[TowerTalk] TowerTalk is old enough to drink!

[N4ZR]

A possibility, I admit, but my experience may be instructive.  When I 
moved to West Virginia in 1995, my county was one of the only ones in 
the state with zoning, but the LESA zoning ordinance (such as it was) 
was very simple and defined amateur radio towers as public utilities.  
About that time, they decided to adopt a full-blown zoning ordinance, 
and I wound up on the Zoning Commission. After two years of working to 
insure that amateur towers would not be lumped with cell towers, under 
onerous restrictions, the new consultant-written zoning regs - all 330 
pages of them - were put to a public vote, and they lost.  To my 
knowledge, Jefferson County, WV still has no restrictions on antenna towers.

73, Pete N4ZR (now in Maryland, don't ask hi)
Check out the Reverse Beacon Network
at <http://reversebeacon.net>, now
spotting RTTY activity worldwide.
For spots, please use your favorite
"retail" DX cluster.

On 6/28/2019 10:23 AM, Roger D Johnson wrote:
> It has also paved the way for the county to enact restrictive ordinances!
>
> 73, Roger
>
>
> On 6/28/2019 8:04 AM, Dick's wrote:
>> Just a comment about “Up The Tower” by Steve- I am so glad I bought 
>> that book before my tower installation. Besides all the advice he 
>> gave, he also gave the pros and cons about getting a permit from the 
>> local government before construction. I decided to go ahead and 
>> obtain a permit, so no neighbors in my subdivision would have a 
>> future valid complaint about it.
>>
>> The process of getting the permit took months because I was initially 
>> denied the permit. They said that the County didn’t have any rules 
>> concerning ham radio towers (legally known as “antenna support 
>> structures”). I told them that (1) since it wasn’t addressed, they 
>> had no right to deny me as I was not violating any written rule, and 
>> that (2) the County was violating both Federal and State guidelines 
>> where they could not unreasonably deny me a permit for a structure 
>> less than 90’ high. They still refused to budge.
>>
>> It was at this time I sought the pro-bono help of a local attorney 
>> who had volunteered through ARRL. It took a couple of additional 
>> months, but that attorney convinced the County’s attorney of how 
>> embarrassing it would become if they were taken to court, just like a 
>> recent case he won against an adjacent county.
>>
>> Bottom line- I was the only ham in my County who ever had applied for 
>> a permit to put up a tower and now it has paved the way for others.
>>
>> Dick, K0CAT
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>>
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