Cedar Rapids tightens ordinance on cell towers near homes

CEDAR RAPIDS - Cellphone companies will face a tougher time here when they try to erect tall cell towers near neighborhoods of single-family homes or duplexes.

The City Council last night, on an 8-0 vote, agreed to stiffen the city's ordinance that regulates communications towers and antenna, a move prompted by neighborhood objections last summer to proposals by cell companies to erect tall towers on church property, which often sits next to residential neighborhoods.

City Council member Scott Olson last summer led the call for a review of the city's tower ordinance after AT & T applied to erect a 125-foot cell tower on the backyard hill of Immanuel Baptist Church, 1900 F Ave. NW, which sits in Olson's council district.

Last night, Olson asked Jeff Hintz, a planner in the city's Community Development Department, what the ordinance changes would mean for proposals on church property.

Hintz said the changes, in part, will require cellphone companies to conduct meetings with neighbors before the companies take their proposals to formal city meetings with the City Planning Commission or the Board of Adjustment. The two citizen boards then would be able take neighbors' concerns into their consideration about tower height and appearance, he said.

In general, Hintz said the ordinance changes will mean that cell towers near residential neighborhoods will need to be smaller in height the closer they get to residential property, will need to employ 'stealth” features to better obscure the towers or antenna and will need better quality buildings at the tower's base to conceal equipment.

He told the council that the Community Development Department held a series of sessions with homeowners, company representatives and interested citizens before coming up with proposed ordinance changes.

Council member Monica Vernon, chairwoman of the council's Development Committee, said the committee reviewed the ordinance changes last month and approved them.

She said she was torn between wanting to better police where cell towers go even as she said she recognized that local residents are using smartphones and other devices for much more than phone calls, which requires the need for additional cell towers.

She said the ordinance changes were a 'good compromise” that gives 'some power” to neighborhoods and at the same time leaves room for cell companies to conduct business in the city. The ordinance will need more modifications as the industry continues to change, she said.

Vern Zakostelecky, a senior planner with the city, said Tuesday that the cell tower proposal for the Immanuel Baptist Church, 1900 F Ave. NW, has been set aside for now. He said both the church and cell company, no doubt, wanted to wait and see what the ordinance changes might mean for the proposal.

He said a second church in northeast Cedar Rapids is having a cell antenna installed on its property without a need for city permission after the cell company decided to conceal the antenna in a bell tower of lower height than the cell tower it first had proposed.

A third church, First Congregational United Church of Christ, 361 17th St. SE, has agreed to conceal a cell antenna in its steeple, Kevin King, a church officer, said last month.

Cell towers and antenna provide revenue to property owners, including churches, which can make them an attractive feature for the property owners.