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Borough of Lawnside, NJ
Camden County
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Code
New Laws (5) Index
[HISTORY: Adopted by the Council of the Borough of Lawnside 5-7-1997 by Ord. No. 10-FY1997. Amendments noted where applicable.]
PERSONAL WIRELESS SERVICE FACILITIES
Means those antennas or towers providing commercial mobile communication services, unlicensed wireless communication services, and common carrier wireless exchange access communication services, as prescribed in the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996.
A. 
To provide for the use of cellular communications antennas and towers (hereinafter towers) while regulating their location and number in the borough.
B. 
To minimize the adverse visual impacts of towers and support facilities through proper design, siting, and screening.
C. 
To avoid potential damage to adjacent residential and commercial properties and associated traffic from tower failure and falling ice, through proper siting, engineering design, and continued maintenance.
D. 
To encourage the joint use, or collocation, of any new towers to reduce the number and scale of such structures in the future.
Telecommunications antennas and towers shall be regulated in the Borough of Lawnside in accordance with this chapter. Tower facilities may include storage cabinets for transmitting equipment, but may not include offices, long-term vehicle storage, other outdoor storage, or broadcast studios, except for emergency purposes as permitted by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), or other uses that are not necessary to send or receive transmissions.
A. 
Towers may be permitted as a conditional principal use on lots in the Industrial A and B Zones and the Planned Business Park Zone of the Borough of Lawnside.
B. 
Towers may not be permitted as a conditional accessory use to any use in the Industrial A or B Zones other than field agriculture, passive recreation, or conservation. Towers may be permitted as a conditional accessory use to any use in the Planned Business Park Zone. Telecommunications antennas may also be permitted as a conditional accessory use to existing public service infrastructure with sufficient height as to be affixed to such infrastructure, such as water towers, or other public and private tall buildings, smokestacks, and communication towers in any zone.
Applicants for development of a tower or tower facility must meet the following conditional use requirements:
A. 
Lot size. Towers may be permitted on lots with a minimum of 10,000 square feet.
B. 
Height. The maximum height shall not exceed 100 feet. The height of an antenna shall not exceed the height of an existing tower, building, or structure on which it is to be mounted by more than 15 feet. The applicant shall demonstrate that the proposed antenna is the minimum height to function satisfactorily. No antennas taller than this minimum height shall be approved.
The height of towers may also be regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for airport and air traffic safety reasons. When required by the FAA or other state or federal authority, tower lighting shall be oriented so as not to project onto surrounding residential uses or residential zones. The applicant shall provide a determination from the FAA that the tower is not an air safety hazard prior to final site plan approval.
C. 
Setback. Towers shall be set back on all sides of the property an equal distance as the proposed height. No other structures or other personal wireless service facilities may be constructed within the fall zone of any tower. No tower shall be erected within 400 feet of any single family residential use.
D. 
Collocation. In order to prevent their proliferation in the borough, each tower shall be designed to allow collocation or shared use of additional antennas for the proposed provider, as well as the antennas of all licensed providers in the Borough of Lawnside, and local police, fire, ambulance, emergency preparedness, and public educational facilities. Applicants must send a certified mail announcement to all tower owners and users and to all owners of tall buildings and structures, i.e. greater than 50 feet, within the borough and within a 1/4 mile radius of the proposed site stating their needs and asking for permission to install or share the site of their proposed antennas.
Applicants shall provide testimony indicating that no other tower, tall building, structure, etc. within this area is available for collocation. Applicants cannot be denied or deny space on an existing tower, tall building, or structure within the borough for economic reasons. Collocation may, however, be denied for structural, mechanical, or regulatory factors. The Board may deny an application to erect to mount the antenna on antenna on an existing tower, building, or structure. Copies of proposed access, collocation, or other related leases and agreements shall be provided to the Board Solicitor for his or her review.
E. 
Construction. Towers shall be either of a free-standing (monopole) or lattice (self-supporting) design with provision made for clipping or reducing the size of the fall zone to 66% of the total height. Towers anchored with guy wires shall not be permitted. All towers and support structures shall be fitted with anti-climbing devices, as approved by the manufacturers.
F. 
An access road shall be constructed to allow access roads to the tower facility. All access roads shall be fully and solely maintained by the applicant.
G. 
Design compatibility. The entire facility must be architecturally compatible with its surroundings. The use of residential compatible materials such as brick and stucco shall be required for associated support buildings, which shall be designed to architecturally match the predominant character of adjacent residential neighborhoods. In no case shall metal exteriors be permitted for accessory buildings.
H. 
Performance standards. Equipment at tower properties shall be automated in order to minimize the need for maintenance and servicing. Applicants shall provide testimony indicating the estimated frequency of maintenance service, personnel needs, equipment needs, and any anticipated traffic, noise, radiation, radio frequency interference, or public safety impacts, such as falling ice, debris, or structural collapse of the proposed use. Uses shall provide off-street parking and be accessible by means of a public street or private easement in a form acceptable to the Board solicitor.
I. 
Screening. The base of towers or other personal wireless service facilities must be screened on all sides by public view by the use of opaque fencing to a height of six feet, or evergreen shrubbery, or both, wherein such screening shall be approved by the Board, considering aesthetic, type, location, and other such factors. The screen must be so as to prevent the tower or facility from being seen from a public right-of-way and from adjacent residential and commercial properties at ground level.
J. 
Signage. No signs and/or billboards of any kind shall be erected or placed on a tower, except for "warning" or "no trespassing" signs which may be placed at the base of the structure. No part of the tower, antennas, fixtures, or instruments attached to the tower may have any written copy, design, logo, or other graphic image that could be construed as an advertisement.
K. 
Lighting. No tower may be artificially lighted or illuminated, except when required by the FAA.
L. 
Structural integrity. The governing body may require periodic inspections of towers to ensure their structural integrity, i.e. at least once every 10 years for monopole towers, and once every five years for self-supporting towers. Inspections shall be conducted by an engineer licensed by the State of New Jersey. The results of such inspections shall be provided to the Borough Engineer who shall advise the governing body as to any required or removal of a tower.
M. 
Abandonment. In the event that a tower is to be left unused for a period of more than six months, the tower shall be determined to be abandoned and a potential threat to public safety. Upon due notice to the owner of the tower, the borough may place a lien on the property for required engineering and demolition costs or may acquire the property through eminent domain.
The applicant must submit a site plan to the Planning Board of the Borough of Lawnside and receive its approval for all new tower facilities. The Board may waive formal site plan submission for antennas proposed to be mounted on an existing tower, tall building, or structure. Such site plan shall be submitted in six copies, be prepared, signed, and sealed by a professional engineer licensed in the State of New Jersey, and shall include an identification of the location and size of the proposed property, as well as engineering drawings indicating the proposed use and its method of support and foundations, the method of construction, materials to be used, height of all structures, required setbacks and fall zone of the proposed tower, collocation documentation, maintenance information, and required screening. The applicant is required to obtain a building permit prior to the installation and erection of the approved uses, however, no building permit may be used in the absence of site plan approval by the Planning Board.