Commission approves new cell tower

Published 12:00 am Thursday, May 5, 2016

Change to previous permit OK’d

By Tyler H. Jones

tjones@civitasmedia.com

http://lagrangenews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/37/2016/05/web1_WebLogo.jpg

LaGRANGE — The Troup County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved two separate special-use permits for a new cell phone tower off Cameron Mill Road, and towing and wrecker service on West Point Road.

Commissioners granted TowerCom and Verizon Wireless permission to construct a 120-foot tall telecommunications tower on property owned by Ola Mae Allen at 3141 Cameron Mill Road.

The cell tower is expected to fill a gap between existing Verizon towers and serve customers in the Wares Cross Road, Sturbridge, Eagles Rest, Cameron Mill, Sunny Point, Beaver Cove and Moody Bridge communities. The closest existing towers are about 2.9 miles away from the proposed site, and do not contribute enough coverage to the area, according to filings with the county zoning office.

County zoning officials noted that the proposed tower is unlikely to cause any significant burden to existing utilities or traffic patterns, and the only potentially negative impact to the surrounding community could be “visual clutter.”

The tower is expected to be finished within nine months.

Commissioners also approved a request by Steve Hendrix and Todd Mitchell, who own property at 2726 West Point Road, to eliminate a previous condition of a special-use permit for the property. The change was made to eliminate the requirement of a privacy fence at the rear of the property.

The applicants and a homeowner who lives behind the property came to an agreement on their own to construct a fence slightly more than 60 feet in length that will shield the rear property owner’s view of the cars. Vehicles are also not allowed to be stacked.

There were environmental concerns about the use of the site, which sits partially in a flood zone, but according to the property owner did not flood during the December 2015 floods. State law requires a 25-foot buffer from the banks of a stream that runs in the rear of the property and a county ordinance requires the vehicles be drained of all hazardous fluids before storage, which must be done on a concrete pad. The special-use permit requires that all improvements must be done outside the flood zone and required stream buffer.

An existing commercial shop on the building was built in 1983 and has previously been used as an automobile repair shop.

DOCUMENTS

Click here to download the TowerCom and Verizon’s application to built the tower, which includes plans.

Tyler H. Jones is a reporter with LaGrange Daily News. He may be reached at 706-884-7311, 2155.