Planners Approve New Tower

FARMINGTON — Farmington Planning Commission recently voted 4-2 to approve a telecommunication permit for a new, 150-foot monopole cell tower that will be located in the gravel parking lot behind Farmington Church of Christ at 41 W. Main St.

This is the first request to come in since Farmington City Council amended its cell tower ordinance in May. Kayla Kramer, site development manager with Smith Communications, presented the request on behalf of the communications company.

The Commission held a public hearing Aug. 27 on the request and several residents addressed planners with their concerns and questions. Concerns mainly focused on the location of the tower in the neighborhood and how it would affect property values and concerns about radio waves from the tower.

Planning Commission members Matt Hutcherson and Judy Horne voted against the request for a permit. Planners Gerry Harris, Bobby Wilson, Toni Lindsey and Howard Carter voted in favor of the permit.

In a letter to the Planning Commission, Kramer said the

tower will be a 150-foot-tall stealth flagpole design with five separate canisters for internal, concealed antennas to accommodate multiple carriers.

Verizon Wireless will occupy two canisters as the anchor tenant and the remaining canisters will be available for additional carriers or for Verizon to expand.

Kramer said the tower will be painted a neutral color and will be 165 feet away from the nearest residence. The tower will have an 8-foot-high chain link fence around it with opaque vinyl slats. The plan also calls for vegetation and landscaping around the fence as required by the city’s cell tower ordinance.

The tower will not be lighted and any generator installed will only be used during emergency conditions.

Hutcherson, who is a realtor, said he voted against the permit because he didn’t think a cell tower should be in the “heart of the city.”

He added, “It’s essentially in a neighborhood. I felt we could have done more due diligence on another location.”

Horne said she was against the tower for several reasons.

One of her concerns was the health and well-being of residents nearby, especially children. Horne said she’s looked at “good research” from Scandanavian countries that shows a higher rate of leukemia in children who live near cell towers.

“I’m concerned from the health standpoint and putting a cell tower right in the midst of where people live,” Horne said.

Like Hutcherson, Horne said she did not think a cell tower should be in the middle of town.

“We’re working very hard to make Farmington look nice and look better,” Horne said. “This big, tall monopole thing, a 150-foot pole, is a distraction in the middle of town… It’s just not a good place to put it.”

Another concern, Horne said, is that she and other commissioners had questions at the meeting that Kramer could not answer.

Kramer said the new tower will provide a “capacity infill” for Verizon. Verizon gave Smith Communications about a quarter mile to consider because of a “dead spot” and the church property is about in the center of this area, Kramer said, adding, “This is where the hole is.”

In addition, she noted the city’s new cell tower ordinance is fairly restrictive and requires a setback of 110 percent of the tower’s height, which limited Smith Communications on where it could locate a new tower.

The company’s leased area from the church will be 50-feet by 50-feet and the perimeter of the privacy fence around the base of the tower will be 40-feet by 40-feet. The project also includes a paved driveway to the tower.

The Commission’s agenda for its Aug. 27 meeting included a copy of a ground lease agreement between Smith Communications and Farmington Church of Christ. No one from the church addressed the Commission.

The city’s new cell tower ordinance replaced one that was 10 years old. It requires that an application for a new wireless telecommunications facility must be approved by the Planning Commission as a conditional use permit.

City Attorney Steve Tennant worked with Juliet Richey of Garver Engineering on the updated ordinance. (At the time, Richey was working for Brooks Landscape Architecture and Planning in Fayetteville). Richey represented Smith Communications in helping to amend the ordinance so it would meet federal regulations.