Orange County — Board of Zoning Adjustment

SE-01-09-063 — Sprint Pcs, Inc.

Request: Special Exception in A-2 zone for single use (non-co-located) communications tower (170 ft. monopole).

Decision: Approved

Hearing: The Staff Report and recommendation is located on Pages ____. There was no public opposition to this request. Some of the BZA members expressed concern that the applicant may not have put forth his best effort in attempting to obtain co-location. For this reason, the BZA's vote was not unanimous. The applicant had asked for a waiver on the landscaping requirement; the justification was because of the dense, natural tall tree buffer between the tower and adjacent properties. Staff stated that at some point, the Rybolts will want to develop this property, and then the property would be cleared, meaning that buffer would be gone. Instead of a installing a landscape buffer, which would result in short ornamental trees and bushes, the better visual buffer would be the use of the existing tall trees. The BZA recognized that future development in this area was geared for single family residences. Due to the height of the tree (170 ft.) and the fact that it is not camouflaged, the BZA felt it was necessary to require a strict visual buffer for the protection of those future residential developments.