Officials: Find different sites for projected radio towers

No one wants a giant 32-story radio tower ruining their stroll through a tree-lined park.

But county officials say West Lake Park in Hollywood is the one and only spot for a communications tower needed to upgrade Broward’s regional 911 system.

Still, city officials Wednesday urged the county to keep looking for another site.

“Emergencies have no borders,” Tracy Jackson, who oversees Broward’s regional 911 system, told Hollywood commissioners Wednesday. “We need to place a tower in your city to allow this countywide system to perform as it was designed.”

Jackson said he was well aware that residents aren’t going to want a massive radio tower within view of their homes.

The 300-foot tower, which would be topped by a 25-foot antenna, already has drawn an outcry from West Lake Village, a 720-home community east of the park whose residents are worried about property values plummeting if a tower is built.

“The elephant in the room is whether there is another site,” Mayor Josh Levy said during a debate over the proposal.

The county owns the park land, but still must get approval from Hollywood on the tower’s site plan. At the mayor’s suggestion, commissioners postponed a vote on the plan until Nov. 7.

City officials asked the county to consider putting the tower on top of the Circ Hotel in downtown Hollywood.

Broward County also wants to build a second radio tower in western Hollywood, on Southwest 49th Court east of 40th Avenue.

Commissioners gave initial approval to rezone the land to government use, but want the county to look at other options for that tower too.