The Calabasas City Council on Wednesday directed the city attorney to draft a new version of the community’s wireless telecommunications facilities ordinance.
The new ordinance will include recommendations from city commissions that state no cellphone tower should be built in a residential area or in the public right of way without an applicant demonstrating a significant gap in coverage, according to a staff report.
Additional requirements include developing a setback for such towers from schools, homes and parks, the staff report stated.
The modified language would apply to all cellphone tower applications submitted following approval of a new ordinance. There are nearly 60 cellphone facility sites up and running in Calabasas.
A lengthy discussion took place on who should be charged with authoring the new ordinance before the responsibility was passed onto City Attorney Michael Colantuono and Jonathan Kramer, an engineer consultant with the city.
The first draft of the ordinance would then go before the Communication and Technology Commission for review, followed by a reading by a third party consultant who would provide feedback and recommend changes, said City Manager Tony Coroalles.
The council has the authority to either approve or deny the new ordinance.
Councilman Fred Gaines said he was in favor of having someone in house draft the ordinance because it would be more cost effective to have a third party review the document than paying someone to write one from scratch.
Councilwoman Lucy Martin said she disagreed, adding that she wants a fresh perspective instead of someone who is familiar with the language of the current ordinance.
“I really think that is a waste of our citizens’ time,” she said.
Another key change to be included in the update is passing on the duty of reviewing cellphone tower applications to the Communications and Technology Commission.
The council will consider adopting a moratorium on reviewing cellphone tower applications at its June 8 meeting. The moratorium would be in place as the city works to draft a new ordinance.
Councilman Fred Gaines he strongly opposed such an action because it would be sending the wrong message.
“Moratoriums are for when you have an emergency, I don’t want us to be a city that jumps into these kinds of things,” he said, adding: “If there was a rush of applications, maybe.”
There are four cellphone tower applications under review by the city, said Community Development Director Maureen Tamuri.
Councilman Jonathan Wolfson said the notion of a moratorium has always been on the table, dating back to when discussions of updating the wireless ordinance began last year.
“We have been looking at this for more than a year, we’re not acting in a rash manor,” he said.
Coroalles said the city would begin looking for an outside consultant to review the new ordinance sometime next week.
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