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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008 TURNBERRY RD WTF - PDP160018 - CORRESPONDENCE - RESPONSE TO STAFF REVIEW COMMENTSMarch 7, 2017 Attn: Clay Frickey Planning Department Fort Collins Planning Services 281 North College Avenue Fort Collins, CO 80524 RE: Maple Hill Comment Response Letter Department: Engineering Development Review Comment Number 2 The City Utility Plan Approval Blocks have been removed from the zoning drawing set. Atlas is currently working on gaining zoning approval for other towers with the City of Fort Collins. These other tower have required a separate utilities set, so Atlas Tower has separated the utility set for this application as well for consistency. Comment Number 3 The $250 easement dedication City Transportation Development Review Fee was for the dedication of the fire lane to the City of Fort Collins. This easement is forthcoming and will be submitted prior to final plan approval. The utility easement will not be dedicated to the City of Fort Collins, but will be between the property owner, Atlas Tower, and Fort Collins Light and Power. Comment Number 4 No comment necessary. Comment Number 1 (Sheri Langenberger) The $65 TDR Fee will has been mailed to The City of Fort Collins. Department: Environmental Planning Topic: General Comment Number 3 Atlas Tower will consider these suggested sustainability programs. Topic: Landscape Plans Comment Number 1 No comment necessary. Topic: Lighting Plan Comment Number 2 No security lighting will be placed on this proposed WTF. Department: PFA Comment Number 1 This easement is forthcoming and will be submitted prior to final plan approval. Comment Number 2 Atlas will adhere to these comments and has modified the turn near the hammerhead turnaround to meet the 25 feet inside curve requirement. Comment Number 3 Atlas will adhere to this comment. Comment Number 4 Atlas will adhere to this comment. Comment Number 5 Atlas will adhere to this comment. Fire lane way finding signage plan has been included in the zoning drawings, sheet C-1, site plan diagram. Department: Planning Services Comment Number 1 Atlas Tower has included this information in Exhibit A of this letter. Comment Number 2 The proposed tower will have a top. This has been added to the zoning drawings on sheet C-2, tower elevation diagram. Comment Number 3 The tower will be painted Sherwin Williams 7637 “Oyster White”. A paint sample will be mailed to The City of Fort Collins for review. Comment Number 4 The fence will also be painted Sherwin Williams 7637 “Oyster White”. Comment Number 5 Atlas has moved the index sheet to the front of the packet. Comment Number 6 Atlas has modified the supplemental narrative to be consistent with the site plan. Comment Number 7 Atlas Tower has included more information regarding the need for coverage in this area in Exhibit B of this letter. Storm Water Engineering Comment Number 1 A drainage and erosion control report have been submitted with the application. Comment Number 2 No comment necessary. Department: Technical Services Comment Number 1 Atlas has incorporated this comment into its drawing set. Comment Number 2 Atlas has incorporated this comment into its drawing set. Comment Number 3 No comment necessary Department: Water-Wastewater Engineering Comment Number 1 No wastewater services will be needed for this site. Department: Zoning Comment Number 1 Atlas has separated the drawings into a Planning/Zoning set and a Utility Plan set. Comment Number 2 Atlas has included a title sheet with signature blocks and a title sheet with the Planning/Zoning set. Comment Number 3 Atlas has included a cap/top on the elevation diagram. Comment Number 4 Since this is an agricultural property and the proposed tower will be surrounded by a fence, Atlas does not believe that landscaping is needed for this site. Comment Number Atlas has modified the supplemental narrative to be consistent with the site plan. Best Regards, Caleb Crossland Atlas Tower Companies 4450 Arapahoe Ave., Suite 100 Boulder, CO 80303 Exhibit A Feb 10, 2017 Attn: Clay Frickey Planning Department Fort Collins Planning Services 281 North College Avenue Fort Collins, CO 80524 RE: Radio Frequency Coverage Requirements For The Area Surrounding 2008 Turnberry Rd., Fort Collins, CO 80524 Below are questions and answers regarding the . Question: What would you estimate to be the average frequency of maintenance work done by a single carrier on the WTF in a given month or year? Answer: On average, after initial installation, a carrier or its contactors would likely visit the WTF about one time a month for maintenance, though this number could very greatly depending on the specific circumstances of the WTF. Question: What would be the average number of vehicles entering and leaving the site for maintenance in a given month or year? Answer: The average maintenance visit by a carrier or its contractors would likely involve one pickup truck, but this number could very greatly. With an average of one visit a month and one truck a visit, there would likely be about one pickup truck visiting the site a month per carrier. Question: What would be the average duration of work during visits to the WTF by a carrier or its contractors? Answer: For typical maintenance visits, a carrier or its contactors would only be at the site a few hours, but this number could increase substantially depending on the work that needed to be completed at the site. Question: What do you expect the noise level to be at the site for a single carrier, or for up to three carriers? Answer: WTF are essentially silent. This would be true whether there was one or three carriers. It is certainly true if you are a few hundred feet from the WTF. A generator could be operated on site in the rare instance that power went out. The generator would create noise, but it would not be noticeable a few hundred feet away, off of the parcel. Please feel free to contact me with follow-up question or concerns. Best Regards, Caleb Crossland Project Manager Atlas Tower 1, LLC (303) 448-8896 ccrossand@atlastowers.com Exhibit B Network Engineering RF Documentation for Proposed Long Pond Site at 2008 Turnberry Rd., Fort Collins, CO 80524 Overview: Verizon Wireless strives to provide excellent wireless service for our users with a network of telecommunications facilities that allows our users to reliably place and receive mobile-phone calls and utilize data services. Verizon is working to improve its network in the residential areas in northeast Fort Collins, centered near Long Pond. The performance of a network consists mainly of two factors: coverage and capacity. Coverage can be thought of as the strength of a wireless signal in a given area. Capacity can be thought of as the ability of the wireless network to handle the amount of voice and data demands placed upon it. Neither the coverage nor the capacity of the network in northeastern Fort Collins meet Verizon’s performance goals or user expectations. Increasing coverage and capacity in the area requires the development of a new telecommunications facility that can house up to twelve antennas, near users, with line-of-site to much of the surrounding area. Line of Site Requirements: In order to provide excellent service, which Verizon Wireless defines as –80 dBm, the telecommunications facility needs to provide a line of sight to the roads, offices, and homes where users work and reside. One of the challenges of providing excellent coverage is providing strong in-building coverage to users. Strong in-building coverage is often difficult to attain because of the degradation of the Radio Frequency (RF) signal when it travels through solid obstacles such as tree foliage or buildings. A tower height that is greater than the existing tree and building clutter increases in-building coverage because it decreases the number of solid objects, such as trees and buildings, that a cellular signal must pass though in order to reach a user. Because the proposed facility would be located on ground that is relatively high and the stealth silo would be taller than the surrounding buildings and trees, the line-of-site from the proposed facility would be ideal for providing coverage to the surrounding residential area. With the proposed facility at 60ft, Verizon could install its antennas at 55ft on center and could have line-of-site coverage to most of the users that Verizon seeks to serve with the proposed facility. Location Requirements: Early cellular network designs placed tall telecommunications facility towers (often in excess of 200ft) on top of hills. This provided cellular providers the ability to cover the most area possible with very few telecommunications facilities. As cell-phone users have increased, these tall, hill top facilities have been forced to provide service to an increasing number of users in a given area. In addition to there being more users, the average user is utilizing applications on their phones and tablets that require more data than ever before. With more people using cell phones and most cell-phone users requiring more data, existing structures are no longer able to handle the capacity load placed upon them. Cellular design has evolved so that multiple shorter cell sites, located near high traffic or high population areas, are now favored. These smaller sites near population centers can provide fast and reliable service to a more focused geographic area. This ultimately results in fewer dropped calls and access failures for users. The proposed location directly abuts the residential area the proposed facility would cover. The proposed location is ideal for providing fast and reliable coverage to much of the residential area of northeastern Fort Collins. The Existing Verizon Network: Verizon’s existing network in northeastern Fort Collins (north of Vine and east of College) is currently not meeting Verizon’s goals for excellent coverage, or user expectations. Verizon has received multiple complaints from users of dropped and degraded calls and slow data speeds. In this area there are both issues of coverage and capacity. Verizon has been working with vendors for over a year in order to develop a telecommunications facility near the proposed facility. Future Need: The existing infrastructure surrounding the proposed facility is not currently meeting Verizon’s goals for excellent coverage, or user expectations, and its performance will only decrease as time goes on unless the network is expanded. If the network in not improved, the network could reach a point of non- functionality in the next few years. As was mentioned above, an increasing percentage of the population is using cell phones and cell-phone users are requiring more and more data. In addition to this, Fort Collins is growing quickly and there is planned development in northeastern Fort Collins. As more homes and schools are built, the existing infrastructure will become less and less able to meet demand. Safety: Do to the ubiquity of cell phone use, an unreliable network can be a safety risk. Because more and more people are no longer utilizing landlines, it is becoming more and more common for emergency calls to be made on cell phones. If cell-phone calls are severely degraded, it can be difficult or impossible for a user to make a call in the case of an emergency, which poses severe safety risks. Charts Showing Capacity Issues With the Existing Network: Average users in Blue can be seen exceeding capacity. Trend line shows it further increasing as we get towards the end of the year. Propagation Maps: The propagation map below is a computer simulation of Verizon’s existing coverage in northeastern Fort Collins. Map Legend: (Same for both Maps) The propagation map below is a computer simulation of what Verizon’s coverage in northeastern Fort Collins could be with the proposed facility. Conclusion: Verizon needs to increase both its network coverage and capacity in northeastern Fort Collins for both current and future use. The proposed site at 2008 Turnberry Road it ideally situated with regard to both topography and with regard to its proximity to the residential users it is intended to serve. The topography of the proposed location allows line-of-site coverage to much of the surrounding residential area and its location places it among population it is intended to serve. The proposed site’s topography and location is ideal for Verizon’s purposed and will allow it to greatly improve wireless performance in northeastern Fort Collins. Sincerely, Ram Nandiraju RF Engineer Verizon Wireless FTC_LongPond