[Towertalk] Permits

[Tom Anderson]

AL:

When my XYL Cheryl (WY5H) and I lived at our former QTH in the late 1980s in
Bedford TX  I put up 40 ft. of Rohn 25, but before I did I wrote the mayor
and asked him if there were ANY height or other ordinances, building permit,
etc. that would preclude me putting up a tower.  He wrote back on city
letterhead and said the city had no restrictions of any kind.

A year or two later a ham a couple blocks away put up an HDBX 48 with a
number of VHF/UHF antennas on it and his neighbors went ballistic.  They
complained to the city council, zoning board, anyone who would listen that
it was ugly, a health hazard(?) and was causing all kind of interference to
their TV's, radios, garage door openers, touch lamps, anything electrical.
The trouble was the coax went into his house but didn't even have a PL259 on
the end, or an N connector, it was just coiled up in his shack with NOTHING
attached, but yet the neighbors claimed he was causing all kind of
interference.

They complained so much that the city decided to look into the tower
situation all over town.  And the mayor said at a standing room only council
meeting the city had all kinds of ordinances that regulated towers already
in place.  Boy did he shut up in a hurry when I spoke to the council and
mentioned the mayor's letter and then gave each one of them a copy and asked
the mayor if that was his signature, but he couldn't remember dictating the
letter or signing it (he admitted it was his signature though) , but it was
on a city letterhead.

Before the Electronic Privacy Act was enacted the ham that was being
complained about started monitoring cordless phone conversations around his
home (it seems everyone around him had one) and he had several hours of
conversations where his neighbors were plotting to make a midnight attack on
his tower and weaken a couple legs so it would fall conveniently into one of
their yards and then file a lawsuit to bankrupt him. Other plots were made
such as tire slashings, putting weed killer on his yard, etc.  none were
ever carried out, but the plots were there.

The city finally ordered an inspection of every ham tower in town and had
water dept. employees driving every street to look for towers (they missed a
few crankups whose owners left them cranked down during the antenna fuss).
Then they hired the president of Andrews Tower Co. to make an inspection.
Before he would inspected the ham towers the city had to agree that ALL
towers, both ham and commercial must be inspected, which they reluctantly
agreed to.

The inspection report showed only one ham tower had any serious problem, but
the city's police and fire dept. radio tower was severely overloaded with
antennas and the school district's radio tower was ruled to be unsafe and in
immediate danger of collapse.  I had to add an additional house bracket to
my tower but other than that it was fine since I had poured a huge base to
add to its strength.  The irony of it was every ham welcomed Mr. Andrews
with open arms, while the city and schools did their best to keep him from
inspecting their towers.

The city finally passed an ordinance allowing up to 50 ft. with no special
permits because on 99 percent of city lots the already existing setback
requirements would preclude putting up anything higher than that unless you
had an acre or two and there were few of those there.

We thought we had won, but later the council unbeknownst to us passed an
annual $75 antenna inspection fee to pay for Mr. Andrews to come back every
year.  That lasted only a year or so until we got a new mayor who realized
how many of the things the city did were rinky dink among them the ham tower
inspection, so it just died a very quick death.

Also in another bit of irony, all of the dozen or so families involved in
the original ham tower dispute ultimately got a divorce.  The tower and the
VHF/UHF antennas are still there as the ham, who owned an electronics
consulting company, rented it out cheap to one of his employees just to
needle the neighbors who are still live in the neighborhood.  WY5H and I are
still together after 33 years.

Tom, WW5L



Al Crespo wrote:

> Prior to buying a hilltop residence, I contacted the planning department
> of Orinda, California and was informed there was no regulations for
> amateur radio towers. I insisted I wanted a building permit and a sign
> off from the City that the tower was legal. I paid my messily $150.00,
> received a permit to install a HDX 72 tower. It was installed and the
> City signed off on the permit. As soon as I cranked it up, the
> neighbours went nuts. They tried every trick in the book to revoke the
> permit. They even tried to use an a clause in the City's ordinance's
> that said if an official did an unlawful act ( issuing a permit for a
> tower), then the consequences of that act was unlawful and void.
> My tower was in the local newspaper and I was called the "rapist" of
> Orinda because I had destroyed the landscape of the City.
> I had to hired counsel and many  City council meetings later, the City
> Attorney finally admitted to the mob and the City Council that the
> permit could not be revoked. It was a very painful and time consuming
> event in my life for me and my wife. If I had not had my permit, the
> tower would have been history and they would have gone as far as charge
> me with a criminal offence for violating the zoning ordinance.
> With all that said, if you put something up without  a permit, you too
> can be subject to the same misery I had.
> I now live in France. I got a permit for a 21 meter tower from my
> village of 200 people. Most hams in France do not get permits for their
> towers, but I learned my lesson and got mine. The cost of the permit was
> peanuts and it will stay up forever.
> 73, Al, F5VHJ
>
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