| Draft Environmental Impact Statement Shorts School Road Am Antenna Structures 68 KRKO�s importance to the region in terms of emergency announcements. Power outages are often linked with earthquakes and severe storms. The proposed KRKO antenna project has provisions for emergency generator power to allow the station to transmit to battery powered radios or to car radios in the event of an emergency since most television and internet connections do not work during power outages and phone lines can often be down. Comments in some of the emergency service letters also point out the necessity of locating a new full-powered radio station north of the I-90 earthquake fault. The vast majority of all the full powered AM, FM and Television stations in the Seattle metropolitan area are located within a short distance of either side of the I-90 fault on Vashon and Maury Island (KOMO-AM, KIRO-AM, KVI-AM, KGNW-AM, KRPM-AM, KNWX-AM, KJR-AM), Queen Anne Hill (KOMO-TV, KING-TV, KIRO-TV), Capital Hill (KCTS-TV, KCPQ-TV, KSTW-TV), Mercer Slough (KIXI-AM, KKNW-AM, KXPA-AM) Cougar Mtn (FM and TV) or West Tiger Mountain (FM and TV). The proposed KRKO-AM project would be the first all new AM project built to code, in the Puget Sound area, since 1983 and the only full-powered AM project capable of sustaining a major earthquake along the I-90 fault because of it�s distance from that fault line. Economic Development Objective ED 1.B �Support economic development by providing adequate levels of infrastructure and promoting technological advancements in public service and facility systems.� The proposal incorporates co-location capacity for other AM stations and telecommunications equipment. This co-location capacity will help minimize the impacts of the growing need for telecommunication locations. Access to telecommunications is an essential technological advancement not only in the provision of public services, but in supporting economic development in Snohomish County. The need to plan for telecommunications infrastructure is recognized in the Utilities element of the County comprehensive plan. Snohomish County Zoning Code The site is zoned A-10. The proposed use is a �Utility� under SCC 30.91U.110.17 Under SCC 30.22.110, a �Utility Facility� is permitted as a conditional use in an A-10 zone. Conditions may be imposed as outlined in the zoning code in order to maximize compatibility to the extent possible with surrounding properties. The Snohomish County Council has determined that as revised (Revision Two), the proposal complies with the conditional use permit criteria.18 As required by SCC 32.14.070, this proposal to construct a utility on farmlands has been designed to minimize impacts to farmland and farming operations as much as possible. The proposal has been redesigned to eliminate the use of guy wires to support the transmission structures, thus reducing the amount of ground surface of the property to be occupied by the utility. All areas of the property except those actually occupied by the utility structures, equipment shelter and 17 (��Utility� means any public or private entity whose principal purpose is to provide electricity, water, sewer, storm drainage, gas, radio, television, telephone and/or other forms of communication utilizing the electromagnetic spectrum to the public.�) 18 Snohomish County Council Motion 03-130, dated February 26, 2003, attached hereto as Appendix C. |