The Jefferson County Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved a plan for a new telecommunications tower in the Pacific area during its Aug. 27 meeting. The tower, located at 3853 Lynch Road, will be leased to AT&T and other cell phone providers.
Members Chris Moenster and Danny Tuggle were absent from the meeting. Mitchell Bair, director of County Services and Code Enforcement, said the request will go before the County Council on Monday for a vote.
Scott Goble, representing City Switch and AT&T Wireless, attended the meeting to request a conditional use permit for the 190-foot-tall telecommunications tower, which will be built on 38 undeveloped acres 2 miles southeast of the Labarque Creek Conservation Area. The permit was needed because the company asked to waive the full 190-foot setback from an adjoining northwest property and instead allow a 175-foot setback due to topographical challenges.
“To move the tower site any further south and east would be difficult due to steep grade drops in those directions,” Goble said in an Aug. 17 letter to Jefferson County officials.
On Aug. 27, he said City Switch would own and operate the tower and AT&T would be the primary tenant carrier
“The tower would be designed to accommodate a total of four carriers,” Goble said. “Again, AT&T would be the primary at the very top. City Switch will market the tower to all the other carriers: Verizon, T-Mobile, etc.”
During the P&Z meeting, neighbors Mary Wesloh and Bob Shiby asked questions about the tower.
“There is an AT&T tower located extremely close to this, just across the street, so we’re confused on why another tower would be necessary when there’s already an existing tower there,” Wesloh said.
Goble said the existing tower is owned by American Tower Corporation with AT&T as a tenant.
“I do this for all the carriers,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for 26 years. In the last 10-plus years, all the carriers have been in financial disagreement with American Tower Corporation over their soaring rental rates and every carrier is actively trying to relocate off of those towers where American Tower Corporation is unwilling to budge. So this is a relocation project, where if we’re successful in building this tower, AT&T will come off of that tower and operate their equipment off the new tower and leave no one on that existing tower.”
Goble also answered Wesloh’s question about lighting, saying it will be lit similarly to the existing tower. He said the company could put a shroud underneath the lights so that the lights are reflected upward instead of to the ground.
Shiby asked if the access would be located at the blind spot. A county official said sight distance would have to be demonstrated when the project goes through site development.
Also, during the meeting, P&Z approved Jason Smith’s request to rezone his home on 5 acres by Old Hwy. 21 in the Goldman area from non-planned community commercial to residential. Smith said he discovered the property was zoned incorrectly when he inquired about an addition to the house. The property is surrounded by residential and undeveloped land.