Township wireless ordinance advances Proposal would put restrictions on antenna placement
UPPER GWYNEDD — A new ordinance is being developed that could prevent wireless antennas from being set up on properties in Upper Gwynedd without the township’s permission.
Last week, the commissioners voted unanimously to advertise a wireless communication ordinance setting forth new rules and regulations for wireless stations, in a move that commissioner Jim Santi is meant to put rules in place before it’s too late to do so.
“This is something that’s beginning to make its way through the state. It involves antennas being put up, it involves repeater kind of antennas where they’re lower, they’re smaller,” than typical wireless antennas, Santi said.
According to Santi, stations seen in the western end of the state tend to see antennas fed into a transmission station “about the size of a refrigerator,” and Upper Gwynedd currently has no control over where those could be installed.
“We currently don’t have anything that guides where these antenna towers and smaller antennas can go,” he said. After discussions with township legal advisers, Santi told the commissioners Monday, an ordinance has been written and is being reviewed that will codify where those can and cannot be installed.
“The idea is to protect the township and residents, so that any one of us won’t have a tower standing in the middle of our front
lawn, or a right of way in front of our house,” he said.
“We want to make sure they’re placed in the right area, with the right intentions,” Santi said.
The commissioners unanimously voted to advertise a draft wireless ordinance for public vetting before adoption at a future board meeting. They also voted to prepare and adver- tise an ordinance adopting the International Property Maintenance Code to provide another layer of protection for local residents. “it’s going to be very closely monitored, it’s not going to be abused,” Santi said.
More regulations are now on the books. The board passed an ordinance updating township parking restrictions for mobile homes, motor homes, trailers and campers, and commissioner Eugene Ziemba said the new rules should alleviate “a number of complaints with mobile homes, motor homes, recreational trailers, being parked on the streets in different neighborhoods.”
Other board votes included authorization to send the township solicitor to a zoning hearing for a townhouse development on Cottage Avenue and to a zoning hearing for a restaurant on 700 S. Broad Street; that project is temporarily on hold so the authorization lasts through 2014, according to Santi.
An intermunicipal agreement between Upper Gwynedd, North Wales Borough and Hatfield Township was approved that will allow the NorGwyn Pool Commission to buy pool supplies from Hatfield at lower prices thanks to group purchasing, according to commissioner Clare Edelmayer. Mark your calendars, because the board approved the purchase of fireworks for the township annual carnival on Sept. 5 and 6, alongside a three year agreement with Cedarbrook Country Club to host a township golf outing in 2014, 2015 and 2016. Other events approved include a run being organized by Corpus Christi School on April 5 and a DARE race scheduled for May 18.
A 150-square-foot declaration of taking for sidewalk improvements on West Point Pike was authorized, as was a settlement agreement for litigation having to do with asphalt pricing several years ago. Payments were also approved for upgrades to the township wastewater treatment plant, and a bid was awarded for further interceptor work elsewhere in the township. The board also discussed the winter weather impact on the township so far from repeated snowstorms, and township Manager Len Perrone said staff are clearing snow and repairing potholes as quickly as possible but have set up barricades near a pothole on Swedesford Road adjacent to a large area of preserved open space.
“The problem is all of the snow running off of 250 acres of open space. There’s just so much water coming off of that open space that the road just can’t handle it,” Perrone said, and any short-term pothole patches would simply wash away.
“We sure could use a few weeks of dry weather, but it’s going to be a bear” repairing road damage throughout Upper Gwynedd, he said.
Upper Gwynedd’s commissioners next meet at 7 p.m. on March 18 at the township administration building, 1 Parkside Place. For more information or meeting agendas and materials visit www.UpperGwynedd.org.
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