Despite opposition from local residents, a 155-foot cell tower will see the light of day at a storage facility location in the town of Washington, MO. Last month, city leaders gave the nod to the development of the site at 602 Alberta Lane, according to The Missourian. The camouflaged tower, proposed by Network Real Estate LLC, working on behalf of AT&T, will be configured as a pine tree.
The city’s attorney and community and economic development director, Sal Maniaci, said recent changes in federal law made the tower’s construction inevitable.
“Back in 2014,” Maniaci told The Missourian, “there was a change that highly protects cell phone towers to the point that the city really can only regulate the tower’s height and setbacks. There was very little the city could do and can do to stop it when it comes to a disguised cell phone tower.”
Residents went on record at the special-use hearing in February and shared their concerns about the tower’s impact on aesthetics and property values.
City officials cited other disguised wireless infrastructure in Washington that includes antennas on water towers and a flagpole on Cecilia Drive, only a third of a mile away from the storage unit site. According to Maniaci, construction would need to begin in six months before the developers would be required to reapply for a building permit.
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