30.28A.060 Modifying existing personal wireless service facilities – application requirements.
(1) Nothing herein is intended or shall operate to waive or limit the county’s right to enforce, or condition approval on, compliance with generally applicable building, structural, electrical, and safety codes and with other laws codifying objective standards reasonably related to health and safety.
(2) Pursuant to 47 U.S.C. § 1455(a) and 47 CFR §1.40001, the department may not deny, and shall approve, any eligible facilities request.
(a) An eligible facilities request shall include any request for modification of an existing tower or base station that does not substantially change the physical dimensions of such tower or base station, involving:
(i) Collocation of new transmission equipment;
(ii) Removal of transmission equipment; or
(iii) Replacement of transmission equipment.
(b) A modification substantially changes a previously permitted base station or tower when:
(i) For towers outside of public rights-of-way, it increases the height of the tower by more than 10 percent or by the height of one additional antenna array with separation from the nearest existing antenna not to exceed 20 feet, whichever is greater; or
(ii) For towers in public rights-of-way and all base stations, it increases the height of the tower or base station by more than 10 percent or 10 feet, whichever is greater; or
(iii) For towers outside of public rights-of-way, it protrudes from the edge of the tower more than 20 feet, or more than the width of the tower structure at the level of the appurtenance, whichever is greater; or
(iv) For towers in public rights-of-way and all base stations, it protrudes from the edge of the structure more than six feet; or
(v) It involves installation of more than the standard number of new equipment cabinets for the technology involved, but not to exceed four cabinets; or
(vi) For towers in the public rights-of-way and base stations, it involves installation of any new equipment cabinets on the ground if there are no pre-existing cabinets associated with the structure, or else involves installation of ground cabinets that are more than 10 percent larger in height or overall volume than any other ground cabinets associated with the structure; or
(vii) It entails any excavation or deployment outside of the current personal wireless service facility lease area; or
(viii) It would defeat the existing concealment elements of the eligible support structure; or
(ix) It does not comply with conditions associated with prior land use approval, unless the non-compliance does not exceed the thresholds in SCC 30.28A.060(2)(b)(i) through 30.28A.060(2)(b)(vii).
(c) Applications proposing modifications under 47 U.S.C. § 1455(a) and 47CFR §1.40001 must submit a personal wireless service facility eligible facilities request application. The department shall only require the applicant to provide information that is reasonably related to SCC 30.28A.060(1) and to determine whether the request meets the parameters of SCC 30.28A.060(2).
(d) An existing personal wireless service facility may be modified through multiple personal wireless service facility eligible facilities request applications. The cumulative amount of height modifications granted under all personal wireless service facility eligible facilities request applications for a personal wireless service facility shall be compared to the originally approved base station or tower dimensions, inclusive of originally approved appurtenances and any modifications that were approved prior to the passage of 47 U.S.C. § 1455(a). Any cumulative changes that exceed the substantial modification thresholds in SCC 30.28A.060(2)(b) shall be processed in accordance with SCC 30.28A.060(3).
(e) A personal wireless service facility eligible facilities request application shall be deemed granted in the event the department fails to approve or deny a request seeking approval under SCC 30.28A.060 within the timeline for review, and accounting for pauses, as specified in SCC 30.28A.030. An application deemed granted does not become effective until the applicant notifies the department in writing after the processing timeline has expired.
(3) If the department determines that a request for modification is not an eligible facilities request as delineated in SCC 30.28A.060(2) or collocation under SCC 30.28A.080(4), the request is subject to the requirements of SCC 30.70.210 or SCC 30.70.230. A personal wireless service facility permit application subject to the requirements of SCC 30.70.210 or SCC 30.70.230 shall be considered a new application and the review timeline shall be in accordance with SCC 30.28A.030(3)(b). (Added by Amended Ord. 05-038, Nov. 30, 2005, Eff date Dec. 16, 2005; Amended by Ord. 18-011, Mar. 21, 2018, Eff date May 20, 2018).