[TowerTalk] tower restrictions

[Kelly Johnson]

Agreed.  My strong preference is to move to a city or county where
there is a well established, clear, and easy to follow zoning
ordinance that clearly covers ham towers and then get the building
permit.  All is legal that way and it is difficult (at best) for a
neighbor stop the process.  That is why I limited my last home search
to 3 cities in my area that already had well established and clear
zoning ordinances for ham towers.  I avoided any city that was already
known to be hostile to hams (eg. San Jose, CA) and any city that did
not explicitly talk about amateur radio towers in their zoning
ordinance.  There are lots of cities that will try to limit tower
height to the height of any other accessory structure (eg. San Jose,
CA with its 12 foot limit) if there is no ordinance in place that
explicitly covers amateur radio towers.  Some cities will try to
regulate amateur radio towers under the same ordinance that covers
cell towers.  That's not a good thing for hams.  Most cell tower
ordinances require special use permits, public hearings, excessive
screening requirements, and often limit you to a "monopole" design.
Moving to a city with no clear ordinance is a risk.  Moving to a
sub-division with a questionable CC&R is also a risk.  Some people
have successfully put up towers in both cases, but many others have
not.


On 7/18/08, David Gilbert <xdavid at cis-broadband.com> wrote:
>
> That's convenient, but possibly not wise.  I wonder what your insurance
> company's position will be if your tower falls down and causes a lot of
> damage (or injures someone), and you can't show that installing it had
> been approved or inspected for compliance to code.  My guess is that
> they don't much care how well established you are in the community.
>
> Or what happens if a new neighbor moves in two houses down from you and
> turns you in to the local planning and zoning commission (which is
> usually obligated to act).  In most places, the township would have the
> right to force you to take it down even if you had met the local code
> when installing it, although they would be more likely to just levy a
> fine against you.
>
> I always viewed building permits as cheap insurance against such issues
> even though they aren't a guarantee.
>
> 73,
> Dave   AB7E
>
>
>
> Gregg Seidl wrote:
> > The more I read all the interesting stories about what can go wrong with
> > trying to put up a reasonable tower I think I'll stay here forever.I guess
> > I'm lucky,I put up an 85 foot tower this year as well as a short 12 footer
> > and I didn't even get a building permit.I've had other towers up in my yard
> > now for 19 years and no one has said a word.
> >     It "might" help that I've lived in this township my whole life as did my
> > parents,grandparents.....
> >     There has just got to be other townships that don't get all bent out of
> > shape over towers.  www.k9kl.com
> >
> >
> > Gregg K9KL
> >
> >
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