Laserfiche WebLink
specifications, which rate the tower secure in cighty-inile-per-hour winds. Although the city generally relics on such specifications produced by manufacturers, it declined to do so in this case. In addition, the tower was retractable, and the city could require <br />Pentel to retract it whenever bad weather threatened. Moreover, <br />the city in 1987 allowed a nearby amateur radio operator to erect <br />a similar tower, and that one was closer to the operator's property <br />line than Pentel's was to be. The record before us thus does not <br />establish a factual basis for the city's safety concerns. <br />Third, the city claims that it believed it reasonably <br />accommodated Pentel because she already successfully engages in <br />amateur communications. Pentel submitted with her application a <br />letter of commendation for her public services. The city's <br />planning report concluded that this letter demonstrated the <br />adequacy of Pentel's current antenna. Pentel has pointed out, <br />however, that the public services cited in the letter were not <br />related to the amateur communications in which she engaged from her <br />home. In fact, the letter m.akes it clear that the amateur <br />communications for which Pentel was to be commended were conducted <br />at the Air National Guard base in Minneapolis. <br />In addition, the mayor and some members of the city council <br />indicated in their depositions that they concluded from Pentel's <br />statements at the hearings that she already was communicating <br />effectively, albeit not to the extent she desired. The hearings' <br />minutes indicate that Pentel stated that she was able to reach only <br />sporadically various places in the United States, and that her <br />current antenna did not allow reliable long-range transmissions. <br />When prompted, her attorney reluctantly attempted to quantify the <br />communications: he characterized Pentel's current chances for <br />making contact at 40 percent, and estimated those chances at 80 to <br />90 percent with the improved tower. The context of these remarks <br />and Pentel's other statements indicate that these chances of <br />success referred to domestic communications only. <br />-8-