Planning Commission approves MUP for wireless facility on FPUD Willow Glen site

The county’s Planning Commission approved a Major Use Permit for Sprint Nextel to construct and operate a wireless communications facility and equipment shelter at the Fallbrook Public Utility District’s Willow Glen water tank site.

The 6-0 vote April 6, with Planning Commissioner Adam Day absent, allows for a faux pine tree 45 feet high which will carry up to 15 panel type antennas measuring six feet in height. The antennas will be painted to match the fake tree’s color, and the equipment shelter measuring 20 feet by 11 1/2 feet by 10 feet will be located adjacent to the base of the tree lookalike.

The facility will encompass 230 square feet of a 1.5-acre parcel in the 2100 block of East Mission Road. A T-Mobile wireless facility already exists on the site. The property is in an area zoned A70, or Limited Agriculture, and is outside the “preferred zone” locations, but there are no commercially-zoned or industrially-zoned locations which could serve the same coverage area. Because the facility is located in a rural area, a Major Use Permit is required.

The equipment cabinets will be housed within a concrete masonry unit (CMU) wall to screen the equipment from surrounding properties and shield nearby properties from noise. Photo simulations have indicated that the antennas, equipment shelter, and CMU wall will be unobtrusive and will not negatively impact the surrounding viewshed. An existing driveway will provide access to the site from Mission Road.