Posted by PAULENE POPARAD on February 29, 2008 at 10:32:38:
It's a feat that took Chicago-based radio station WBEZ 19 months to accomplish.
Porter town officials gave their blessing Tuesday to construction of a 595-foot FM transmission tower there that will allow non-profit WBEZ to upgrade and expand its program offerings to residents of northwest Indiana.
Voting unanimously, the Town Council adopted on final reading a planned unit development (PUD) ordinance and companion written commitments for the tower site, formerly Andershock's Fruitland at the southwest corner of U.S. 20 and Tremont Road. The tower lot will require 5.66 acres and the balance of the nearly 20 acres will be sold for redevelopment as business and commercial/light industrial uses.
Some uses like additional radio towers, fuel sales, cartage and express facilities, truck stops, mobile home sales, motor freight terminals and retail fireworks sales are excluded under the PUD terms.
The WBEZ Alliance Inc. d/b/a Chicago Public Radio gets its tower, which will be leased for co-location of other antennas, and the town gets several perks.
Among them the abandoned Andershock buildings and loading docks will be razed although the large asphalt parking lot may be saved; donation, free installation and use of two tower antennas (or alternate future technology) for Porter fire and police departments at the elevation needed to reach all parts of town; and donation and free tower installation of a professional-grade web based weather camera with the town having primary control.
Once installed, maintenance and upkeep for the town antennas and weather camera will be paid by Porter. Town department heads have welcomed the antenna offer saying there currently are some dead spots in Porter where radio contact is difficult. The town also had wanted WBEZ also to donate and mount wireless Internet equipment to serve the Duneland area but the station said that's cost prohibitive.
To avoid interference with other broadcasters, WBEZ has a small geographic area surrounding the Porter site within which to build a new tower replacing its current one in Michigan City. In July, 2006 WBEZ began its quest to obtain a use variance from Porter for a 499-foot tower on the west side of Indiana 49. When that petition was denied, WBEZ sued the town Board of Zoning Appeals.
As part of the new PUD agreement, WBEZ and a co-plaintiff will drop their lawsuit and agree that no building permit for construction of the 595-foot, guyed lattice tower will be granted until after the lawsuit is dismissed. WBEZ also agrees within one year to petition the Porter Plan Commission to subdivide the Andershock parcel as the Tremont Place PUD with four proposed lots.
Additionally, within six months after WBEZ commences use of the new tower, the area south of the Andershock buildings that had a large amount of apparent construction debris dumped on it years ago will be leveled, re-graded, covered and planted with grass at WBEZ's or the lot purchaser's expense.
WBEZ president and general manager Torey Malatia estimated it would take three months at the earliest to get the tower ordered and installed.
WBEZ operates a sister station, WBEW with an office in Chesterton. A goal is to expand local news and cultural programming here and broadcast it to a wider regional audience using the new tower.
Said Malatia after Tuesday’s meeting, "I'm just pleased we can move forward and I hope the town sees this as a resource and a benefit and we'll do everything in our power so people feel that's a valid thing to say."
A restrictive covenant will run with Tremont Place that if the tower is ever abandoned for lack of use for over nine continuous months as a broadcast tower, the property owner at that time will completely remove it within 12 months of receiving written notice from the town to do so.
The Town Council's adoption of the WBEZ PUD, which provides a site and approval for the tower, was consistent with a Jan. 16, 7-0 favorable recommendation from the Porter Plan Commission to do so.