ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 8, 1996 TAG: 9608080006
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: ELISSA MILENKY STAFF WRITER
GTE Mobilnet wants to build a cellular phone tower, the first of its kind within Blacksburg town limits, between North Main Street and Giles Road on a plot of open land near the New River Cement Company.
The request, which includes a 150-foot tower, 13-foot lightning rod, concrete equipment building and an 8-foot high security fence, is on the Blacksburg Town Council's Tuesday agenda for a 7:30 p.m. public hearing at the Municipal Building.
But the location of the approximately $1 million tower already has drawn concern from members of the town Planning Commission, which failed to support GTE's request for a special-use permit to build the tower by a 3-3 vote Tuesday night.
The commission instead referred the issue of towers within Blacksburg to the town's long-range planning committee.
The proposed tower location faces the primarily commercial North Main Street on one side but backs up to a residential neighborhood along Giles Road on the other. It is also a short distance away from a major town park and playground and Blacksburg High School.
GTE Mobilnet may be the first company to propose a cellular communications tower in Blacksburg, but town officials are sure it will not be the last.
Some Planning Commission members were concerned that approval of the application would set a bad precedent for the town - especially if the site in the 1300 block of North Main Street is not the best location. GTE Mobilnet has agreed to share the tower with future cellular providers.
"I just want to make sure we're looking far enough in the future so this is the best place," said Peter Kessler, a commission member.
Blacksburg cellular phone users currently are served by towers atop Price Mountain and the Peddlar Hills along Interstate 81. GTE Mobilnet contends cellular phone coverage for downtown Blacksburg is not adequate and another tower is needed to accommodate an increased demand for service.
In a letter to the Blacksburg planning and engineering department, a GTE official predicted more than 8,000 customers would be served by the company in the Blacksburg area.
The town planning staff did examine several alternatives within Blacksburg to the North Main Street site, including the Virginia Tech campus, the Blacksburg industrial park, on top of or adjacent to a water tank and atop an existing Bell Atlantic tower.
These locations were rejected because they provided poor coverage, were not approved by the affected parties or required an even higher tower, a town planning report said. The industrial park location was nixed because the tower would interfere with the Virginia Tech Airport's traffic pattern.
The portion of the property where the tower would be located is zoned for commercial use, but the entire plot of land is split between residential and commercial zones. A neighborhood meeting also was held last month where concerns such as property values, health risks and frequency interference were addressed. No one at the meeting was adamantly opposed to the tower, said Denise Sullivan, assistant development administrator for the town.
A nearby resident who spoke during the planning commission meeting stressed that Giles Road is a residential neighborhood where a view of a large tower is not ideal.
The company maintains it will preserve mature trees and will design landscaping and visual buffers for the least impact on the surrounding neighborhood. It also agreed to reduce the tower's height from 185 to 150 feet and build it with galvanized steel to prevent glaring.
GTE Mobilnet, then known as Contel Cellular, applied with Montgomery County two years ago to build a 185-foot communications tower above the Ellett Valley on a spur of Paris Mountain. The company withdrew the request after protests from many residents in the expensive neighborhoods on the western slope of the Ellett Valley.
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