The City Council adopted an ordinance Wednesday that sets guidelines for the construction of telecommunications towers.
Although towers could reach as high as 100 feet, they will cause little visual pollution, city officials say."If I stick a tower in front of somebody's view, their property value goes down," said Bountiful Planning Director Blaine Gehring. As the ordinance is written, it requires towers be "as unobtrusive as possible," and "as few in number as possible."
The ordinance also states a tower will not be placed in a residential area "unless there is no other alternative." Council member Ann Wilcox expressed some concern about that clause.
"It seems to me that it would open up a problem that might not otherwise occur if we didn't say that," Wilcox said.
Bountiful City Manager Tom Hardy said because of the elevation of Bountiful, some residents' reception would be poor or nonexistent if a few towers weren't allowed in residential areas.
Bountiful already has a 60-foot telecommunications tower high in the foothills just north of the Bountiful temple that isn't blocking anyone's view, Gehring said.
Bountiful City Attorney Russell Mahan said he knew of only two other local governments in Utah - Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County - that have adopted a telecommunications tower ordinance.
"The telecommunications industry is just exploding," Mahan said. "Applications are being made to all cities for permits. We wanted to have some guidelines for granting those."
Mahan said the ordinance was to be an interim ordinance until he can get a comprehensive telecommunications ordinance to the council that addresses such issues as franchising, taxing and right of way. He projected the bill would be ready by late fall.