HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 01-20-2011 - 8aORANGE COUNTY
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT
Meeting Date: January 20, 2011
Action Agenda
Item No. g' Q
SUBJECT: Progress Report on Telecommunication Issues within Orange County and
Review of Request to Place Telecommunication Plan Tower Site Map on
February 28, 2011 Quarterly Public Hearing
DEPARTMENT: Planning and Inspections PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No
Manager's Office
ATTACHMENT(S):
1. Telecommunication Plan Tower Site
Map
2. Timetable for Approval of Tower Sites
INFORMATION CONTACT:
Glenn Bowles, Planner II, 245-2577
Craig Benedict, Director, 245-2592
PURPOSE: To receive an update on staff activities concerning the County's communication(s)
needs and review a request to place the Telecommunications Plan Tower Site Map
(ATTACHMENT ONE) on the February 28, 2011 Quarterly Public Hearing agenda.
BACKGROUND: This report serves two purposes:
Update the BOCC on recent multi-department staff activities regarding
telecommunications including:
o How broadband service could be provided to underserved portions of Orange
County; and
o How public safety provision could be augmented,
To request that the BOCC place the attached Telecommunication Plan Tower Site Map
on the February 2011 Quarterly Public Hearing agenda.
I. PROGRESS REPORT: Staff is continuing to work with two (2) private companies (American
Tower Company [ATC] and Grain Communications, Inc.) who have expressed interest in
assisting Orange County to address its public safety and other communication needs. At the
same time, each company has expressed an interest in assisting with the marketing of County-
owned tower sites to other providers in an effort to extend broadband and wireless
communications services to the underserved rural portions of Orange County as well as
augment existing service elsewhere.
Another private company, Motorola, has volunteered to meet with County staff to determine the
best available technologies that address County public safety and other communications needs,
where such solutions could be located, and generally how much each solution would cost.
As a result of this continued interest from the private sector seeking partnerships with Orange
County, staff has identified the basic telecommunication needs for the County that, in no order
of priority, are as follows:
1. Paging and other communications upgrades for the Emergency Services and Sheriffs
Departments,
2. Direct line-of-sight communications for the Information Technologies Department for
back-up communications should land lines fail from offices in Hillsborough to out-lying
facilities,
3. Field communications from central offices (i.e. West Campus office building) to staff
(i.e. building inspectors, planning staff, environmental health staff, etc), and
4. Communication capabilities for rural bus service.
Staff is continuing to work with Orange County Emergency Services and the Sheriffs office to
identify communication needs and prioritize those areas of the County for service provision.
Once the technological solutions are finalized, the comprehensive assessment of public safety
communication needs completed, and the fiscal ramifications are quantified, the County may
wish to send out Requests for Proposals (RFP) soliciting partnerships with providers to
build/locate tower facilities on all, or some, of the BOCC-approved tower sites. The RFP would
prescribe not only the general specifications for each tower facility, but also which entity will be
responsible for the financing,of the equipment and how future cash flow to the County will occur.
As the Board may recall, in December of 2009 a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with
ATM was approved to facilitate the development of telecommunication facilities within the
County. Grain Communications is currently proposing a similar arrangement.
In staffs opinion, the County is now at a point where it needs to re-examine the viability of the
existing MOU, determine if additional partnerships are warranted or if existing relationships need
to be re-defined, finalize efforts in identifying communication needs, and determine if the
aforementioned RFP process is necessary.
Attachment Two provides a synopsis of the rough timeline for the possible commencement of
telecommunication tower construction activities.
II. TELECOMMUNICATION PLAN TOWER SITE MAP. Section 6.18.5, Master
Telecommunications Plan and Article 8.8.17a Telecommunications Towers allow for the
adoption of a Master Telecommunications Plan Map (MTP) that identifies sites within the County
where Telecommunications Tower facilities already exist as well as where other potential
telecommunication towers could be located on either:
• Public sites (i.e. County or government owned property),
• Quasi-publicly owned property (i.e. volunteer fire departments, public utilities, etc), and
• Property where current owners have expressed a desire or an interest in locating
telecommunication towers.
The purpose of the MTP is to readily identify properties within the County where wireless
telecommunications providers are encouraged to locate/develop facilities, or where co-location
opportunities exist, prior to submittal of an application to site a new wireless telecommunications
facility.
Should the BOCC adopt the Telecommunications Plan Tower Site Map (ATTACHMENT ONE),
the County may consider additions or modifications to the MTP at its annual February Quarterly
Public Hearing. Applications to add to, withdraw from, or otherwise modify the MTP shall be filed
with the Zoning Officer (i.e. Planning Director) prior to December 15t" of each year, as per
Section 8.4.1 of the Zoning Ordinance.
Section 6.18 of the Orange County Zoning Ordinance provides a "place holder" for the adoption
of a plan should the Board of County Commissioners desire. If the County declines to adopt the
plan, the present zoning ordinance standards for telecommunication towers can still function,
but without the flexibility and pre-approved timelines that the plan provides the County to
address its public safety and communication needs. The plan serves as a reference tool to
identify potential locations for collocated wireless telecommunications facilities including
locations that may serve or may be required to serve the public safety telecommunications
network.
FINANCIAL IMPACT: No financial impact at this time with human resources being used from
existing department staffs. Eventually, the use of the plan could provide financial and public
direction and will be used to budget and prioritize equipment acquisition and installation.
Department involvement includes, but not be limited to County Manager, Planning and
Inspections Department, Emergency Services, Information Technologies, Financial
Services/Purchasing, Sheriff, and Environment, Agriculture, Parks and Recreation.
RECOMMENDATIONS: The Administration recommends that the BOCC:
1. Accept the update, and
2. Authorize staff to begin the process of developing a request to place the
Telecommunication Plan Tower Site Map on the February 28, 2011 Quarterly Public
Hearing agenda. (Legal advertisement wording will be approved at the February 1,
2011 regular BOCC meeting.)
Telecommunication Plan Tower Sites 4
F
~.,./` l..-- f
-',~,++ -~-~:F~ Ana irarua~:re=- ~~~
a ~,- ~; ~~.i. ! Piedmont Electric Tower
(P-1) Cedar `~. 49 ;....,~... '~~' G'2) CP ~ ~,
Grove Fire ; ~ rove a „ter ~~~ .n~
~~ (p.3} tithe
Department ~,~ ~ _--° ; 15
~ River Park
- % i (P-4)
~'~
Mincey Road `~
'~.
~
i
.~ ~ ,
.
'~`, ~
t ;,
~ Ss ~ ~~
`'~,.. (P-5) Walnut
(P-7) ,F Grove Site
~ ~ °'
~'~
Buckhorn
Road
~m.~,~. ~ ~ ~
.r-
~ ~~ ~~
J~~`
r I
. ~,,.-
rf
t'
~
.
~,~ (P-6) Eno Fire and
c
0 (E_2) ~ M„f~ Emergency Services
7 Occoneechee Tower
(E-3)
' = ..... EMS Tower
r ' ~ ,
(P-8) County ~- ~~ ' (E-4) ~ ~-
Soccer Fields '"~s piedmont Electric 1
s ~~~ ~ ~ '~" k~ Tower (P-g) Piedmont
(r .~~ ~ ~' Electric Tower ~
r ? 1"
y
(P-11) rat ~~~,.:, ~~. ~ ~-~ ~~.~~ar~~1` +~ P-10
( )
OWASA - ~~ ~~ _~,. '~- ,--~ "T" County
Property ~~' ~-°" ~ r ~°' Park Site
ti,.~,~
._ (P-12) American ~i
~, Stone Quarry '°
501
~ ?~ ~ 1 9 86 1 ~ 15, r
l.. r c
a
sa t ,~,
~ ~ ~~
~4y ~
~,.: `~' . ~ sa
~,°
f r ~ " .,y
(,
<F~ ;,~ r ~ .yf~
1, _ ~ " ~ f 501
~,,, {P-13) White ~ ~Y~" lA 15
~"~~°•-~..~•-- Cross Fire
Department
(P-14) Susan
Mellot
E-1 79° 7' 14.75" W 36° 14' 28.12" N
E-2 79° 7' 19.17" W 36° 3' 42.86" N
E-3 79° 4' 22.80" W 36° 3' 36.50" N
E-4 79° 4' 42.51" W 36° 2' 43.20" N
P-1 79° 12' 29.57" W 36° 10' 58.27" N
P-2 79° 8' 25.44" W 36° 10' 45.37" N
P-3 78° 58' 4.50" W 36° 9' 48.70" N
P-4 79° 3' 4.87" W 36° 8' 53.54" N
P-5 79° 7' 6.63" W 36° 8' 36.48" N
P-6 79° 0' 14.49" W 36° 6' 53.57" N
P-7 79° 13' 32.98" W 36° 4' 54.21" N
P-8 79° 11' 48.91" W 36° 4' 22.01" N
P-9 79° 4' 54.48" W 36° 1' 4.18" N
P-10 79° 4' 53.82" W 35° 58' 41.90" N
P-11 79° 13' 40.60" W 35° 57' 45.49" N
P-12 79° 9' 1.82" W 35° 55' 56.00" N
P-13 79° 13' 1.72" W 35° 53' 43.60" N
P-14 79° 1' 20.97" W 35° 52' 21.47" N
Exisitng Tower Locations
Potential Tower Locations
~ 2 mile Buffer
•`'~ N 1 inch = 3.2 miles
° 0 1 2 3
Miles
Orenge County Planning and Inspections Department
GIS Map Prepared by Brian Carson December 08, 2010
Attachment 2 -Timeline
Process 2011 20 12
F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J
1 Telecommunication Plan Tower
Site Ma
Approve Le al Ad x
Hold Quarter) Public Hearin x
Ap royal Tower Site Ma x
2 Re uest for Pro osal RFP
Develo Text x
BOCC Endorsement x
Issue RFP x
A rove Preferred Bids x
3 Tower Leases A royal x x
4 Tower Construction x x x x x x x x x x