Ten MC cell tower projects eyed

By Jane DeGeorge
Eagle Reporter

Published: May 29, 2008

Wireless service providers are continuing to try and increase their offerings in Madison County.

Multiple residents have submitted a total of 10 special use permit applications in order to erect antennas and poles to provide wireless cell service in the area.

Officials will consider these applications at the next regularly scheduled joint meeting between the Madison County Board of Supervisors and the Madison County Planning Commission set for 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 4 in the auditorium of the County Administration Center.

Two of the permit applications are to allow Verizon Wireless to construct 199-foot tall “monopoles” on properties in Brightwood and Shelby. Officials will also consider a previous request by another resident that owns property off Route 621 near Radiant to allow Community Wireless Structures to construct a 199-foot tall “monopole” at that site. The construction of these poles would also include small equipment shelters.

At the May 7 joint public hearing between the supervisors and the planning commission, Madison County resident Bonnie Fernandez raised questions regarding the safety of radio frequency electromagnetic emissions at the Shelby site where Verizon is proposing to locate antennas on an existing three-legged 199-foot tall tower, according to Verizon’s special use permit application.

To address Fernandez’s concerns, Verizon officials arranged for an independent consulting engineer, Paul Dugan, to perform electromagnetic tests of the site, the document states. 

These tests found that the “composite exposure” from the existing tower and the proposed antennas at this Shelby property will be “substantially below one percent of the [Federal Communication Commission’s] established limits,” according to the application.

Verizon officials have agreed to perform similar tests at all of the sites where Verizon has proposed to build poles, the special use permit application says.

The Piedmont Environmental Council – an area environmental group – recently posted a notice on its Web site regarding the upcoming June 4 hearing. The notice questions whether Madison County’s “lovely views and unspoiled vistas” could be cluttered with high towers serving those traveling through the county. The Web site suggests that the county may be better served by a greater number of shorter towers that serve the county’s population. 
Two other applications that will be considered at the June 4 meeting refer to extending an existing 180-foot monopole on property off U.S. 15 near Locust Dale and allowing Virginia Broadband to mount two antennas on this structure to provide Internet access to the local community.

The rest of the proposed special use permits would allow Verizon Wireless to locate antennas and other equipment on existing structures on properties off U.S. 15 near Locust Dale, off Route 621 near Radiant, off Route 687 near Madison, off the northbound lane of U.S. 29 in Shelby and off the northbound lane of U.S. 29 near Brightwood.

Madison County residents, in conjunction with wireless service providers, have applied for special use permits for the following Madison County properties:

• The Future Farmers of America/Young Farmers’ property off Route 687 near Madison.

• Jim Carpenter Company Inc. property off the northbound lane of U.S. 29 in Shelby.

• Hunter Hall Weaver property off the southbound lane of U.S. 29 near Shelby.

• Robert and Joycelene Brockman property off Route 621 near Radiant.

• William Wallace Sanford property off U.S. 15 near Locust Dale.

• Raymond L. and Mabel B. Clore property off the northbound lane of U.S. 29 near Brightwood.

• Georgia A. Booker, et al, property off Route 638 and the southbound lane of U.S. 29 near Brightwood.