CHINA -- Planning Board members decided Tuesday evening to try again to get a Wireless Telecommunications Facilities Siting Ordinance before voters.

A draft similar to the ordinance discussed Tuesday evening was prepared beginning in 2002 and rejected by selectmen for the November 2004 local ballot. Officials refer to it as a "tower ordinance," for simplicity.

Board members were motivated to revive the idea by a complaint from a local tower builder that national telecommunications companies are building their own towers close to his, instead of installing their equipment on his towers.

One purpose of the proposed ordinance is to "require the colocation of wireless telecommunications facilities, thus helping to minimize adverse visual impacts on the community."

The draft, edited and slightly expanded from the 2004 version by board member Gabrielle Isenbrand, lists requirements for towers that include height limits, setbacks, screening and other provisions.

It calls for the owner to provide a structural evaluation by an engineer every five years after the tower is up, and to provide a bond or other form of surety for its removal should it become obsolete, with the bond to be updated every five years as removal costs increase.

Planners voted unanimously to submit the draft ordinance to selectmen in time for inclusion on the Nov. 4 ballot.

Selectmen will meet Tuesday -- postponed from their regular Monday evening because Monday is Labor Day.

A second proposal was also unanimously forwarded to selectmen for the ballot: amendments to China's Land Development Code to allow windmills, utility poles and other structures without floor area as exceptions to the town's 35-foot height limit.

The major question about this proposal was whether windmills and radio towers, for example, should be allowed throughout the town.

With visions of the shore of China Lake lined with windmills as people try to reduce their electric bills, board members said no: The exemption from the 35-foot limit applies only in the rural zone, not in shoreland or resource protection areas.

Tuesday's meeting began with a brief review of two subdivision proposals, neither new to the board. Board members scheduled Sept. 9 public hearings on Tim O'Brien's application for a seven-lot subdivision off McCaslin Road and Jason and Melissa Finley's application to add one lot to their existing subdivision on Weeks Mills Road.

The Sept. 9 meeting will be preceded by a 6 p.m. site walk on O'Brien's property.