Planning commission advances draft wireless-communications zoning and schedules special meeting to refine setbacks and standards

The Petersburg Borough Planning and Zoning Commission spent more than an hour reviewing a draft zoning ordinance intended to update the borough code for communication equipment, commercial wireless facilities and broadband. Commissioner Heather O'Neil read and explained sections that would add definitions, set application requirements, require photographic simulations, limit lighting and signage, and mandate structural assessments and removal timelines.

Commissioners debated several policy choices: whether towers and communications equipment should be treated as permitted or conditional uses (the group favored conditional use for towers and considered making collocation by-right), whether to separate definitions for towers versus equipment to preserve differing FCC timelines, and what setbacks to require from property lines and sensitive sites. Proposed setbacks discussed included double the tower height for property-line setbacks, a sensitive-site setback of either 1,500 or 3,000 feet, and a formula using 10 times the tower height or a fixed minimum, whichever is greater. Commissioners also discussed a required exception process that would allow setback reductions if a provider demonstrated a "significant gap" in coverage, and the need to specify what evidence (for example, RF heat maps or third-party coverage data) carriers must provide.

Given the complexity and the volume of public comment, commissioners asked staff to compile zoning language used in other Southeast Alaska municipalities and scheduled a special meeting for Friday, Feb. 23 at 10:00 a.m. in the chambers to draft a version the commission can place on the assembly agenda.