MC officials eye cell tower options

By Jane DeGeorge
Eagle Reporter

Published: July 24, 2008

While many Madison County residents have cell phones, most say reception in the county is limited.

Last summer, a Culpeper man died after he was hit by a falling tree in Madison County. Those who approached the scene following the accident did not have cell phone service to call for help.

A recent all-terrain vehicle accident on a Graves Mill farm reportedly left a member of the Dave Matthews Band seriously injured. Again, residents who initially responded to the accident were unable to use their cell phones to immediately call 911.

These are just two examples of why the county needs more extensive cell phone coverage, according to some members of the Madison County Planning Commission who spoke at the group’s regularly scheduled July 16 workshop meeting. Locating a landline phone delays requests for help from emergency responders, they say.

“Safety is a real important issue when it comes to these [cell] towers. Now I want to keep Madison as beautiful as possible but at the same time if one tower saves one life, it’s worth every bit of it,” Commission Vice Chairman Pete Elliott said during the group’s discussion at this meeting regarding a possible wireless communications ordinance.

Some authors of Eagle letters to the editor and guest columns have wondered why expanded cell phone service isn’t possible using camouflaged towers, or using a greater number of smaller towers rather than a few large ones. These are just two concepts being examined by a special planning commission committee.

Earlier this year the three-person committee – including commissioners Jacki Eisenberg, Ray Gooddall and David Jones – met and discussed what types of guidelines should be included in a possible ordinance regarding towers to provide both cell phone and wireless broadband Internet services.

Shorter towers pushed

After reading related ordinances from Albemarle, Rappahannock, Culpeper and Louisa counties, the committee recommended that Madison County base its own ordinance on the one established in Louisa County, according to Jones, the committee’s chairman.

Currently, any resident interested in putting up a wireless tower must apply for a special use permit. While a revised ordinance would likely introduce more detailed requirements regarding the towers’ look and location, it would allow residents to put up certain types of shorter towers “by right,” without a special use permit, according to a discussion draft of a possible ordinance. 

The maximum height allowed “by right” has not been finalized, although the commissioners discussed limiting the height of “by right” towers to around 100 feet, officials said at the July 16 meeting.

“A hundred feet is a tall tree, a tall silo,” Jones said.
T he ordinance may also allow residents “by right” to install wireless communications antennas onto existing structures as long as the antenna doesn’t reach more than 20 feet above the building’s height, the document states.

Special use permits may still be required for towers above 100 feet, although the ordinance would possibly prohibit any towers above 199 feet, according to the draft ordinance. Towers taller than 200 feet are typically required by the Federal Aviation Administration to have lights, according to the department’s Web site. 

In addition to requiring shorter structures, the committee hopes to encourage wireless communication companies to build towers in all areas of the county to ensure cell phone service is available beyond the county’s major roads and highways, according to Jones.

“If we’re not careful we’ll get the roads covered and that’s it,” he said.

However, the number of 199-foot tall or shorter towers needed to provide coverage for the entire county “just about boggles the mind,” the committee’s chairman said.

At the July 16 meeting, Julian Pedini, zoning project manager for a consulting company hired by Verizon – Hanover, Md.-based Network Building and Consulting – told the commission that in general, taller towers provide coverage for a larger area. However, the size of an area the tower provides service for can be affected by the county’s terrain and geography as well, he said.

A recent change in cell tower technology also affects the number of shorter towers needed to provide cell phone service in all areas of Madison County, Jones said, referring to information gathered by a Florida-based company – CityScape Consultants Inc. – hired by Louisa County’s government to develop its telecommunications ordinance.

Wireless towers now use a particular frequency that provides service to a smaller area than some of the older towers were able to cover, the committee’s chairman said.

Commissioner Bud Kreh suggested that county officials consider hiring its own consultant to evaluate how many towers and what types would be needed to provide coverage of Madison County, since its topography and terrain differs from the layout of Louisa County.

Future tower requests

During the July workshop meeting, Kreh again suggested that the commission hold off on considering any new cell tower requests prior to the ordinance’s approval.

“We may get flooded with applications if people think we’re getting ready to change the ordinance,” Kreh said.

Although the commission’s chairman thought putting a freeze on cell tower requests would “send a very bad signal to the cell providers,” he said the commission could always postpone any new requests that come up.

The committee is expected to meet again soon to incorporate the suggested revisions into the draft ordinance, which it will present to the planning commission once again.

Once the planning commission signs off on the ordinance it will recommend its consideration by the Madison County Board of Supervisors. The supervisors must then schedule a public hearing to receive public comment regarding this proposed ordinance before they vote on its approval.

An application to build a 199-foot tall cell tower in Brightwood on property owned by Georgia Arrington Booker, et. als. – set to be considered at the Aug. 6 joint public hearing between the Madison County Board of Supervisors and the Madison County Planning Commission – may be postponed once again.
In response to the planning commission’s vote to recommended the supervisors deny a special use permit to build the Brightwood tower, representatives from a consulting company hired by Verizon – Hanover, Md.-based Network Building and Consulting – have been looking into alternate locations for the structure, according to Julian Pedini, zoning project manager for the consulting company.

“We are still evaluating the alternatives to the location in front of the board. It’s not complete but we hope to complete [the evaluation] by the Aug. 6 meeting,” Pedini told the planning commission at its regularly scheduled July 16 workshop meeting.

The consulting company is considering other locations on the same piece of property and on an adjoining piece of property farther south, the zoning project manager said.