251-2001 LTC
CITY OF MIAMI BEACH
Office of the City Manager
Letter to Commission No. o{,'5/- :Ja; /
to
From:
Mayor Neisen O. Kasdin
And Members of the City Commission
Jorge M. Gonzalez . ~
City Manager 0 r U
CELL ANTENNAS ON TOWER AT FIRE STATION #2
Date: November 6, 2001
To:
Subject:
This Letter to Commission is in response to questions raised at the September 5, 2001
Commission meeting regarding the above subject.
In 1998, the City of Miami Beach contracted with Sprint Spectrum, L.P., to site a PCS
Transmitter with Antenna on the existing City of Miami Beach Radio Tower located at Fire
Station #2,2300 Pine Tree Drive, Miami Beach, FL. The term of the lease was for five (5)
years with automatic renewals for an additional four (4) terms of five (5) years each
equaling a total of twenty-five (25) years for the full term of the lease. The City of Miami
Beach receives annual rent of $18,000 from Sprint Spectrum, L.P., for the initial term ofthe
lease.
The City has two options, which can be pursued to relocate the antenna at Fire Station #2:
1. We can exercise the termination provision in the lease by notifying Sprint Spectrum,
L.P. in writing, one year prior to the end of the initial term of the lease agreement
which occurs on September 8, 2003. An alternative location within three tenths of a
mile would then be required by Sprint Spectrum, L.P.
2. We can negotiate with Sprint Spectrum, L.P., to relocate their antenna to an
alternative cellular site within three tenths of a mile of the existing Fire Station #2
tower site, with 24-hour accessibility. Joe Damien, the City's Asset Manager, met
with Sprint Spectrum, L.P., on November 2,2001, to further explore the options and
look for alternative sites. These sites included the Bayshore Golf Course, Par 3 Golf
Course, Scott Rakow Youth, Center, 27th Street Pump Station Site, Various
Convention Center sites, the 21 5t Street Community Center, various City Hall Sites,
the 17'h Street Parking Garage, the Garden Center, and the Cultural Campus site.
Many of the sites were either too close to other cellular antenna sites at Lincoln
Road and Washington Avenue, too close to schools, or the sites did not have
enough clearance to support their equipment. In order to meet their coverage
requirements, and stay as far away from school sites, it appears the most viable
location identified was sited at the flagpole location adjacent to the Par 3 Golf
Course parking lot (located approximately at 27'h Street and Prairie Avenue). Sprint
would be willing to replace the flagpole with a substitute flagpole/cell antenna
approximately 70 feet high. The girth of the flagpole would be thicker than the
existing flagpole, but they would be willing to landscape around it, paint it, and
provide nighttime lighting for the flag, if we desired.
Letter to Commission
November 1, 2001
Safety of Microwave Cell Antennas
Page 2
The City's outside counsel for telecommunications has advised us that the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) preempts local jurisdictions from taking into
consideration the potential hazards of radio frequency electromagnetic fields in the tower
site process. However, local jurisdictions do have authority to approve the location towers
within their jurisdictions based on a number of different criteria, so long as:
. Service can ultimately be provided to the public
. There is a specific procedure by which service providers can apply for sitings. In the
event there is a denial of a siting request, the denial must be in writing.
Accordingly, other local jurisdictions have adopted ordinances specifying a carefully
customized matrix to take into consideration the individual community's needs and
interests and setting forth a process which does not run afoul of the FCC's mandates.
It is important to note that, given the competitive nature of the wireless business, those
jurisdictions that do not take care in adopting tower ordinances and/or fail to follow their
procedures, have often found themselves in significant litigation over denials of siting
requests within their communities.
The Administration, therefore, has requested the City Attorney to prepare a cell tower siting
ordinance for consideration by the City Commission. In addition, we will request a referral
to the Land-Use Committee at our next regularly scheduled Commission meeting.
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