The City-County Planning Board for Winston-Salem, North Carolina approved the approved changes to the city’s cell tower regulations that would require cell tower owners to keep existing trees at the site of monopine towers. This is to ensure that towers disguised as trees aren’t left in an area with no other surrounding foliage. “This clarification will make monopine towers have less of a visual effect on surrounding neighborhoods,” Kirk Ericson, a project planner for the City-County Planning Board, said at the board’s meeting. What’s the point of dressing a tower up like a tree if there are no trees around? The rule also would apply to other concealed towers or monopole towers in residential zoning districts that are within existing wooded areas. Monopoles have a single supporting pole with exposed antennae on top. “That language is just to make sure we don’t get into a situation where we’re saying preserve these trees but they’re on land that’s not leased by the tower company, so someone who isn’t held accountable comes in and takes them down anyway,” Ericson said.
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