BSG, T-Mobile seek property owner compromise on San Jacinto Circle wireless facility

Property owner Nash Williams will likely need to make some concessions if he is to receive rental income from T-Mobile for a wireless communication facility on his San Jacinto Circle property.

The county’s Planning Commission withheld its approval of a Major Use Permit for the wireless facility during a March 7 hearing, opting to continue the hearing to May 2 so that a design acceptable to the Bonsall Sponsor Group can replace the false tree stipulated in the current application.

“It sounds like the planning group’s done everything the planning group’s supposed to do,” said Planning Commissioner Michael Beck.

Both T-Mobile representative Ted Marioncelli and Bonsall Sponsor Group chair Margarette Morgan are amenable to a design in which the antenna utilizes a false chimney. “We have discussed that alternate design with the (sponsor) group,” Marioncelli said.

“That’s what we recommended the first time,” Morgan said. “We’ve approved them in Bonsall. We like them.”

Williams is the owner of a single-family residence on a 1.14-acre property in the 5200 block of San Jacinto Circle. The property has RR5 rural residential zoning, making it a non-preferred zone for telecommunication facilities. Although commercial and industrial zones are preferred over residential and agricultural zones, no other preferred zones will allow T-Mobile to meet its coverage objective.

“We all want cell site coverage,” Morgan said.

What Morgan and other sponsor group members do not want is the 40-foot false broadleaf tree with 12 antennas mounted. The proposed false tree on the southeastern portion of the parcel would be accompanied by an equipment shelter surrounded by a block wall ten feet high with stucco finish and a roof membrane.

“There is a beautiful blue sky,” Morgan said of the area.

“We also have a view shed and a ridgeline ordinance,” Morgan said. “Both of those are to preserve the rural community.”

The Bonsall Sponsor Group originally voted to recommend approval of the wireless facility based on conditions including screening around the cabinets and existing pump shelter, widening and repairing the road, and the applicant’s commitment to a road maintenance agreement.

“They’ve not participated in any road maintenance agreement,” Morgan said. “The impact on the residents’ road has not been addressed at all.”

T-Mobile requires a height of 40 feet to reach a sufficient service area and explored a redesign. Williams and T-Mobile indicated that a chimney more than five feet in height would be unusual and conspicuous and determined that the broadleaf tree design would be retained.

In February 2007 the Bonsall Sponsor Group voted to deny the project, commenting that the antennas should be incorporated into the building design such as a chimney or siding panels and that all false trees should be removed from the plot plans.

In January 2008 the sponsor group once again voted to deny the project and addressed compliance with the community plan, the visual impact, and the lack of a road maintenance agreement.

“There’s a second hill behind this,” Morgan said. “This antenna is going to be blocking their view from the next hill over.”

The Bonsall Sponsor Group submitted a proposed wireless facility master plan to the county’s Department of Planning and Land Use in 2006, although the county has not taken action on adopting the plan. The blue sky policy is part of that master plan.

“They are guidelines of the planning group,” said DPLU planning manager Alyssa Maxson. “It’s not adopted policy.”

Earlier attempts by T-Mobile to convince Williams to incorporate the antenna into a chimney design were unsuccessful due to the recent installation of photovoltaic cells on the roof along with a solar heating system. “He was very concerned about anything else on his roof,” Marioncelli said.

“He’s getting compensated for having this on his property,” Beck said. “It sounds as if you’re kind of asking permission.”

Williams’ concerns about shadows interfering with the production of his photovoltaic cells also led to the topping of live trees, and T-Mobile performed a solar light study to show that photovoltaic cells would not be affected by the antenna. “We could construct it without adding any weight to the roof,” Marioncelli said. “We proposed this alternative to the property owner.”

The whip antenna concept was also discussed during the feasibility exploration. “I don’t believe T-Mobile’s technology could really take advantage of a whip antenna,” he said.

“We’ve done the chimney before,” Marioncelli said. “We have an application in Bonsall for one.”

That other application, which has not advanced to the public hearing stage, is for a facility on Gopher Canyon Way. A garage would be built to install the chimney.