Planning Commission approves Guajome Lake Road wireless permit

The county's Planning Commission approved a Major Use Permit for a wireless telecomunication facility in the 2500 block of Guajome Lake Road.

The Planning Commission's 5-0 vote May 13, with Peder Norby and Douglas Barnhart absent, allows Verizon to construct and operate a facility which utilizes a 35 foot tall false broadleaf tree to house 12 panel antennas and 12 remote radio units. The permit also authorizes two equipment enclosures, trenching, and landscaping.

The 6.7-acre parcel has A70 Limited Agriculture zoning and a Semi-Rural SR-1 land use designation. The false tree and equipment will be located along the northern portion of the property. The nursery and horse corrals which currently exist on the property will be retained.

The remote radio units will be placed behind the panel antennas to shield their visibility from outside the property, and each panel antenna will be covered with a "sock" looking like a leaf and matching the branches of the false tree. The branches will extend at least two feet past the panel antennas to reduce the antennas' visibility. The trunk of the false tree will have a heavy bark texture.

A concrete masonry unit enclosure 10 1/2 feet high will house equipment cabinets and will be fully enclosed. That enclosure has been designed to appear as an accessory structure and will match the existing accessory structures. An exemption to the 10-foot height limit was granted so that the structure can maximize architectural integration, and the additional six inches for the structure 630 feet from Guajome Lake Road were not considered to create a negative impact.

Heating, ventilating, and air conditioning units along with a 30-kilowatt generator will be screened inside a concrete masonry unit wall 10 feet high. The enclosure and wall will be painted a matte earth tone color finish which will match the nearby accessory structures.

Landscaping which will include five coast live oak trees and 22 lemonade berry and toyon shrubs will screen the facility and reduce visibility by motorists along Old Colony Road. The facility will be accessed by a private driveway off of Guajome Lake Road. Existing mature trees in the area are between 25 and 50 feet tall.

The work will also include approximately 285 feet of utility trenching for telephone, cable, and power lines.

The reduction in height from 40 to 35 feet and the landscaping were among the conditions the Bonsall Sponsor Group requested in December 2014 when the sponsor group voted 4-0 to recommend approval of the permit. The design changes were reviewed at the April 7 meeting of the sponsor group which included a 5-0 vote supporting the revised design.