Hi all,
(I'm new to the list and this is a rather long posting, but please bear
with me. I scanned the archives and didn't see any relevant discussions
in the last few months, so hopefully this isn't too inappropriate...)
I'm in the process of moving to a new QTH in my town (Lee's Summit, MO -
a KC suburb) which has no deed restrictions regarding antennas, so the
only thing I have to beat is my town's ordinances. I'd like some input
on how to proceed from those of you who've been there before..
I'd like to put up a tower around 55 or 60 ft tall, preferably Rohn 25
or similar. I plan to put a tribander (A3S or similar) and 2m vertical
on the tower and hang an 80/40 dipole from it.
I got a copy of the city's zoning ordinance last week and read it from
cover to cover (a real page turner... ;-) - basically, the only
restriction that applies to towers in residential zones is a generic
statement that all "structures" must be 35 feet tall or less. There is
an ordinance covering Special Use permits which has a huge section on
"antenna mounts", mainly aimed at cell towers and other commercial
wireless services, and it specifically *exempts* towers 70 ft. tall or
less that are owned by a FCC licensed amateur operator from the Special
Use ordinance. Other than that, there is nothing in the ordinance that
I could construe as applying to amateur towers in a residential area.
I've contacted a lawyer listed in the ARRL's Volunteer Counsel program
for some help but would like to hear from some others with real-life
experience. I've also ordered and received the ARRLs "PRB-1" packet
with lots of previously fought court cases.
Questions:
1.) How should I go about securing permission for the tower? If I apply
for a building permit, it will very likely be denied. And I can't very
well just put the thing up and hope nobody complains - maybe I screwed
up by giving them my name and address when I bought a copy of the
ordinance, but at this point if I put it up without permission, I'll
have no basis for the "I didn't know that" excuse.
2.) Applying for a variance may be the way I need to go to get
permission. That involves filling out a long application form with some
carefully worded questions, "donating" $150 to the city, and appearing
at a public hearing. Should I get legal representation if I have to
apply for the variance?
3.) Maybe I can find a loophole in the ordinance - the generic
residential height limit is 35 ft, but the special use ordinance exempts
amateur towers 70 ft or less - so it sounds like there's a gray area
between 35 and 70 ft. How would I argue that successfully?
4.) The location of the tower will be behind the house, near the center
of the lot (about 85 ft wide at that point) and about 50 ft from the
rear property line. So obviously I can't guarantee that the tower
wouldn't cross neighboring property lines (although I'm sure it won't
hit any structures) if it fell. Is this a big deal? I assume my
homeowner's insurance will cover me there. I suspect the city might
raise that as an issue if I apply for a variance, but I can think of
tons of examples (large trees in particular) where a neighbor's property
might fall across boundaries.
5.) I drove around yesterday and found at least 4 other towers in town
that I estimate at 50 ft tall - I plan to contact those amateurs and see
how they did it, but I suspect most just put the thing up without regard
for the rules. Can I use their existance as an excuse for putting mine
up?
6.) If worse comes to worse and I have to live with a 35 ft tower, how
disappointed will I be? Will a tribander at 35 ft perform
(considerably) better than an inverted Vee at about that same height?
In other words, is a short tower better than none at all?
What other advice do you have that will help my tower building
experience be successful?
Thanks to all for your help,
-Marty KI0LO
martyt@pobox.com
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