteed a signal from an existing tower. Why it may have a compacity. May only be half a mile. That is a company issue. Understand the concern. It may have a five-mile radius. But the signal can drop. The only way people communicate is cell phones. We provide everything that citizens need for emergency services. Not this boards.

    Roberts stated to see if there are other representative Tech experts. Come in to explain. Because Volpe is representative of company. He has an agenda.  He has all of the inside information.

  Brown problem with the one mile apart. With white mile. Needs

  Q stated that they have a separation. Typical 1-3 miles apart. Can get a tech expert but they cannot get definite answer. Try to find expert.

  Brown if they did it at the two or three.

    have them do a study. For board approval

  Chukes stated that up on 27 last month. Five miles to

  Bouie recommend farther apart. So, they have to give the information. Have the standards higher. Applicant preforms at a higher standard. Not to blanket.

  Chair called for a motion.

  Roberts/ brown

   What changes are they wanted.

  Option 3. 3-mile range, red lights instead of white lights,

  distance, red lights, setback 1500ft.

Roberts/ Chukes     

MOTION carries.

WILLIAM CHUKES --y

JOHN YOUMANS --y

FRANCES BROWN --y

CHARLES HAYES --

CHARLES ROBERS -- y

TRACEY STALLWOTH -- y

WAYNE WILLAMS --y

ANTHONY POWELL --y

STEVE SCOTT --y

LORI BOUIE --y

REV. DR. JOE PARRAMORE --y

Chair Read Don Stewarts comments into the record.    Chair showed the picture that was provided.  

  Don stated that he did not have anything else to add. Does not have the coverage. It doesn’t seem logical to him to add coverage. 

Volpe.    staff has gone above and beyond. Draft that is supported by facts. Address all of the issues. 

   Marion Lashley

Would like to see the white lights be put back into the wording. Require the modify. Spacing is an issue. Go 2-3 miles. They could ask for a deviation. Could not deny. Variations asked for. Increasing the set back. The purpose and intern are to avoid.

GENERAL BUSINESS

7.

PLANNING COMMISSION DISSCUSSION- New Business

   Chair

8.

PLANNING DIRECTOR’S COMMENTS

a.       Revisit Proposed Subsection 1306 Community Meetings

   Jeff Diekman has resigned.

  Chair stated that there is public hearing at. Ample opportunity to speak.

  agritourism. Absent other than state. Two public hearings. Towers will be broght backs.

Next meeting is April 15^th 2021.

  Bouie is concerned about older codes. Had a group of codes with them. Subdivide of land. Those types of codes to grow with the county. Modernize. Better use of property.

  Chair asked q rewving the land development code

  Right now, to focus on the comp plan and future land use map. Years ago. Need to change land use. Rural residential. Public meetings. Changing the map. Land development.

  Next meeting is at 6 pm      

9.

ADJOURNMENT OF MEETING

 Brown/bouie

7:16