Brooklawn City Zoning Code
ARTICLE XIII
Personnel Wireless Service Facilities and Communications Towers
§ 150-65 Definitions.
As used in this article, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:
Those antennas and/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.
§ 150-66 Purpose.
A.
To provide for the use of personal wireless service facilities communications antennas and 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, height and landscaping/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 personal wireless service facilities so as to reduce the number and scale of such structures in the future.
§ 150-67 Regulation of telecommunications antennas or towers.
Telecommunications antennas and towers shall be regulated in the Borough of Brooklawn in accordance with this article. 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 Communications Commission (FCC), or other uses that are not necessary to send or receive transmissions.
§ 150-68 Use.
A.
Towers may be permitted as a conditional principal use only on lots in the D Shopping Center Zone of the Borough of Brooklawn.
B.
Towers may be permitted as a conditional accessory use only within the Borough's D Shopping Center 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, smokestacks, and communication towers in any zone.
§ 150-69 Conditional use; requirements.
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 applicant shall demonstrate that the proposed antenna is the minimum height required for the antenna to function satisfactorily, or as regulated by the FCC. No antennas taller than this minimum height shall be approved.
C.
Setback. Towers shall be set back from all sides of the property at a distance from the property lines which is equal to or greater than the tower's proposed height. No other structures or other personal wireless service facilities, other than those structures expressly permitted in this article, may be constructed within the fall zone of any tower. No tower shall be erected within 500 feet of any single-family residential use, or school facilities' property lines.
D.
Collocation.
(1)
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 providers in the Borough of Brooklawn and local police, fire, ambulance, emergency preparedness, and public education facilities. Before any application may be considered by the Planning Board, 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 35 feet, within the Borough and within a one-quarter-mile radius of the proposed site, stating their needs and asking for permission to install or share the site of their proposed antennas.
(2)
Applicants shall provide testimony confirming 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. Copies of proposed access, collocation, or other related leases and agreements shall be provided to the Planning Board Solicitor for his or her review.
E.
Construction. Towers shall be either of a freestanding (monopole) or lattice (self-supporting) design and shall be constructed in such a manner as to provide for clipping or reducing the size of the fall zone to 66% of the total height. Towers anchored with guide or the like wires shall not be permitted. All towers and support structures shall be fitted with anticlimbing devices, as approved by the manufacturers, so as to inhibit and discourage climbing by trespassers.
F.
Access. An access road shall be constructed to allow access to the tower facility. The applicant must provide performance guarantees or adequate assurances that all access roads shall be fully and solely maintained by the property owner or user in the future.
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, and 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 Planning Board Solicitor.
I.
Screening. The base of towers or other personal wireless service facilities must be screened on all sides from 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 designed, installed and maintained 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 instrument 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 owner of any communications tower within the Borough of Brooklawn shall undertake 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 a qualified engineer licensed by the State of New Jersey. The certified results of such inspections shall be provided to the Borough Engineer who shall advise the governing body regarding any required repairs and/or reconstruction or, if necessary, the removal of a tower.
M.
Abandonment. In the event that a tower is left unused for a period of more than six months, the tower shall be determined to be abandoned and deemed 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.
§ 150-70 Site plan.
The applicant must submit a site plan to the Planning Board of the Borough of Brooklawn and receive its approval for all new antennas or 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 use; however, no building permit may be used nor may installation or construction of the approved use occur in the absence of site plan approval or waiver by the Planning Board.