[BC] Dealing with zoning and NIMBYS

[Neal Newman]

  You need to play the game by their rules to win..
  I did just that. My non-comm got a power and height increase.
we were running 80 watts at  43 feet. the city has a 35 foot height 
restriction on all antennas including TV.
  The CP was for 1500 watts at 80 feet center of radiation. The 
building was 30 feet tall and we planned on a 60 foot Rohn 25g on the roof
  to give us the 90 feet required to meet the CP...
WOW the NIMBYS mostly the guys that have guys for partners on the 
zoning board. who tells us what color the hardline must be to blend 
into the background( you get the picture) no way is that Tower going 
on a roof to messup the view the neighbors have... this took almost 2 
years and lots of legal fees to fight. The lawyer accidently found a 
clause in the city  zoning rules about a structure being no more than 
10% the height of the existing structure its being mounted on.
  So I played ball....
  Found the tallest building in the city a 13 story Building ( where 
the station was origonally)  made a minor CP change.. and was granted 
920 watts at 147 feet.  so we mounted a 40 foot Rohn 25 on the roof 
to support the new antenna system..
  The City tried to have us remove the tower and antenna, but we 
played by their rules, and beat them.. I would rather have the height 
than the power. so we did better than expected...

  Neal

--- On Thu, 2/4/10, Steve Lewis <steve at theengineeringbureau.com> wrote:

 > From: Steve Lewis <steve at theengineeringbureau.com>
>I spent weeks in Virginia Beach trying to find a tower site that 
>complied with our technical requirements and the city's hatred of 
>any kind of tower. They grudgingly allow cell towers which are 
>multitenant and somewhat hidden from plain site, but any mention of 
>a broadcasting tower sends these people into some robot-like 
>response mode.  They won't tell you that they'll never approve a 
>site, just that you have to spend weeks getting the planning people 
>on board THEN get it put on the City Council agenda which is another 
>four months or so, and there are no guarantees the council will 
>approve it even if the planning department does.  I've never heard 
>of such a thing like this, though I'm sure there are other 
>communities with a staff of nimrods running them.