Supes Approve Telecommunications Tower Rules

Tuolumne County Supervisors have wrapped up two years of work and approved rules for telecommunications towers in the county. Supervisor Dick Pland says that before the rules were passed, companies really didn´t know what they were dealing with if they proposed building towers here. “They really didn´t know what they were going to face, they didn´t know what the requirements were,” he said.

Before the ordinance was passed yesterday, the county´s conditional use permit process was used approve or deny such projects.

Pland says the issue came to a head in 2001, when there was a glut of proposals for building wireless communications facilities. Some of the proposals for towers were in locations that “maybe weren´t totally appropriate,” Pland said.

Among other things, the regulations restrict where cell towers can be built. Many residents say they don´t want them near their homes. The rules also require that companies make a minimum $5000 deposit before building the structures.