If it were up to the city planning commission, AT&T wouldn’t build a 5G cellular tower on Lowndes County property north of the Roger Short Soccer Complex.
The commission voted 5-1 Monday night to deny the company’s request to build the 155-foot mono-tower at that location. Chairman Kevin Stafford, who also serves as the city’s engineer, opposed the motion, instead seeking to table the issue until January.
“It wasn’t a vote to accept it. It was a vote against denying it,” Stafford told The Dispatch on Tuesday. “In my opinion, they needed to go back, look at some more sites and get back to us.”
The commission’s recommendation now heads to the city council for consideration Dec. 17.
“The council has free reign to do whatever they want,” Stafford said, noting it has occasionally acted against the commission’s recommendations.
AT&T approached Lowndes County in 2021 and proposed a cellular tower on the undeveloped county property at Moore Creek, north of the soccer complex and just west of what is now The Magg Dispensary on Highway 45. At the time, Board of Supervisors President Trip Hairston said, the draw was to improve service for FirstNet – a nationwide cellular network that keeps first responders connected during major emergencies.
In July of this year, county supervisors approved leasing the property to AT&T for $1,600 per month for five years. AT&T has the option to continue the lease for up to five subsequent terms, effectively making it a 30-year lease.
Since the property is in the city limits, however, the tower’s construction must comply with city code. A cellular tower can go up in a highway commercial zone, such as where the proposed parcel sits, but the city must first approve a permit for the project.
During Monday’s planning commission meeting, attorney Patton Hahn, a member of the Baker Donelson firm in Birmingham, Alabama, representing AT&T, told the commission the company uses computer modeling to determine the most suitable sites for building towers.
“As you can see, it is a significant amount more coverage to the west, and in and around the city,” Hahn said, referring to a propagation map showing how the Moore Creek would enhance the network. “… All AT&T is trying to do here is improve coverage.”
Commissioner Quinn Brislin expressed concern about losing greenspace and having an unsightly tower so close to the soccer complex and the burgeoning Burns Bottom Redevelopment District. He worries about aesthetics even if the commission, or ultimately the council, required AT&T to camouflage the tower to look like a tree – something commonly done with cellular towers.
“Has your computer model been out to the soccer complex to see what we’ve built out there?” Brislin asked. “… I really don’t want to see a cell tower right at the top of the soccer complex.”
Stafford proposed tabling the issue specifically so AT&T could consider locating its emitter on a nearby water tower, rather than building a new tower.
He specifically suggested the water tower off Highland Circle, located two-fifths of a mile east of the Moore Creek property on “one of the highest hills in town.”
Stafford said he checked with Columbus Light and Water to see if AT&T had inquired about that tower. The company had not. CLW would be “open to discussing” the option, Stafford said, since the utility already allows private signal emitters to lease space on its towers.
“Usually the path of least resistance is on these water towers because they’re already there,” Stafford told The Dispatch. “No one’s going to raise their hand and say ‘I don’t want water.’”
Hahn, however, told Stafford on Monday that even considering the water tower would delay construction by two to three years.
Speaking to the Rotary Club of Columbus on Tuesday at Lion Hills Center, Hairston said he doubted the council would approve the tower’s construction.
“I can’t imagine (the council) would go beyond what their planning commission decided last night and put a tower up,” he said. “And I think it’s probably because this one will forever be seen because it’s now a political lightning rod.”
News Editor Abigail Sipe Rochester contributed to this report.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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