Cell tower at top of Comp Plan concerns

A proposed cellular tower was the 150-foot elephant in the room at the Tuesday, Feb. 21 Longboat Key Planning & Zoning Board meeting.

The town currently doesn’t have a completed cell-tower application on file, Town Planner Steve Schield confirmed to the board at its Tuesday, Feb. 21 meeting. But the word “tower” — one word of a sentence proposed for a Comprehensive Plan that currently totals more than 200 pages — was the focus of much of the meeting.

The amendment to Policy 1.1.10 to the town’s Comprehensive Plan states:

“Height restrictions for each category shall not apply to antennae, enclosed mechanical equipment areas, chimneys, house of worship spires or towers, but the town land-development regulations shall limit their height.”

Attorney Charlie Bailey, who represents Grand Mariner owners Ralph and Sheri Trine, who oppose the proposed tower, echoed the argument he made in November, when the Longboat Key Town Commission voted to transmit changes to its Comprehensive Plan to the state Department of Economic Opportunity. He said that the town should hold off on making the changes until the consulting firm TE Connectivity Inc. could complete its wireless-communications study, which will likely occur in April.

“To make this change now would be premature and, perhaps, conflict with the recommendations of TE Connectivity,” Bailey said.

The proposed changes wouldn’t eliminate height restrictions on the structures listed, but, instead, would limit them through the town’s land-use regulations instead of its Comprehensive Plan. But Bailey argued that those regulations must be consistent with the Comprehensive Plan and that the P&Z Board should wait until it has the data and analysis needed to make changes.

P&Z Board Chairwoman B.J. Webb made a motion to continue the discussion of proposed Comprehensive Plan amendments at its March 27 meeting. But several board members worried that the board was holding off on taking action because of minor concerns about language.

“All we’re trying to do is determine the intent of the future land-use policy,” board member Leonard Garner said. “I don’t see any point in not moving forward.”

The motion passed 5-4. But some board members had concerns that they still wouldn’t have the information they need to make decisions about the Comprehensive Plan by the next meeting. They agreed that they would submit questions to Schield to transmit to TE Connectivity over the next week.

To observers of the Comprehensive Plan process, the scene at the P&Z Board meeting may have seemed like déjà vu all over again. That’s because the Comprehensive Plan changes discussed required the P&Z Board make recommendations, which go to the Town Commission for two public hearings, which are then transmitted to various state and local agencies, which then forward their suggestions. The amendments then head back to P&Z for another round of recommendations before going back to the commission, which adopts them after two hearings.

Down to the wire(less)
As part of its wireless communications study, TE Connectivity Inc. will gather feedback at two public meetings scheduled for 3 to 7 p.m. Friday, March 16, at Christ Church of Longboat Key, Presbyterian, 6400 Gulf of Mexico Drive, and 3 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 4, at Longboat Key Town Hall, 501 Bay Isles Road.