Clarion County commissioners addressed problems with “vertical real estate” (communication towers) at a public meeting Thursday.
A proposed ordinance would preserve the county’s landscape and ensure the removal of a tower at the end of its life. In addition, the county would have a free spot on a new tower in case the county needs to expand emergency services.
The ordinance includes all communication towers, public or private, and current and future towers.
“You never know what the future may hold and what communications we may need,” said commissioner Ted Tharan. “We are trying to think ahead and plan for the future.”
Smathers said that, depending on the use of a tower, the county may need to place an equipment shelter at the site but if the tower was to be used for broadband, GPS or a weather station, the equipment could be placed in a cabinet.
“The ordinance will help preserve our landscape. We don’t want to have a tower site on literally every hilltop in Clarion County,” said Smathers. “We can do that by co-locating two or three services on the same tower. We are using those towers more effectively.”
Commissioner Ed Heasley said the ordinance also addresses abandoned towers.
Smathers said the county currently has no ordinance to address abandoned or dilapidated towers. “This ordinance will put some teeth into that,” he said.
The ordinance requires a communications tower owner to remove a communications tower and associated facilities if it is unused or abandoned for a period of 12 months and the requirement of an appropriate surety (bond) to cover the costs of removal.
“This prevents people from buying up tower sites and just sitting on them,” said Smathers. “This has to do with being a reasonable steward of the real estate of Clarion County.”
Tharan said sometimes a company will build a tower and, 20 years later, when it needs repairs they will bankrupt that dummy corporation and walk away from it.
“They won’t pay the taxes on it and it goes into the repository and it falls back into our lap,” said Tharan. “We, the county, have to pay to take the tower down.”
“With this ordinance we will have a way to pay for it,” said Smathers. He said in earlier agreements the property owner didn’t look at the fine print and there was no language on how to remove the tower.
Clarion County planner Kristi Amato suggested that county residents with current towers on their property might be able to re-negotiate their lease to include removal language. She pointed out that 99 percent of the towers are on leased land.
Smathers noted that the landowner would be responsible for removal, which could be up to 20 percent the cost of construction, but also the cost of illuminating the tower.
“The Federal Aviation Administration requires the towers be lit or there is a sizable fine,” he said. “It is considered to be vertical real estate by the FAA.”
Smathers said land must be restored to its original condition if a tower is removed.
“That would include the removal of any buildings and the cement pad the tower stands on,” he said.
The commissioners will consider the proposed ordinance for adoption during its meeting Tuesday. Copies of the full text of the ordinance may be examined at the courthouse law library during regular business hours.