ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, November 4, 1996 TAG: 9611040019
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRISTINA NUCKOLS STAFF WRITER
It's unusual for Roanoke County to have two requests in one month to build communication towers.
However, tonight's Planning Commission meeting could become the norm over the next several years as cellular telephone service continues to grow and new competitors enter the market.
The Planning Commission will hold public hearings on two tower requests at 7 p.m. in the County Administration Center. The commission's recommendations will be considered by the Board of Supervisors Nov.19.
Norfolk Southern is asking for a permit to build a radio and microwave transmission tower on Poor Mountain. The second tower, near Dragon's Tooth at Virginia 311 and Newport Road, would serve customers of United States Cellular Wireless Communications, one of the country's top 10 cellular carriers.
The railroad request is likely to receive less scrutiny because Poor Mountain already is covered with towers - more than 50 of them for radio, cellular, paging, emergency and private communication. As Windsor Hills Supervisor Lee Eddy put it last month, another tower would add "one more spine to the porcupine."
The other tower raises more questions because it would come within 200 feet of the Appalachian Trail and would be visible from Virginia 311, a designated Virginia scenic byway. It would not be visible from Dragon's Tooth, U.S. Forest Service officials said.
Supervisor Chairman Bob Johnson has been the most vocal board member in questioning the location of the tower. A cellular customer himself, he said he understands the need for the towers, but wants to make sure they don't spoil the beauty of the Roanoke Valley.
However, no organized group has emerged to oppose the Dragon's Tooth tower.
"We're hopeful that it's going to blend in with the surroundings," said Jim Whitney, president of the Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club.
Whitney said his club would likely be fighting the tower if it were on a ridgeline rather than in a dip between two ridges. The cellular company also agreed to reduce the height of the tower from 200 feet to 190 feet, eliminating federal aviation regulations that would have required it to be equipped with flashing lights and "painted like a candy cane."
Dave Olson, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service, said U.S. Cellular's willingness to cooperate has gone a long way toward putting out any fires before the permit application was filed with the county. He said hikers along the Appalachian Trail will get "fleeting glimpses" of the tower, but he said "the visual impact has been mitigated to our satisfaction."
Buddie Garman, who owns the tract where the tower would be constructed, said he and cellular officials have been working with neighbors and federal forest officials for a year. He said his neighbors appear satisfied.
It doesn't hurt that cellular customers in the area can't use their phones at home now. The service void, which reaches from the village of Catawba almost to the Craig County line, is a concern for local residents and hikers.
"I think really, truly, it'll be a help if people have cellular phones," said Melvin Taylor, who lives across Newport Road from the proposed site. "I have no objection at all."
Donald Maty, president of DanCell, the Florida engineering and design firm working on the project, said the tower is intended to eliminate the "black hole" in the region. He said he examined a dozen sites in the Catawba area, and rejected all but the Garman property because they were more visible and in more heavily inhabited areas.
Maty said the tapered-steel tower with a lattice design will be painted to blend in, but it's not easy finding the proper shade.
"The problem with green is in the fall when the leaves change, [the towers] look like hell, and in the winter when the leaves are off the trees, they look like hell."
Chuck Reilly, also with DanCell, said a shade of greenish-brown will be used.
Reilly said motorists will be able to see the tower for four-tenths of a mile as they drive along Virginia 311. The tower will stick out above the trees for less than half of that distance, he said.
While Roanoke County officials consider the two pending requests, they also are keeping an eye on what is expected to be a flood of tower requests over the next several years.
There are more than 25,000 cellular towers in the United States, up from just over 1,000 a decade ago. Herschel Shosteck, president of a Maryland firm which follows trends in the cellular industry, predicts there will be more than 100,000 cellular sites by 2000.
Laura Bullock, spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Transportation, said the department has seen a "dramatic" increase in the number of requests to build cellular towers on state-owned land along highways. She said VDOT is working on a formal review process that will take safety factors into consideration.
The proliferation of towers along the interstates of Virginia and North Carolina is worrying National Park Service officials because it is getting harder to shield them from motorists on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Conservative estimates are that there will be a cell tower every four or five miles along the nation's interstates, said Gary Johnson, chief of the division of resource planning and professional services.
There are at least a dozen cellular, microwave and radio towers visible along the parkway, said Laura Rotegard, a community planner with the park service.
Terry Harrington, director of planning and zoning for Roanoke County, said the county is likely to revise its ordinance next year. Right now, towers are allowed in areas zoned for industry. The maximum height of the tower in those cases is determined by the size of the tract. Only one of the county's cellular towers, off Starkey Road, is in an industrial area, Harrington said.
Most towers are placed in agricultural areas of the county, where they require a special-use permit. That's the case with both proposals being considered this month. A special-use permit is intended to be flexible, so there are no countywide maximum heights and no limits on dishes and other attachments. Each permit sets limits for the specific tower in question.
Officials in Botetourt County also are looking at changes in their ordinances, and restrictions on towers also could be affected if Bedford County switches to a conventional zoning ordinance.
All local governments are trying to figure out whether the new federal Telecommunications Act will affect their ability to regulate tower construction. Joseph Obenshain, an attorney for Roanoke County, said the legislation requires city and county boards to provide written justification for any zoning decision that affects a communication tower.
"If you're going to deny it, you're going to have to have a good reason," he said.
Local officials hope to get Roanoke Valley residents involved in preparing for the onslaught of tower requests. The Fifth District Planning Commission will be sponsoring public workshops early next year to seek ideas on which ridgelines and vistas Valley residents want protected. The workshops also will address ways to protect those areas.
Both the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service are working with the planning district, and the Park Service is in the process of identifying what it considers to be critical parkway vistas.
Shosteck said cellular companies also are developing ways to make transmission structures smaller and less visible. He said many new wireless communication transmitters will weigh less than 20 pounds and fit onto the sides of buildings.
"They will be so small, they will not be regulated by zoning," he said.
There will still be a need for some larger towers, he said, but cellular companies are experimenting with incorporating transmitters into church steeples, commercial signs, high school stadium lights and water towers.
Robert France, chairman of the Roanoke Valley Preservation Foundation, said Roanoke County already is doing a good job of limiting some of the collateral damage - like clear-cutting - that can accompany towers. His organization recently named the Valley's mountain views as an endangered resource.
France said local residents shouldn't have to sacrifice those mountain views to have cellular phone service. With so many government and private organizations beginning to study the dilemma, he's hoping they won't have to.
LENGTH: Long : 143 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ROGER HART/Staff This cellular phone antenna tower is onby CNB12 O'Clock Knob in Salem. color. Graphic: Map by staff.