PALMER -- The Matanuska-Susitna Borough is wading back into the process of regulating the wireless towers sprouting throughout the Valley to serve a still-growing population.
A proposed set of rules now circulating would guide tall tower construction around the borough, including in dense neighborhoods where residents sounded alarms when towers began popping up unannounced during a yearlong deregulation several years ago.
The draft "tall towers" ordinance developed this summer and fall by the borough's planning commission would require communications companies such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T to meet with neighbors within 1,200 feet of a site before they can even file for a permit.
It also would lower the height of a tower that needs a permit to 85 feet from 100 but require an easier process to get approval for towers up to 125 feet.
The planning commission is expected to take up the new rules in December. The borough Assembly should start discussing them early next year, borough officials said.
The draft rules are the latest step in a tumultuous, lengthy process.
Despite the efforts of a 2008 working group tasked with rewriting the borough's 1999 tower regulations, the borough Assembly in November 2011 eliminated all tower regulations on the books. Communications companies -- led by Verizon, in the midst of a major Alaska expansion -- constructed numerous towers; an exact count isn't known.
An uproar followed. Residents voiced the need for more public involvement given safety questions surrounding towers -- while rare, there are documented instances of fires or collapses -- and concerns about property values. The Assembly briefly resurrected the 2008 recommendations, then decided to revert back to regulations first adopted in 1999.
Those remain in place now: A conditional-use permit is required for anything taller than 100 feet, with some exceptions such as power lines or ham radio towers.
The relatively lax recommendations of an advisory committee created in late 2012 failed to get any traction with the Assembly, which didn't even hold a hearing on them.
Instead, the Assembly in April asked the planning commission to work with borough staff and come up with some new rules.
The proposal circulating now is the result. The proposal would require an administrative permit decided by borough staff for towers from 85 to 125 feet, and a more rigorous conditional-use permit that requires a public hearing for towers taller than 125 feet.
Along with the pre-application meeting, it also includes some provisions that address federal requirements from 2012 which allow tower developers to add 10 percent of the structure or 20 feet with very limited government intervention, according to borough planner Alex Strawn.
The draft ordinance is getting some pushback from Verizon and AT&T, according to comment letters filed with the borough.
AT&T wants planning staff to rely on a checklist of "objective criteria" to decide whether to issue an administrative permit instead of giving staff more leeway.
Verizon contends allowing a less-onerous administrative permit for an 85-foot tower will lead to companies putting up more towers, closer together, to avoid the more rigorous conditional-use permit for taller towers.
The company also wants the borough to require pre-application meetings for people within 900 feet of the tower site instead of 1,200 and then only if somebody actually requests a meeting.
Company representative Sarah Burbidge in a Nov. 3 letter argues what Verizon considers "extensive" pre-application notice materials over such a wide area "would likely result not only in permit delays but also outside objection."
Contact Zaz Hollander at zhollander@alaskadispatch.com.