County receives applications for two lattice cell towers near Woodville
Minimum of two public hearings will be held on the proposal
A minimum of two public hearings will be held on the proposal submitted by an Arlingtonbased company.
Arlington-based cell tower developer Community Wireless Structures (CWS) has filed wireless facility permit applications to build two 199-foot lattice towers on the north and south sides of Woodville along the Sperryville Pike.
Rappahannock County Zoning Administrator Michelle Somers told the Rappahannock News she received the applications late last week.
CWS, which earlier this year erected the large monopole in Sperryville, held balloon flights at both proposed sites this past spring, subsequently conducting another flight in May at a “revised location” for the northern tower about midway between Woodville and Sperryville on property belonging to Eldon Farms.
The other proposed site, adjacent to what CWS refers to as the “Town of Scrabble,” is owned by Thomas Berkley Johnson and Monica Cole McHenry of Woodville.
“The purpose of this telecom site is to bring wireless connectivity to the Town of Scrabble and the surrounding area, including stretches of Route 522/211,” the applicant states of the southern tower. The northern tower, says CWS, would bring wireless connectivity to the Town of Woodville, including stretches of Routes 522 and 618.
“Initially, the site will be utilized by Shentel (Sprint), who plans to install on all four CSW sites [including an existing tower and monopole in Boston and Sperryville respectively] along the 522/211 cooridor,” CWS states. “We are also in lease negotiations with Virginia Broadband, a wireless internet provider. AT&T and T-mobile have expressed interest in utilizing this [Eldon Farms] site in the future.”
Both 199-foot towers would be visible from Route 522, the proposed northern tower in one of the most pristine viewsheds of Rappahannock County with Shenandoah National Park as the western backdrop.
According to the pair of applications, each tower would be surrounded by a 50-foot by 100-foot fence.
County Administrator Garrey Curry told the News late Tuesday that the applications will be on the agenda at the next regular meeting of the Planning Commission for preliminary review and to conclude if the applications are complete. If deemed incomplete, CWS will be told what is missing and the “shot clock” will be tolled.
If deemed complete, the planners at their subsequent meeting would direct the zoning administrator to advertise for a public hearing.
Following the Planning Commission public hearing, Curry continued, planners would make a recommendation to the BOS to approve or not, possibly with recommended conditions. The supervisors would then likely have the topic on their agenda prior to authorizing their clerk — Curry, in this case — to advertise for a public hearing convened by the BOS.
That completed, it would then be up to the supervisors to give a thumbs up or down on the project, clearly stating why.
All of this must occur within 150 days from submittal of the applications — as extended by the deadline being tolled for incomplete applications. So, neither the Planning Commission nor BOS can put it off too long before scheduling and holding public hearings, Curry noted.
If approved, the lattice designs would be the first of their kind in Rappahannock. Other existing towers in the county are single poles, barn silos, and a fake tree. The Rappahannock County Telecommunications Ordinance requires “proposed facilities shall be as compatible as possible with . . . the setting, color, topography, materials and architecture.”
The applicant, which to date has constructed 56 towers in 11 counties, including eight in Culpeper and Fauquier counties, argues that the towers would “not change the character of the area.”
County supervisors told this newspaper last spring that they would not officially comment until such time applications were submitted by CWS.
“Our telecommunications ordinance governs the type of facility that may be applied for, and for now we are basically in a holding pattern, though again, that is not an ‘official’ position,” Supervisor Ron Frazier said in May.
“As to stealth towers,” Frazier pointed out, “we have a pine tree along 522 between Massie’s Corner and Flint Hill and the three silos [211 and 522]. I believe you sacrifice height for stealth, in that I don’t think there are 199foot fake pines or silos. My personal position is to wait and see what they [CWS] propose.”
CWS in its applications requested a waiver of the requirement that “all signal transmission to and from the facilities and a mobile telephone switching office or a public switched telephone network shall be underground,” stating that it has “been advised that Rappahannock Electric Cooperative will be installing fiber along the length of Route 522. Completion is expected by 2021.”
Terms of any cell tower agreement between CWS and the county would be for 10 years following construction of the towers.