GOVERNMENT

City OKs two communications tower permits, denies a third

Tim Hrenchir
threnchir@cjonline.com
Topeka's mayor and city council voted Tuesday evening to approve two permits allowing tall communications towers to be put up, including at this site on Fairlawn Church of the Nazarene property at 730 S.W. Fairlawn Road, but denied a third. [Submitted]

The Topeka City Council and Mayor Michelle De La Isla on Tuesday evening OK'd two permits allowing tall communications towers to be put up in separate parts of the city but denied a proposed permit for a third.

Members voted:

• 10-0 to approve a conditional use permit allowing AT&T to construct a 130-foot monopole communications tower surrounded by a wall on property at Fairlawn Church of the Nazarene, 730 S.W. Fairlawn Road.

• 9-0, with Councilman Mike Lesser not voting, to approve a conditional use permit allowing AT&T to construct a 130-foot monopole communications tower surrounded by a wall on three acres of private property, which includes a home, at 2446 S.E. 29th.

• 6-4 to deny a conditional use permit that would have allowed AT&T to construct a 100-foot monopole communications tower surrounded by a wall at 513/519 S.W. Taylor.

The city's planning staff had recommended the mayor and council approve the permits for the properties on Fairlawn and S.E. 29th but deny the one for the property on S.W. Taylor.

Planning and development director Bill Fiander said the latter area is economically distressed and the tower's presence could discourage investment there.

Still, city attorney Lisa Robertson warned that the city might face a lawsuit if it rejected AT&T's application for that permit.

De La Isla and council members Karen Hiller, Sandra Clear, Mike Padilla, Brendan Jensen and Aaron Mays voted to deny the permit on S.W. Taylor while council members Sylvia Ortiz, Tony Emerson, Jeff Coen and Mike Lesser voted to approve it.

The Topeka Planning Commission had voted Feb. 18 to recommend the mayor and council approve all three permits. That vote came after planning commissioners heard neighbors in the areas involved express concerns that the towers might cause them health problems or devalue their properties.

Planning commissioner Marc Fried said Feb. 18 that those who object to government rules regarding communications towers need to speak to their state and federal legislators instead of local officials, “because our hands are bound.”

The mayor and council also voted 8-2 Tuesday, with Hiller and Clear dissenting, to defer action until their April 16 meeting on a proposal that would establish a community improvement district.

The CID would enable Overland Park-based 29th St. Partners LLC to levy a 1 percent sales tax, in addition to the sales taxes they already pay, upon customers of the planned Sherwood Crossing development at the former Villa West Shopping Center, located on 14 acres at the northwest corner of S.W. 29th and Wanamaker Road.

City staff members had asked that the matter be deferred so work on a development agreement regarding the project could be completed.

The mayor and council learned March 19 that developers plan to demolish the center's tower as part of a redevelopment project aimed at helping the center get a fresh start and shed the notoriety of its past, which includes having deteriorated while being owned by developer Kent Lindemuth.

The 1 percent sales tax would be in effect for as long as 22 years, with revenues going to reimburse private funding to finance a proposed $18 million project to redevelop the property in multiple phases.

Sherwood Crossing would become Topeka's sixth area with a CID.

The mayor and council voted March 19 to establish a geographic tax-increment financing district to potentially benefit the Sherwood Crossing project. The second part of the TIF establishment process will involve the mayor and council's considering a proposed redevelopment agreement between the developer and the city.

During a meeting that lasted four hours and 15 minutes, the mayor and council also heard a presentation Tuesday about the Topeka Flag Redesign Initiative from Lindsay Lebahn, executive director of Forge, Topeka's young professionals organization, and Brittany Crabtree, a volunteer with that project.

Lebahn and Crabtree shared images of the three designs chosen as finalists to be the next city of Topeka flag, and talked about how the public is now voting to pick the winner. More than 1,400 votes had already been cast by early Tuesday evening.

People may vote online at www.topekaflag.com or by sending text messages to (785) 425-4393, with voting being open until 11:59 p.m. April 9. The winner will be unveiled at the annual State of the Community luncheon on April 18.

Lebahn stressed that no tax dollars were going toward the flag redesign initiative.