The Booneville City Council approved an ordinance regulating the construction of cell phone towers, small cells and DAS within the city limits. Among its stated purpose, the ordinance establishes general guidelines for the siting of wireless communication facilities and granting of tower use permits that include:
- minimizing the number of new towers needed by encouraging use of existing structures
- preserving the stability of land values of properties near and adjacent to proposed commercial tower locations
- protecting residential areas from uncontrolled development of wireless communication facilities by requiring reasonable siting conditions.
According to the Booneville Democrat, there’s already a Verizon project in the works to construct a 199-foot lattice tower, and questions arose as to how the new ordinance will impact the project, if at all.
“In my opinion, the people building can say ‘we started on this before we had an ordinance,’” said city attorney Johnny Williams. “So this will not affect what they’re about to do.”
Mayor Jerry Wilkins asked Williams if that would be because the existing project is “grandfathered” in. Williams said he expected that to be the company’s position.
The Democrat reported that while the ordinance isn’t expected to alter the current tower’s plans, it will have a bearing on any future towers, allowing for maximum heights of 250 feet and limiting tower placement to property zoned for industrial use.
October 5, 2018
