While NMSurf says it doesn’t need approval from the City of Santa Fe to build a tower, officials disagree. The city is taking the internet service provider to court over an 80-foot telecommunications tower built behind its own office on Apache Avenue near Salazar Elementary School.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reported that NMSurf built the tower without a permit. The city told the news site that the provider “must submit to an administrative review process and get permission from the planning commission.” The company did request a permit in writing in April of 2015, stating that it already had two towers on its property and wanted to consolidate into a single, new structure 30 feet from the building. The New Mexican noted that city regulations state a tower must be set back from property lines the same distance as its height, which in this case would be 80 feet. According to the city petition, the proposal had the tower being 16.8 feet from the back fence.
NMSurf said that the existing 77-foot tower was grandfathered in under old setback rules and that the new tower should also be grandfathered in under those rules.
Later in April, NMSurf’s lawyer sent another letter, according to the New Mexican. In it, the lawyer said that the tower “would not represent a substantial change under Federal Communications Commission rules, which require cities to act quickly in approving or rejecting such changes to telecommunications towers.” Additionally, the letter said that the “deadline under those federal rules had already passed and that the building permit was therefore automatically granted.”
Then on July 6, the city attorney’s office received an anonymous tip that the new tower was built. The city went to the state judge to ask that any work be delayed until after the matter was resolved. Albert Catanach, NMSurf’s president, told the New Mexican that city staff have visited the site and that he would welcome an inspection of any of NMSurf’s premises. He said that the new tower is not a new system and he and his lawyer plan to challenge the city in court.
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