Borough tower plan under internal review; public comment period follows

A recent conditional use permit request in Denali State Park’s special use district spurred the Talkeetna Community Council to question a plan by the Mat Su Borough to change tower requirements in the Borough.

Currently, a draft ordinance is in the works to revise the tall-structures-ordinance the Borough passed in 1999.

Alex Strawn, Borough planner, has been pouring over telecommunications analyses and other information to formulate a new plan. He says the draft ordinance that he produced is currently being reviewed internally. A working group just had their 9^th meeting on the revisions. The group is comprised of stakeholders, emergency service personnel and others. Strawn says the internal review ends November 2^nd. A public comment period will follow the internal review, around the middle of November. Strawn says people will have about 4 weeks to comment on the plan. The plan then goes back and forth from Assembly to Planning Commission until it is approved.

Strawn says the analysis on towers within the Borough shows the amount of towers will double or triple in the near future if the current limit of 100 feet stays the same. The current ordinance calls for a 100 foot limit per tower, unless a company gets a conditional use permit.

He says this latest C-U-P request in the Denali State Park is a perfect example of what is happening Borough-wide and why it is important to look at tower height and strategic location. Public comment on that specific request is on November 2^nd in Palmer in front of the planning commission.

Strawn says the public should look to their community councils to share the towers draft ordinance coming out mid November. Much of the information and documents are already available on the Borough website.

The Talkeetna Community Council asked that the Borough deny the permit until the towers plan is adopted at which time the request can be examined.