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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2900 S COLLEGE AVE AT&T - FDP220002 - SUBMITTAL DOCUMENTS - ROUND 1 - PROJECT NARRATIVE ________________________________________________________________________________________________ 303-264-7455 liz.walker@wirelesspolicy.com www.wirelesspolicy.com PROJECT INFORMATION AND DESIGN NARRATIVE FINAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN Submitted to the City of Fort Collins, CO Community Development and Neighborhood Services Applicant: New Cingular Wireless PCS, LLC (“AT&T”) 7670 South Chester Street Centennial, CO 80112 Representative: Jaclyn Levine, Nexius Site Acquisition Manager/Liz Walker WPG 773-870-5221 Jaclyn.levine@nexius.com Property Owner: 3842 Mason LLC 3711 John F. Kennedy Parkway, #340 Fort Collins, CO 80525 Project Address: 2900 South College Avenue Fort Collin, CO 80525 Parcel ID: 97252-67-003 Zoning: General Commercia (C-G) 1. PROJECT OVERVIEW AT&T is proposing to collocate a wireless facility on the rooftop of the existing building located at 2900 South College Avenue. The plan includes installing roof mounted antennas that will be entirely screened from public view by concealing them behind a 10-foot-tall screen wall that will match the design aesthetic of the existing building. This project has already undergone a PDP review and was approved by the hearing officer following a December 15, 2021, Administrative Public Hearing. AT&T is now submitting this request for approval of a Final Development Plan. AT&T Final Development Plan Submittal 2 AT&T’s submittal includes:  Attachment 1 – the Development Application – Complete Submittal Checklist  Attachment 2 – Final Comment Response Letter  Attachment 3 – Site Plan  Attachment 4 – RF Justification (Search Ring and Alternatives Analysis)  Attachment 5 – Development Review Staff Report for Project PDP210007  Attachment 6 – Type 1 Administrative Hearing Findings and Decision  Attachment 7 – EME Compliance Certification As shown in the Application, supporting materials, Staff Report, and Administrative Hearing Findings and Decision, this project meets all the applicable code requirements for siting a wireless communication facility and complies with all other local and federal laws. 2. PROJECT DETAILS  Subject property: This is a commercial office building located at 2900 South College Avenue, approximately 500 feet northeast of the South College Avenue and Swallow Road intersection.  Zoning: Zoning is Commercial General (C-G)  Project Area: The project area is limited to the rooftop space. No part of the project will occupy any ground space around the building or in the parking lot or impact any existing ground or landscaping features.  Access and parking: After installation, the facility will require only minimal visits by a single technician for occasional maintenance. Existing parking will be sufficient for these visits, and the occasional maintenance visit will have no impact on parking or traffic.  Facility Design: All antennas and accessory equipment will be enclosed and camouflaged behind new screen walls. The screen walls will match the aesthetics of the building. 3. AT&T COVERAGE AND SERVICE OBJECTIVES AT&T is upgrading and expanding its wireless communications network to support the latest 5G and 4G LTE technology. 5G and 4G stand for “5th Generation” and “4th Generation” and LTE stands for “Long Term Evolution.” These acronyms refer to the ongoing process of improving wireless technology standards, which is now in its 5th generation. With each generation comes improvement in speed and functionality –4G AT&T Final Development Plan Submittal 3 LTE offers speeds up to ten times faster than 3G, and 5G offers speeds up to 1-gigabit per second. This technology is the next step in increasing broadband speeds to meet the demands of uses, the variety of content accessed over mobile networks and is necessary to facilitate capabilities that are being designed into the latest devices (i.e., Samsung Galaxy S21, iPhone 13). 5G, specifically, is the next generation of wireless technology expected to deliver latency and capacity enhancements that will help enable revolutionary new capabilities for consumers and businesses. AT&T’s radio frequency (“RF”) engineers performed an RF engineering study, considering multiple objectives, to determine the approximate site location and antenna height required to fulfill the noted network objectives for the targeted service area. From this study, AT&T’s RF engineers identified a “search ring” area where a WCF may be located to provide effective service in the target coverage area. The search ring established for this proposal and the candidates that were vetted are provided in Attachment 4—RF Justification. This proposed Facility meets AT&T’s coverage objectives within a geographic area not presently sufficiently served by AT&T’s network. Specifically, this facility is intended to fill a gap in AT&T’s network coverage experienced by its customers in the area near College and Drake Streets in Fort Collins. This coverage objective was determined through a combined analysis of customer complaints, service requests, and radio frequency engineering design. Additionally, AT&T has established a need for service in this geographic area, as determined by market demand, coverage requirements for a specific geographic area, and the need to provide continuous coverage from one site to another in a particular geographic region. This proposed Facility will allow for uninterrupted wireless service in the targeted coverage area with fewer dropped calls, improved call quality, and improved access to additional wireless services that the public now demands. This enhanced service also includes emergency 911 calls throughout the area. This proposed Facility will also allow AT&T to provide wireless communications and service for FirstNet users in the targeted service area (as further detailed in the next section). 4. FIRSTNET FirstNet is the country’s first nationwide communications platform dedicated to public safety, representing a giant leap in communications capabilities for public safety personnel that will benefit the communities they serve. FirstNet gives first responders access to one highly secure, dedicated, interoperable network and ecosystem AT&T Final Development Plan Submittal 4 supporting voice, data, text, and video communications—technology they need to better communicate and collaborate across agencies and jurisdictions. 4.1. FirstNet Authority The First Responder Network Authority (“FirstNet Authority”) is an independent authority within the U.S. Department of Commerce. Chartered in 2012, the FirstNet Authority is charged with carrying out public safety’s vision of FirstNet, bringing first responders a dedicated communications ecosystem. The FirstNet Authority consulted extensively with each state, tribes, local governments, and the public safety community regarding how FirstNet will be deployed. 4.2. AT&T FirstNet Partnership Through a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership with FirstNet, AT&T is responsible for building, maintaining, operating, and upgrading FirstNet for the next 25 years. AT&T is upgrading its existing wireless sites and building new wireless facilities to deploy the wireless spectrum set aside for public safety—Band 14. Band 14 is designed to be reliable, functional, safe, and secure and provide optimal levels of operational capacity at all times. Additionally, FirstNet users have access to FirstNet on all AT&T commercial LTE bands, allowing them to benefit from AT&T’s overall improvements to its commercial network. Nationwide there are currently over 18,500 federal, state, tribal, and local agencies, with more than 2.8 million connections involving emergency medical services, fire services, law enforcement, and domestic emergency and disaster response organizations utilizing FirstNet. Simply put, FirstNet provides public safety users with the assurance of network access when they need it. Accordingly, AT&T must closely consider location, lease, and facility requirements for the siting, placement, and operation of FirstNet facilities to ensure that, over the course of its 25-year partnership, appropriate accommodations can be made to support the evolving mission-critical services of FirstNet. 4.3. FirstNet Coverage FirstNet, built by AT&T, spans all 50 states, five U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia, including rural communities and tribal lands in those states and territories. As an all-band solution, FirstNet is built on AT&T’s commercial LTE bands in addition to Band 14. This gives FirstNet users access to even more coverage and capacity. 4.4. FirstNet Core FirstNet is a separate communications platform operating on a physically separate, dedicated core that is purpose-built for public safety based on their specifications and requirements. The FirstNet core is built on physically separate hardware that effectively AT&T Final Development Plan Submittal 5 separates public safety’s traffic from commercial traffic. The FirstNet core is also monitored 24/7/365 by a dedicated Security Operations Center with a dedicated team of experts. 4.5. Priority and Preemption A key differentiator of FirstNet is always-on priority and preemption with multiple priority levels that primary users can allocate as needed. This technology is available to FirstNet users over the AT&T LTE commercial bands and Band 14. Priority means first responders connect first. Priority moves first responders to the front of the “communications line,” prioritizing their network needs—they don’t have to compete with non-emergency users for a connection. Preemption goes a step further to make sure first responders can access FirstNet when they need to, 24/7/365. Preemption helps ensure first responders have the bandwidth they need, when they need it most—when the communications line becomes crowded, preemption shifts non-emergency traffic, freeing up space for FirstNet users to easily get through. Calls or texts to 911 will never be preempted or shifted from the network. 5. APPLICABLE LAW 5.1. Local Codes Pursuant to Section 4.21(B)(2) of the City of Fort Collins Land Use Code, wireless communication facilities are permitted in the General Commercial District, subject to a Type I Administrative Review process. Additionally, this project complies with the General Development Standards applicable to wireless facilities as set forth in Section 3.8.13 of the Fort Collins Land Use Code. See Attachments 5 and 6. 5.2. Federal Law Federal law, primarily found in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (“Telecom Act”), acknowledges a local jurisdiction’s zoning authority over proposed wireless facilities but limits the exercise of that authority in several important ways.  The Telecom Act prohibits a local jurisdiction from taking any action on a wireless siting permit that “prohibit[s] or [has] the effect of prohibiting the provision of personal wireless services.” 47 U.S.C. § 332(c)(7)(B)(i)(II). According to the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) Order adopted in September 2018, a local jurisdiction’s action has the effect of prohibiting the provision of wireless services when it “materially limits or inhibits the ability of any competitor or potential competitor to compete in a fair and balanced legal and regulatory environment.” Under the FCC Order, an applicant need not prove AT&T Final Development Plan Submittal 6 it has a significant gap in coverage; it may demonstrate the need for a new wireless facility in terms of adding capacity, updating to new technologies, and/or maintaining high quality service. While an applicant is no longer required to show a significant gap in service coverage, federal courts have found that, a local jurisdiction clearly violates section 332(c)(7)(B)(i)(II) when it prevents a wireless carrier from using the least intrusive means to fill a significant gap in service coverage. T-Mobile U.S.A., Inc. v. City of Anacortes, 572 F.3d 987, 988 (9th Cir. 2009). • Significant Gap. Reliable in-building coverage is now a necessity and every community’s expectation. Consistent with the abandonment of land line telephones and reliance on only wireless communications, federal courts now recognize that a “significant gap” can exist based on inadequate in-building coverage. See, e.g., T-Mobile Central, LLC v. Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, 528 F. Supp. 2d 1128, 1168-69 (D.Kan. 2007), affirmed in part, 546 F.3d 1299 (10th Cir. 2008); MetroPCS, Inc. v. City and County of San Francisco, 2006 WL 1699580, *10-11 (N.D. Cal. 2006). • Least Intrusive Means. The least intrusive means standard “requires that the provider ‘show that the manner in which it proposes to fill the significant gap in service is the least intrusive on the values that the denial sought to serve.’” 572 F.3d at 995, quoting MetroPCS, Inc. v. City of San Francisco, 400 F.3d 715, 734 (9th Cir. 2005). These values are reflected by the local code’s preferences and siting requirements. AT&T has provided documentation demonstrating that the subject site is the least intrusive and in fact only means or available siting option to address and remedy its service gap in this area of Fort Collins. Attachment 4 – RF Justification (Search Ring and Alternatives Analysis). 5.2.1 Environmental and health effects prohibited from consideration. Also under the Telecom Act, a jurisdiction is prohibited from considering the environmental effects of RF emissions (including health effects) of the proposed site if the site will operate in compliance with federal regulations. 47 U.S.C. § 332(c)(7)(B)(iv). AT&T has included with this application a statement from its radio frequency engineers demonstrating that the proposed facility will operate in accordance with the Federal Communications Commission’s RF emissions regulations. See Attachment 7. Accordingly, this issue is preempted under federal law. AT&T Final Development Plan Submittal 7 5.2.2. No discrimination amongst providers. Local jurisdiction also may not discriminate amongst providers of functionally equivalent services. 47 U.S.C. § 332(c)(7)(B)(i)(I). A jurisdiction must be able to provide plausible reasons for disparate treatment of different providers’ applications for similarly situated facilities. 5.3. Federal “Shot Clock”. Finally, the Telecom Act requires local jurisdictions to act upon applications for wireless communications sites within a “reasonable” period of time. 47 U.S.C. § 332(c)(7)(B)(ii). The FCC has issued a “Shot Clock” rule to establish a deadline for the issuance of land use permits for wireless facilities. 47 C.F.R. § 1.6001, et seq. A presumptively reasonable period of time for a local government to act on all relevant applications for this collocated wireless facility is 90 days. 47 C.F.R. § 1.6003(c)(1)(ii). The Shot Clock date is determined by counting forward 90 calendar days from the day after the date of submittal, including any required pre-application period. 47 C.F.R. § 1.6003(e). For the reasons set forth in the submitted materials, AT&T respectfully requests approval of the application in accordance with the 90-day shot clock that applies to the entire authorization process including review of the building permit.