Subject: [NEXTEL-1] 'You can kill two towers with one stone'

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 16:54:25 -0500

'You can kill two towers with one stone'
The city manager averts a showdown over a communications tower when he
suggests county and state needs be combined.
By SHANNON TAN
Published February 19, 2004

LARGO - The state needs to build a communications tower of up to 300
feet to improve radio coverage in the Largo area.
The county wants to replace its 240-foot communications tower at the
Pinellas County Sheriff's Office complex with a taller tower.

Sounds like a win-win situation.
So on Tuesday, city commissioners decided to put off voting on the
state's proposal to build a tower next to the parking lot of the Mary
Grizzle State Office Complex. That site, about 0.6 miles southeast of
the Sheriff's Office complex, had been vehemently opposed by nearby
residents.

"You can kill two towers with one stone," City Manager Steven Stanton
said, "and avoid messing up another neighborhood."
Residents had signed petitions, made phone calls and written letters
opposing the tower, which might be six times the height of the
three-story Mary Grizzle complex at 11361 Ulmerton Road.

"There's got to be a better place for it than right behind the
residential area," resident Chris Hoyne said.
And apparently there may be.

Just a few hours before the scheduled public hearing, Stanton learned
that the county wanted the tower to be built at the Sheriff's Office
complex to replace the 240-foot tower already there.

That tower is more than 15 years old, said Pam Montanari, radio systems
manager for Pinellas County. The county has been looking to replace the
existing tower.

A new tower could be used for both the county's and state's public
safety communications. It would be built farther away from residents
than the existing tower, and a buffer of trees is already in place, she
said.
Hoyne agrees.

"I think that would be a better place for it than right behind our
homes," he said.
There are about 40 homes on Lakeside Drive SW, behind the Mary Grizzle
parking lot. The proposed tower would have gone up on a vacant lot next
to the parking lot - about 250 feet to the nearest property line.

Residents worried about property values being affected, electromagnetic
radiation and other potential risks. When the Mary Grizzle building was
constructed, the use of heavy equipment caused cracks in their homes.
Building a tower there would cause more damage, they said.

The State Technology Office isn't sure the sheriff's complex site will
work as a replacement site.
"We already evaluated the sheriff's complex," said Carla Gaskin,
communications director. "It wasn't suitable for our needs."
The site is lower in elevation, Gaskin said, and a tower there would not
provide adequate coverage.
In December, the planning board rejected the State Technology Office's
hardship relief request to build the tower near the homes.

Largo city code allows a maximum height of 190 feet for communication
towers except in areas zoned only for residential use. To build a tower
taller than that height, the applicant must file a request with the
planning board for hardship relief.
Since the planning board's rejection of its proposal, engineers worked
on designing a 200-foot tower instead. The state would build the tower,
test the radio coverage, and add another 100 feet if needed.

But residents were still in opposition. Jim Liston, who owns property on
Lakeside Drive, showed up at Tuesday's meeting prepared to say his
piece.

"I left there confused," he said after officials removed the public
hearing from the agenda.
Gaskin said she had thought the county would propose adding another
tower to two already existing at the Pinellas County Emergency
Management Center.  But the county said there's not enough room for
another tower at that site.
The city, the county, the State Technology Office and the Florida
Department of Law Enforcement plan to meet to sort the matter out,
Stanton said.

The state has 220 communications towers in Florida, including two in
Pinellas County. All the towers are higher than 300 feet, Gaskin said.

Another tower is needed to improve radio coverage in the area, which is
affected by a rise in terrain because of a ridge near Ridgecrest Park.

- Shannon Tan can be reached at [email-masked] or 445-4174.

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/02/19/Northpinellas/_You_can_kill_two_tow.shtml

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