When I first put up my tower (1978) I went to the city. (Chesapeake
Virginia) The buildings guy told me "it's not a building" and it not
covered in my domain, check with zoning. Went down two desks and asked
zoning, they said its not a zoning issue. I summed it up for em and said
"so I don't need a permit of any kind"? They said "no not needed". When I
had it about 50 feet and still "under construction" apparently a neighbor
complained and I got a call from "the building permit people".
They asked me why I didn't have a permit. I said I spoke to the two
gentlemen at those desks and they told me it was not required. They had a
conference and said OK, no permit needed.
I said, since I'm here, I'd like to donate to the city and get a permit to
avoid any further confusion, why don't we just call it a tower structure.
They told me I would be wasting my money. I said, I'd just like to do it to
avoid any other problems. They said Ok and Thats what they did.
4 Years ago when we decided to put in an inground swimming pool, the pool
company caused the tower base to become undermined(long story) causing the
tower to lean toward a neighbors house. The tower (AB-105) had to be taken
down and a new base poured and re-installed. The legal issues about who
was going to pay for all this took over two years. During this period we had
some new neighbors move in who had never seen the tower. Most of the
existing neighbors moved in after 1978 when the tower was up and were
accustomed to it being there. During the rebuild some one else complained
to the city. The city came out and asked why I didn't get a permit.. This
inspector just knew I didn't have one. I dusted off the old permit and
showed it to the city inspector. He looked at it and said "would it be OK
if we came out and gave it a courtesy inspection after it was fully up?. I
said no problem. They came out and inspected it and gave it a clean bill of
health..
Several other communities here don't regulate the tower itself but state
that if a tower were to fall, it must fall totally on your own property.
That means that if you only have 50 feet of clearance to the property line
in one direction, that you would be limited to 50 feet in height. If you
want to go higher than 50 feet you would have to obtain a letter from the
neighbor whose property it could fall on saying it was ok with them to build
to 60 or 70 feet etc.
There are a lot of towers here in Chesapeake but as far as I know I have the
only "tower structure permit" ever issued.
All that being said, if San Jose doesn't say it's ILLEGAL and they are
more or less willing to look the other way, I would begin construction
today. Forgiveness is almost always easier to get than permission.
73
Chet N6ZO
----- Original Message -----
From: <K7LXC@aol.com>
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>; <pewing@plxtech.com>
Sent: Monday, June 27, 2005 11:50 PM
Subject: [TowerTalk] Installing a New Tower - Trylon Titan T200-96'
> In a message dated 6/27/2005 4:38:30 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
> towertalk-request@contesting.com writes:
>
>> I went to the City of San Jose Building Permits office on Friday and
>> asked
> About the permit process to put up a freestanding 60 ft tower in my back
> yard. They said "can't do it" They won't issue tower permits. They told me
> That all the towers I see in San Jose are un-permitted. They had heard of
> PRB-1 and were in talks with the ARRL.
>
>> They implied that I should "do what everyone else does".
>
> That's right. Get a copy of the ARRL tower information (I don't know
> what
> the nomenclature of it is - sorry). Get a copy of K1VR's incredible book
> on
> towers and zoning, permit, etc. issues. Get a copy of the building codes.
> Contact your ARRL representative.
>
> You don't have any real questions or perspective yet. Do your homework
> with the above and THEN head to the building department.
>
> I know that K6KR screwed things up some years ago so there are
> restrictions but you should be able to do it by jumping thru all the
> hoops. Also the
> ham-law reflector is good when you get to the point of having specific
> questions
> - that's where are the legal eagles hang out.
>
> LXC Prime Building Department Directive: Find one person in the
> department who is either sympathetic or knowledgeable or both and stick
> with them. If
> you talk to 3 different people in the building department you'll wind up
> with 3
> different interpretations. Talk to other local hams who have gone thru the
> process and talk to them - especially if they can give you a name of
> someone in
> the building department.
>
> Cheers & GL,
> Steve K7LXC
> TOWER TECH
> _______________________________________________
>
> See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless
> Weather Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with
> any questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
>
> _______________________________________________
> TowerTalk mailing list
> TowerTalk@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
>
_______________________________________________
See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless Weather
Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions
and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
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