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Greenacres postpones vote on cellphone tower [The Palm Beach Post, Fla. :: ](Palm Beach Post (FL) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Sept. 10--Plans to build a 150-foot commercial cell phone tower within the city's Municipal Complex were put on hold Tuesday night after the City Council tabled a vote, opting instead to hire an independent engineer to determine if the city needs another cell tower. Several Sunland Estates residents showed up in opposition to the tower, proposed to be built at 5800 Melaleuca Lane behind the Public Works building, saying it would be an unwanted eyesore. "Why do we need this tower?" asked resident Patrick Fagan. "We have seven cell phone towers in the city. Do we really need another one? I have AT&T and I've never had an issue with service." Councilman Jonathan Pearce agreed. "Our cell phone reception is more than adequate," he said. "We don't need to be looked at as the cell phone tower king of Palm Beach County." Roxana Hunt-Gale, another Sunland Estates resident, said she's worried about declining property values. "When someone wants to purchase a home and they look out the window and can see a 150-foot cell tower, you can't tell me that won't depreciate the value of that home," she said. Future residents of Harvest Pines II, a 35 single-family home development that's planned for 10 acres on the south side of Melaleuca Lane, just east of City Hall, will also be able to see the tower from their homes. But RG Towers, a telecommunications real estate development firm that specializes in wireless tower development, said the tower will boost service. "We have a lot of customer feedback and surveys that lead us to this area," Holly Valdez, a project manager with RG Towers, said. "There's also a safety issue. If you're in an accident, you'll want to call 911, but that call may not go through if everyone is downloading pictures." Olga Suarez, a senior engineer with T-Mobile, said the company has had several complaints in the area about service. "We do know there is a need for the tower," she said. The monopole tower was proposed to be installed south of the municipal complex between the parking lot and the Lake Worth Drainage District L-14 Canal. It could handle up to three carriers. The proposal also included ground equipment cabinets that would be housed in a new 20-x-20-foot lease area adjacent to a 1,000-square-foot future lease area for additional carriers. RG Towers would lease about 400 square feet of ground area from the city until 2028, paying $43,233 annually with each five-year renewal term. The city plans to revisit the issue at the Oct. 20 meeting, a motion proposed by Councilwoman Paula Bousquet who said she was concerned about property values. Greenacres will hire an independent engineer who will examine data provided by T-Mobile and RG Towers to determine if an eighth cell phone tower in the city is necessary. The council also discussed the idea of building a shorter tower. "I'd like to have data that proves they need that height," Mayor Samuel Ferreri said. In December, the council approved a similar site plan and special exception application to build a 150-foot tower inside Ira Van Bullock Park. ___ (c)2014 The Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, Fla.) Visit The Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, Fla.) at www.palmbeachpost.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |