City takes another step toward regulating cellular phone towers

Athens City Planner Paul Logue outlined a proposal to City Council members Monday night that would regulate cell phone tower construction in Athens.

This issue flared up in early 2009 when residents of Roosevelt Drive on Athens' north side took umbrage with a 150-foot-tall city communication tower that was constructed near their homes. The city eventually approved that construction, but hired an engineer to review the site for safety. Several people suggested at the time that the city develop an ordinance to address future cell-tower construction in Athens.

Logue has been working on the issue since then, including appearing before the Athens Planning Commission numerous times to discuss the matter. He has said that with technology developing, smartphones such as the iPhone and Droid increasing in popularity and many people getting rid of their landlines, reliance on communications towers is increasing.

He told council members that it's estimated that up to 20,000 more towers per year will be needed throughout the country as the technology continues to flourish.

The purpose of an ordinance at the city level will be to keep the rise of these towers as aesthetically pleasing as possible.

He also said that the city will make sure that any tower going up won't be any higher than it needs to be to serve its purpose.

Logue listed a number of techniques that can be implemented to keep towers aesthetically pleasing, such as using trees, water towers and even rocks to house the technology.

On the city's end, he proposes making the penalty for not following proper procedures stiff enough to discourage such "stealth" applications. Not following city code in erecting cell towers, according to Logue, would be first-degree misdemeanor that costs $1,000 per day for each day that a company is out of compliance with city regulations.

Logue has said that the city's comprehensive plan recommends the establishment of a communications tower ordinance.

"Additionally, one of the reasons we would want to regulate it is because there are a lot of situations where a new tower is not always needed," he said. "You can support a transmission on things besides a tower. It can be a rooftop. It can be a church steeple. It can be a water tower."

He said an ordinance could require that any entity that wants to put up a tower show why it's the preferred alternative to piggy-backing on some other tall structure or location.

"U.S. code requires, or stipulates, that the provider needs to show the actual need for a tower, not the desire for a tower," Logue said.