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August 4, 2000
(submitted 8/10/00)
We the undersigned citizens of the Town of Limington, residing respectively at the addresses placed opposite our names, and representing a number of voters equal to at least 10% of the number of votes cast in the Town at the last gubernatorial election hereby petition the Municipal Officers of the Town of Limington to submit the following amendments to the Limington Planning Board and the following question to the voters of Limington on the next available referendum ballot printed for its consideration:
"Shall an ordinance entitled 'Personal Wireless Service Facilities and Towers Ordinance?' be enacted?"
Amendments to the "Zoning Ordinance, Town of Limington, Maine":
1. Add to Section 2.2 Definitions:
"Base Station: The primary sending and receiving site in a personal wireless service facility.
Personal Wireless Service Facility:. Facility for the provision of personal wireless services, as defined by the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
Repeater: A small receiver/relay transmitter of not more than 20 watts output designed to provide service to areas which are not able to receive adequate coverage directly from a Base Station."
2. Add Section 8.19:
3. Notwithstanding the presumption of prospectivity in 1 M.R.S.A. §302, the above Amendments shall apply to all pending proceedings which did not receive final approval prior to the date when the Petition initiating this ordinance was filed with the municipal officers regardless of when the above Amendments are actually approved by the voters of the Town of Limington, so that these Amendments shall apply retroactively to any personal wireless service facilities.
Return to Index of Town Regulations
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"A. Purpose and Intent.
It is the express purpose of this section to minimize the visual and environmental impacts of personal wireless service facilities. It is the intent of this section to be consistent with state and federal law, particularly the Telecommunications Act of 1996 in that:
B. Dimensional Requirements.
1 It does not prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting the provision of personal wireless services
2. It is not intended to be used to unreasonably discriminate among providers of functionally equivalent services, and
3. They do not regulate personal wireless services on the basis of the environmental effect of radio frequency emissions to the extent that the regulated services and facilities comply with the regulations of the Federal Communications Commission concerning such emissions.
1. Height: Personal wireless service facilities shall not project higher than ten feet above the average building height or, if there are no buildings within 300 feet, these facilities shall not project higher than ten feet above the average tree canopy height, measured from ground level (AGL). If there are no buildings within 300 feet of the proposed site of the facility, all ground-mounted personal wireless service facilities shall be surrounded by dense tree growth to screen views of the facility in all directions. These trees may be existing on the subject property or planted on site. The height shall be further limited such that Federal Aviation Administration lighting shall not be required.
C. Setbacks
New Personal wireless service facilities shall be set back:
D. Lighting
1. at least one (1) times the height, plus 50 feet from all boundaries of the site on which the facility is located and
2. at least 750 feet horizontally from any existing dwelling units and
3. at least 1,500 feet horizontally from any historic district or property listed on the State or Federal Register of Historic Places.
No external lighting is permitted, except for manually operated emergency lights for use only when operating personnel are on site.
E. Environmental Standards
Personal wireless service facilities shall not be located in wetlands, floodplains, or any resource conservation zone.
F. Co-location
Licensed carriers shall share personal wireless service facilities and sites where feasible and appropriate, thereby reducing the number of personal wireless service facilities that are stand-alone facilities. All applicants for a personal wireless service facility shall demonstrate a good faith effort to co-locate with other carriers. Such good faith effort includes:
G. Radiofrequency Radiation (RFR) Monitoring
1. A survey of all existing structures that may be feasible sites for co-locating personal wireless service facilities;
2. Contact with all the other licensed carriers for commercial mobile radio services operating in the County; and
3. Sharing information necessary to determine if co-location is feasible under the design configuration most accommodating to co-location.
After the personal wireless service facility is operational, the applicant shall submit, within 90 days of beginning operations, and at annual intervals from the date of issuance of the permit, existing measurements of RFR from the personal wireless service facility. Such measurements shall be signed and certified by a Radio Frequency engineer, stating that RFR measurements are accurate and meet Federal Communications Commission Guidelines.
H. Removal
Any Personal wireless service facility which ceases to operate for a period of one year shall be removed at the expense of the applicant.
I. Access Roads and Above Ground Utilities:
Where new personal wireless service facilities require construction of or improvement to access roads, to the extent practicable, roads shall follow the contour of the land, and be constructed or improved within existing forest or forest fringe areas, and not in open fields."
For legal reference, please obtain a copy of the proposed amendment from the town office.