The Jackson (NC) County Board of Commissioners said it is considering moving wireless tower applications to the jurisdiction of the planning department, sheltering decisions from potential law suits, according to the Sylvia Herald. The reason for the change is that the local mindset of cellular services has changed, according to one official, with residents wanting coverage, not confrontation.
“For the last seven years that I’ve been here, I have not had a contested wireless communication application,” Planning Director Mike Poston said. “Attitudes towards telecommunications and wireless services have actually changed over the past decade or so.”
Poston said special use permitting requires a public hearing, potentially putting the county in legal jeopardy if a tower developer challenges their decision. Quasi-judicial hearings are “very much a court case,” Poston told the Herald, saying the next step would be going in front of the Superior Court.
Some rules would remain, according to Poston, like setbacks and collapse zones, but height and location would be altered. Tower heights would increase to 199 feet, including appurtenances, previously topping off at 180 feet and the 20-feet-above-the average-tree-canopy rule would stay in place. Past rules dictated that towers on protected ridges could not be visible within two miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway and one half mile of a public road. Changes will not impact state-owned emergency communications towers, the Herald reported.
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