"Keep in mind that in many (most? all?) zoned communities, residents in HOA-controlled areas must ALSO abide by city, town, or county zoning rules". Bud: This is virtually always true, especially in the last 20 years when zoning ordinances follow the trend to be required almost universally and address certain minimum standards. They can of course vary widely. Many HOA restrictions that allow antennas do not supersede the requirement to get a municipal building permit, which itself requires a review for zoning code compliance. The last matter I handles a few months ago was from Lancaster County, PA (sent down by Dan Henderson I recall) in which the member got a township permit for and bought and erected a 60 foot tower with a tribander on over an acre lot, only to get stopped by his neighbors because of an unknown-to-him covenant running with the land prohibiting such antennas. That is a reverse situation, but you are correct that there are TWO barriers to jump over. The zoning might be addressed by PRB-1, sometimes, if the court is in a good mood. Otherwise there still remains two separate impediments. Not much to do with that until the next steps in the future. The 43 foot antenna, however, is a good target given the "magic" that seems to favor a vertical of that length feed with a suitable balun system and a tuner. That said, if the zoning restricts it, the user can limit the height or option to push back under the separate theory. Bob Famiglio, K3RF Vice Director - ARRL Atlantic Division 610-359-7300 www.QRZ.com/db/K3RF -----Original Message----- From: arrl-odv On Behalf Of Bud Hippisley Sent: Sunday, September 22, 2019 6:04 PM To: rjairam@gmail.com Cc: Mike Raisbeck <mraisbeck@verizon.net>; N6VI <n6vi@earthlink.net>; arrl-odv <arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org>; leg-ad-com@reflector.arrl.org; Fred Hopengarten <hopengarten@post.harvard.edu> Subject: [arrl-odv:28803] Re: ECA of 2020 vFH2 Ria — In addition to Fred’s comments: Keep in mind that in many (most? all?) zoned communities, residents in HOA-controlled areas must ALSO abide by city, town, or county zoning rules. When my wife and I were searching for a suitable retirement location a few years back, I wound up reviewing the zoning ordinances of at least 100 towns (in the northeast) and counties (in the south). Most had a structure limit of 35 feet — some a little less, some a little more. Typically, there was either of two reasons for that: a. The municipality had copied its ordinance from that of some other community, without really understanding why all the limits were there. b. In a minority of municipalities, the zoning official knew that the 35-foot limit was based on what the town or county zoning office understood the limitation of commonly available fire department ladder trucks to be. But that limit is generally intended with respect to HABITABLE portions of a structure from which humans or pets might need to be extracted. Of course, those folks who wanted short or invisible antenna supports for esthetic reasons quickly hung their hats on the 35-foot limit. Luckily, there are still a few “enlightened” communities that have exempted amateur radio antennas and supports outright, or made them an easy permit-process exception to the 35-foot limit. Many of the ordinances I reviewed during my search limited the roof ridgeline to 35 feet but allowed small uninhabitable “appurtenances” (chimneys, vent pipes, OTARD dishes, etc.) a few feet above that, so 38 feet is reasonably consistent with the rules in many of those towns. And in the dark humor department: There are areas of the country where additional layers of zoning exist — the Adirondack Park of upstate NY being one. A few miles from my last QTH a local business owner had to tear down his million-dollar waterfront mansion because he failed to realize that while both the Town’s and the Adirondack Park Agency’s structural height limits were 40 feet, they were measured differently. He went to court. The APA won. What’s the name of that pop music song? “I fought the APA and the APA won”? Bud, W2RU
On Sep 21, 2019, at 8:11 PM, rjairam@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Fred,
I like a lot of it but what is the reason for 38 feet height of a flagpole? A very common height for a vertical is 43 feet which is 5 feet taller. Just wondering where 38ft came from.
Ria N2RJ
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