HomeMy WebLinkAboutVA199900011 Review Comments 1999-06-24 �nl A l,h��
frincON ,
COUNTY OF ALBEMARLE
Department of Building Code and Zoning Services
401 Mclntire Road, Room 227
Charlottesville,Virginia 22902-4596
FAX(804) 972-4126 TELEPHONE(804)296-5832 TTD (804) 972-4012
MEMORANDUM
TO: Members of the Board of Zoning Appeals
FROM: Jan Sprinkle, Chief of Zoning Administration
DATE: June 24, 1999
RE: VA 99-11 , Charles and Sara Pietsch
At the June meeting, you deferred this item to allow the applicant additional time to get more
information on the tower design. The applicant has now informed us that the tower is proposed to
be a metal monopole. The height is still undetermined.
With three other setback variance requests for towers in the last few months, staff was able to
review the special use permit information and determine that the towers met the County's current
criteria for tower design and location. In those cases staff was able to recommend approval of the
variances because there were topographic reasons for the parcel selection and County policy reasons
for selecting the specific sites within the normal setbacks. Together these created the hardship that
allowed the variance approval. With this request, there has been no special use permit (SP)
application so staff cannot review the same type of design criteria that must be submitted to support
the SR There are no significant topographic features in the entire area to support the parcel
selection, and no County policy reason for siting the tower within the normal setback. (No treed
area that will conceal the tower from the road and no height limitation.) In fact, there is no reason
other than convenience to the applicant for moving the tower 25 feet in one direction or the other.
Therefore,the staff recommendation is the same:
STAFF RECOMMENDATION: Since none of the three criteria has been
met, staff recommends denial.
However, should the Board find cause to consider approving this request,
staff recommends deferral until: 1) The Board of Supervisors adopts a policy
on towers for wireless communications; and, 2) information is received to
determine if the variance would allow the proposed tower to meet the
County's policy.