DATE: Thursday, April 3, 1997               TAG: 9704030007

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   53 lines

PROCEED WITH CAUTION IN THE PLACEMENT OF CELLULAR TOWERS, STATE OFFICIALS SHOULD GO OUT OF THEIR WAY TO ADDRESS LOCALITIES' AESTHETIC CONCERNS.

The Virginia Department of Transportation sees a cash cow in the form of cellular towers and fiber-optic networks constructed along its thousands of miles of highway rights-of-way.

But where the state sees green, some local government planners across Hampton Roads are seeing red.

The state's dream of cashing in on the burgeoning telecommunications market lately has run afoul of VDOT's failure to apprise localities of its plans. Fence-mending is under way.

Unquestionably, the state has the right to construct transmitting towers and poles along its property if it so chooses. A deal proposed by AT&T would bring benefits to both the utility and the state.

AT&T would construct 30 cellular towers along interstate and limited-access highways in Hampton Roads to support a mobile-phone network it plans to launch this summer. In return, the company will pay a $1,000-per-month lease on each site, provide space for another company at a similar rate and set up surveillance cameras and message signs for VDOT on the same 150-foot steel poles.

That's a good deal all around, it would seem. The major hitch is that localities weren't asked their opinions. When planners found out what was going on, some complained about placement of the less than aesthetically pleasing poles. Some wanted to be part of the financial deal.

Meanwhile, the Virginia Telecommunications Industry Association is questioning whether a separate VDOT plan for placing a fiber-optics network along Virginia's interstates is monopolistic.

VDOT officials argue persuasively that there is nothing untoward about the latter plan, in which the state will exchange right-of-way access for use of the fiber-optics network. The arrangement will speed development of a high-tech traffic-management system. That's a boon to taxpayers.

The highway department is letting a single contract. But the state will also require the winning company or partnership to contract at market rates with anyone else who wants to use the network. The plan is reasonable.

As for placement of the cellular towers, the state should go out of its way to respond to the aesthetic concerns of the communities that must live with them. State planners believe that a pleasing accommodation is possible.

Financially, it's up to individual localities to set license fees and explore - in court, if necessary - the prospect of collecting tax revenue.

And in the future, state planners should remember that acting first and talking later works better in private business than in the public arena. ``I can assure you we will be meeting with every one of (the (Hampton Roads localities) from now on,'' said one department official.

Lesson learned.

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