HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-16-2015 Memo for Item 8
CITY OF SARATOGA
Memorandum
To: Saratoga City Council
From: Debbie Bretschneider, Acting City Clerk
Date: September 16, 2015
Subject: Item 8: Clarification of Co‐location Usage for Wireless Telecommunication Facilities
Following publication of the September 16, 2015 City Council Agenda Packet, staff received
questions regarding Item 8 – Appeal of a Design Review approval to install a new cellular
telecommunications facility on an existing building at 20455 Herriman Avenue. Via this memo, staff
would like to clarify information provided in the staff report.
To help clarify the public’s understanding of how the term co-location is used with regards to wireless
facilities, staff is providing additional information in this memorandum.
Under the City’s Wireless Telecommunications Facilities Ordinance (City Code Section 15-44) co-
location is referenced in required finding (a):
“That the Wireless Telecommunications Facility is or can be co-located with another Wireless
Telecommunications Facility located on a structure or an existing utility pole/tower in the
public right-of-way unless the applicant has demonstrated that such location is not technically
or operationally feasible.”
Additionally, the City keeps track of wireless applications based on property/parcel location so
facilities physically on the same parcel are considered co-located at the same location. Co-location
does not eliminate the need for the required findings in the City’s Ordinance to be satisfied in order to
approve a Design Review application for a wireless facility.
Under the “Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012”, the Federal government defines
co-location as new antennas proposed to be installed on “eligible facilities.” An eligible facility as
defined in the Act is an existing tower or base station (e.g. building) that currently has wireless antennas
located on it. Co-location is only relevant as a defined term because new antennas may be exempt
from local government review if they are co-located on an eligible facility and do not “substantially
changes the physical dimensions of the existing wireless tower or base station.