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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAppeal - Verizon CITY OF RENTONLDC W e MOVED ! Surveying JUL 312018 Engineering I` Planning RECEIVED CITY CLERK'S OFFICE July 30, 2018 Hearing Examiner City of Renton Community& Economic Development 1055 South Grady Way Renton WA 98057-3232 E RE:Appeal of Decision#LUA18-000405 Verizon COW at Bryant Motors ci. 0 Dear Hearing Examiner, This letter is filed together with the fee payment regarding the Appeal to Administrative Land Use Decision#LUA18-000405-Application for Temporary Use Permit by Verizon at Bryant Motors, located at 111 Meadow Avenue N. CO rn N The Verizon application for Temporary Use Permit(TUP)for a Cell on Wheels(COW) is intended as aco temporary use only to address and augment wireless service delivery issues in the City of Renton while N permanent facilities are pursued. The intent of the original TUP for the subject COW was to provide adequate wireless service regarding a. the Verizon Radio Frequency(RF) Network for one year,while Verizon actively pursues permanent co Wireless Communication Facility(WCF)s in the areas surrounding the COW location.The average time o 7r frame for establishment of a WCF is one year on average. 00 00 N V Per the application materials submitted in the TUP applications,the location of the COW is derived per a RF Engineering-central to the RF coverage/capacity hole and proposed permanent WCF sites Verizon is pursuing in that part of Renton.The Verizon Network RF Engineer prepared an RF Justification Letter that described the need for temporary site as a stop gap measure to provide adequate services in the 0, locale and to in turn support the existing Verizon Network, on a temporary basis. Verizon is making progress in the WCF entitlement processes for several proposed new WCFs in the general area however; the final acquisition and implementation of those sites will take several more 0 months to complete. ° As a result,Verizon is requesting reconsideration of the TUP Application#LUA18-000405. Please accept this request for Appeal to the Administrative Land Use Decision dated 7/17/18, and the following analysis and materials provided for this filing. Q N Engineering ABOVE the Standard LUA18-000405 Letter to Renton Hearing Examiner—Verizon COW at Bryant Motors 7/30/18 Background—Verizon Network Verizon has two existing sites in the general area that provide wireless services to the downtown core and city center areas of Renton in the Cedar River delta, which has realized high demand for increased wireless services due to population growth and increased density directly related to the City's Comprehensive& Long Range Land Use Planning over time. Per the attached map,the two existing Verizon sites in the coverage area: • Renton Center located at 450 Shattuck which is a rooftop (RT)WCF located in the Center Downtown (CD) zoning district at the Old Milwaukee Substation Building which is 45'tall.The rooftop site is located on one of the taller buildings in that part of the City core in an area where rapid transition occurs from commercial uses to the North,South, and West of the site to single family uses to the East of the site.The area is flat with very little topographic relief. • Central Renton located at 925 Houser Way North,which is a 123'tall monopole located in the Industrial Heavy(IH) zoning district situated near Interstate-405 to the East.The area includes Boeing to the Northwest, Kenmore and other industrial business to immediate West and the South,The Landing and high density residential buildings to the West, and high density office structures under construction to the North.The area is generally flat however transitions to steep slopes to the East at 405. A major factor affecting the performance of the Central Renton site is that a tall apartment/condo building blocks line of site coverage areas to the West of the site. A unique attribute of the general area is that single family uses occur in spotted areas lying between the two described existing Verizon sites.Although the original Verizon RF Network utilizes the City zoning district preference,for WCFs per Renton Municipal Codes, including a RT site in the CD zone at Renton Center and a tower site in the Heavy Industrial zone,there are pockets of single family uses lying between the sites and are not conductive to zoning for WCFs per the zoning codes (see overview of a zoning map in the area). Verizon had previously developed a map that shows the proposed new WCFs it is pursuing in the area in relation to the two existing sites.The map shows potential "macro sites" which are the traditional types of WCFs regarding the proposed equipment and "Small Cells" polygons where other new technology type WCFs are and have been considered and also pursued in the last few years. If the zoning map is viewed in the context of the planned sites it paints a picture of the limited locations for WCFs and thereby the difficulty in obtaining a WCF from the land use/zoning standpoint. As a result,Verizon has very little in the way of potential sites to consider for future WCFs in the subject area.Given there are few properties that have structures of adequate height or available land conducive to siting a tower,the next best approach are sites with less height that then require more sites to • compensate for the lack of ability to site a tower with adequate height as described above. The other alternative for Verizon is to utilize Small Cells technology which most commonly uses utility poles in City Street R/Ws for placement of small antennas and equipment on the existing poles • throughout a geographic area (see map for proposed distribution patterns). U O Engineering ABOVE the Standard LUA18-000405 Letter to Renton Hearing Examiner—Verizon COW at Bryant Motors 7/30/18 Unfortunately,the City has not allowed any small cells applications to go forward as I am told it develops the programs required for zoning/land use reviews of the projects and the proprietary authorizations required for such a program. I believe those processes have been in the development stages for over two years,at present. In summary,Verizon needs the COW at the proposed location in order to provide adequate service as described and in support of its wireless network while pursuing the permanent WCFs that would cover the RF coverage hole.The proposed COW is a temporary stop gap measure to provide adequate service. Issues—COW The issue with the existing COW facility is that the screening failed.The screening included natural vegetation that died, and site obstructing screen on the security fence that was"tagged" with spray paint. The original intent was to avoid any ground disturbance for the COW installation.As a result,the landscaping was not planted in the ground and the COW was also moved to the North away from other natural vegetation that provided other natural screening, from where it was originally proposed. The early warm weather contributed to the issues maintaining the landscaping and by the time it was realized the temporary vegetative screening was already dying and could not be salvaged. The mistake with the approach to the temporary natural vegetation is that it should have been planted in planter boxes and use of bladder bags type of watering method used (time release)which would have ensured the scrubs survival.This approach and screening method was in error and completely unintended, but can be mitigated as described if the COW is permitted to stay. Although tagging is a common issue for all structures and for landowners in the area and within the City, the screening can be placed away from the face of the fencing to reduce the occurrences of tagging as an approach. Q Again,Verizon believes that the issues with the screening that failed can be mitigated and Verizon can also provide a landscape security bond and contract maintenance,that would ensure the landscaping and screening is maintained at the site. Please feel free to call me at 253-218-9017 if you have any questions or need more information. Sincerely, C Rick Cardoza Senior Project Manager 5 LDC,Inc The Civil Engineering Group 20210 142nd Avenue NE Woodinville, WA 98072 Engineering ABOVE the Standard 0. "-" K-b "-`I r t,3 e R-1 R-8 ei ,'t,A ` %.19, RM-F R-8 R-8 UC CV R-8 R-8 UC U,. R-8 R-8 R-8 UC R-8 R-8 IM IH UC A t:A Ntt_ £ , CA CA CA R-8 RM-F R-8 Cedar River COW CD' R-8 IL I I,F. RPr1H ; ! RCr.: - t ..-._ ":CA C ti,. .fr' C .�....« IM 14. RC ` RC CA CA R-8 IM R-14 , r 4.I) R-8 5: Rfi RM-F F:C IM CC) C C) F:-t. F:4 RC f .. RM-F R-8o- +.„ Located in the Commercial Arterial Zone (CA) The purpose of the Commercial Arterial Zone is to evolve from "Strip Commercial"linear business districts to business area characterized by enhanced site planning and pedestrian orientation, incorporating efficient parking lot design, coordinated access, amenities and boulevard treatment with greater densities. The CA zone provides for a wide variety of retail sales and services, and other commercial activities along high volume traffic corridors. -RMC 4-2-020 Vefl flwireless Network Engineering Verizon Wireless 3245 158th Ave SE M/S 231 Bellevue,WA 98008 Temp Site Cedar River COW—Radio Frequency(RF)Documentation Overview: Verizon Wireless strives to provide excellent wireless service with a network of cell sites that allows our customers to reliably place and receive mobile phone calls. In this particular case,we are trying to remedy capacity and coverage challenges in Renton as quickly as possible. Specifically in the Downtown and Landing areas in Rentin so that customers will receive better service and faster data speeds. Construction of the proposed temporary site entails installing three(3)antennas, auxiliary equipment, and the supporting base station equipment on a Cell On Wheels temporary structure. This site will be in use until permanent sites in the surrounding area can be identified and constructed. In-building penetration, coverage challenges, and continued growth in our customer base, and call traffic in this area has dictated the need for the proposed site and the increasingly poor service in the area due to capacity restrictions has prompted Verizon to install a temporary site which will be much faster than a permanent site to provide the best service as soon as possible. Capacity: An additional function of some wireless sites, such as the subject Temp Site Cedar River COW site, is to provide additional capacity in an area. The capacity of wireless networks is limited by the spectrum availability, the number of available antennas, and the radios and amplifiers associated with those antennas and spectrum. When a mobile user attempts to make a call on a wireless network where capacity is limited by these factors, the resulting delay and busy signal can be very frustrating. To remedy capacity issues, additional sites and or spectrum,which are directly correlated to the number of antennas at the site as outlined below, are added to an area to provide additional calling capacity for Verizon Wireless customers. There are some Verizon Wireless sites in the immediate vicinity that are at or near capacity. To remedy the reduced capacity, the subject site is being proposed so that calls at surrounding sites can be"offloaded"to the proposed site and thus creating more wireless capacity for the vicinity. In order for this capacity off-loading to be successful, precise placement of the new antennas is necessary. If the site is too far away, the signal will not have adequate strength to capture calls from the impacted existing sites or cells. Similarly, sites that are too dose together will not provide the needed capacity relief to the existing sites. Thus for new site/cell capacity solutions to work,site placement and height are critical factors and must be chosen carefully. Coverage: In order to provide adequate Cellular service, which Verizon Wireless defines as—85 dBm or better, the antenna height and site location need to provide a line of sight to the roads,offices, and homes where our customers work and reside. Three(3)antennas are being proposed, in order to provide the necessary radio frequencies supporting all of Verizon Wireless voice and data services that are possible to install in this temporary style site. The proposed antenna heights of is the minimum height needed for the effective functioning of the proposed antennas as well as providing the adequate height needed for the Microwave Dish that will provide backhaul for the site to connect it to the existing network. The antenna sizes and the terrain and foliage in the vicinity make this the minimum height necessary to provide adequate levels of coverage and usage offloading in the context of surrounding Verizon Wireless sites. llWt�2'wwireless Design: The Temp Site Cedar River COW will utilize our PCS 1900 MHz, 700 MHz, and 2100 MHz frequencies. It will basically be three wireless facilities located in the same physical equipment area. For the Temp Site Cedar River COW each frequency set will use LTE 4G. Temp Site Cedar River COW has been designed with three(3)antennas. This is the minimum antenna requirement for this three sector site to get the best possible service from each of our transmit frequencies and add the needed service coverage and capacity to the area. Summary: In summary, the proposed site would meet the RF coverage objective of the subject site. The height of the three(3) antenna array is the minimum required for the effective functioning of the proposed minor communication utility. Sincerely, Krystal Tayl r Verizon Wireless . . .. r' eu*<. lb4 • 7t400f i .,,, 13th St , a 0 $ 100 TO 14th St\\\,, _ •-• , I test flioht ,/''Alk 4 .. 1 4 1 - Q Z `�: * � , Windsor 17th St" � � 4� IN , hills - small • 18th St , •" '' ; o� � _ 1 0-C 00.65u i I i- 11��, 1R E N T 19th St. _ * ►., rripl pip . 0th St �, __ , ° N 8th St — .. - 1 -0-0006174 IB BOEING R N T N ° * G ie `' - AO — tip — harden . ` -,J 4 CO _ ave _.. ,Nit i house , L.,- : - 4>.' 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