Very much.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

I'd like to call this meeting of the Valdece Planning and Zoning Commission for Wednesday, July 22nd to order.

Let the record show that all commissioners are present with the exception of Commissioner Feggerberg, and we have Commissioners Wade and Moulton on the phone.

We also have Sierra Larson and Michael Gobble from New Horizons on online.

First item of order of business is the planning and zoning commission meeting minutes for May 13th, 2026.

Can we get a motion on that?

Motion to approve.

Second.

Okay, it's been moved by Commissioner Goodrow, seconded by Commissioner Montroka.

Any comments or changes to that?

All right, then those are approved.

Next item is public business from the floor.

This is for anyone who came to address us on a non-agenda item.

We'll have our public hearing after this.

So did anyone come to address us on other issues?

All right.

And we'll move right into public hearings.

The first public hearing or the only public hearing is conditional use permit 26-03, an application from the City of Valdez for a conditional use permit for a wireless communication tower.

And I'd like if the applicant could come up to the mic, state your name for the record.

And we'll do five minutes each since we have a rather large crowd, try and get everybody out of here in a timely manner.

Okay.

All right.

Uh thank you, Commission.

I'm Nate Devon, the city manager.

Uh in a former life, I was actually the project manager for this project, and so that's how I get to inherit some of this.

Um I'd like to talk about are just a couple of highlights briefly, um, and then would you all go into discussion if you have any questions?

Like I said, we have New Horizons Online or myself that can answer any questions that we're able to.

Uh so this tower is a component of a major project related to upgrading and replacing the uh public safety radio system.

Uh, right now we're on the state ALMR, Alaska Land Mobile Radio System.

Uh, it has issues where it's run by the state but housed by the federal government, it's in Anchorage, we don't have access to it.

Um, it ties in with our 911 system.

There's a lot of problems with it, it's aging.

We have some existing infrastructure in town that the installation date is unknown.

Uh 80s, 90s vintage uh original type equipment.

We've gone through all the process of replacing certain things, um, but we've come to a point where you can no longer put band-aids on it, it's due for replacement, and we have to we have to make those changes.

Uh, you may have seen the assessment, those in the packet talks about some of those uh issues that we have.

Uh as it pertains to this tower, it's one of a series.

So there's upgrades that are gonna have to happen at dispatch at City Hall, uh, the inclusion of this tower at Fire Station One, upgrades andor potential tower at the grain silos, and then something out of town uh anticipated to be at the top of Ski Hill.

So that would it eliminates our challenging infrastructure now and it sets us up to have a more robust system into the future that will also provide us coverage where we don't have coverage right now, especially at 10 mile and out into the canyon.

Uh this specific tower does not provide coverage out of town, but without this tower, that piece of communication doesn't serve much value because they all have to link back together to make it work.

Uh, it is redundant to what's at City Hall presently, uh but the intent is that it would replace City Hall once the entire system is built out.

Um I guess just to kind of go into hit on some of the highlights of questions that we have received, all very good questions, very thoughtful, conscientious questions.

Um if you'll indulge me, I'll plug in our GIS map to kind of walk through the thought process.

Um but as you look at town, uh, some of the criteria we're looking for uh for this emergency services communications and just emergency service and critical infrastructure in general uh outside of tsunami inundation zone is a is a key factor when it comes to this.

So essentially that cuts off about a third of town.

I'll describe it for you.

Basically, from the hospital to the tank farm in a diagonal motion, essentially cuts off all of that area.

You can see here on the on the map, the little red line is the maximum inundation for any any of one of specific events.

Okay, uh the next piece is on city property.

The blue markers on the on the map there are city parcels.

And so as we examine those parcels that are outside of the inundation zone, there are relatively few.

So as we contemplate where to put this thing, the schools were not appropriate.

Park strips also didn't seem appropriate.

More or less leaving you with the fire station as the best available option from strictly a perspective location perspective.

There are some other considerations that we took into account.

Location to the emergency operations center, which is the fire station, fire station one is critical and necessary in the event of emergency, we need to have access to that infrastructure to be able to maintain it, make sure it's a work in order and access it.

Because of the state and the federal government, uh CGIS is the criminal justice requirements for security.

So when it boiled down to it, there is a tower that is nearby.