NEW HANOVER COUNTY—Verizon Wireless is holding a community meeting after submitting plans for a 146-foot cell tower in a residential area near Eugene Ashley High School.
The cell tower would be located in the Veterans Park Sports Complex, adjacent to the high school and several residential neighborhoods.
In early May, Milestone Communications–a company that specializes in developing cell towers on school, government and utility-owned land–applied for a Special Use Permit (SUP) to build the tower for Verizon. The New Hanover County Planning Board will consider the proposal on June 7; if approved it will then head to the Board of Commissioners.
The SUP is required to build the tower because it falls outside the use permitted in the area, which is zoned R-15, or medium-density residential.
As part of the SUP application, Milestone was required to show that the project would not affect surrounding property values or that the project is a public necessity. According to Milestone’s Charlotte-based attorney Jonathan L. Yates, the project meets both requirements.
Verizon will hold a community meeting on Wednesday, May 30, at 6:30 p.m.
“The proposed facility will provide necessary wireless infrastructure, which in the 21st century is deemed a public necessity,” Yates wrote in the application, adding, “Facilities like the one proposed have been shown to actually enhance the value of surrounding properties.”
The SUP application also required Milestone to demonstrate the project would be in harmony with the surrounding area. Milestone submitted “photographic simulations” of how the tower would appear from nearby areas.
According to Milestone’s website, the simulations were created by floating a balloon to 146 feet in the air, photographing the balloon from nearby locations, and superimposing an image of a tower in those photographs.
Yates wrote the simulations “clearly show that the (facility) will be in harmony with the area in which it is located.”
Verizon will hold a community meeting on Wednesday, May 30, at 6:30 p.m. The meeting was initially planned for Eugene Ashley High School; it will now be held at the Murray Middle School media center at 655 Halyburton Memorial Parkway.
Verizon and Milestone have also created a website for the project, which you can find here.
Community meeting:
- Wednesday, May 30
- 6:30 p.m.
- Murray Middle School media center
- 655 Halyburton Memorial Parkway
Verizon Cell Tower New Hanover County SUP Permit – Port City Daily by Ben Schachtman on Scribd
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