FAIRHOPE – Hollowbrook subdivision residents have complained about a 190-foot tall cell phone tower rising over their homes, but Fairhope officials said they cannot restrict the construction on an unzoned site in county jurisdiction.
The cell tower is off Alabama 181 south of Alabama 104, Fairhope Building Director Eric Cortinas told City Council members on Jan. 11.
“It is on unzoned property within the county, but it is the next lot over from the back yards of the folks right there at the Hollobrook entrance,” Cortinas said.
With the property unzoned and unincorporated, city officials do not have control over the site.
“If you get any calls or you have anyone ask you about it, once again, it is unzoned property in the county and there was nothing anybody could do to prevent it from being there,” Cortinas told council members.
He said that when the project was proposed, city officials realized that the tower would upset some property owners.
“When that came to us in, I think it was October, we knew it was going to be a hot topic, so we crossed every ‘t’ and dotted every ‘i’ that we had,” Cortinas said. “We required them to give us a copy of their FCC tower certification and license showing that it could be there. We had them give us a ‘no hazard to navigation’ letter from the FAA. We have written verification from Baldwin County Planning and Zoning that they have no jurisdiction over it. They gave us their engineering to verify 160-mile-an-hour wind load and we asked them to also send it out for a second opinion and we got that. So, it is one of those issues where it is on unzoned property and there are no land-use restrictions as to what they may or may not do on that property, so we issued the permit and they evidently began constructing the pole last week and we’ve been getting a lot of phone calls.”
He said the tower will improve cell phone reception in the area.
“On the good side, on the flip side though, we’re hoping a 190-foot tower will improve cell reception, which is another common complaint so hopefully, that will at least be a little bit of a silver lining,” Cortinas said.
Mayor Sherry Sullivan said she appreciates the concerns of residents who now have the tower outside their back doors.
“It’s hard because I understand,” Sullivan said. “I would not want to sit on my back porch and look over my privacy fence and see a 190-foot monopole, and they probably didn’t realize that was unzoned county property, but unfortunately, it was.”
She said county zoning in the area can control structures like the tower. Residents have to start the process, but city officials will provide help if property owners want.
“I have talked to several people in Hollowbrook HOA (Home Owners Association), because I do think it needs to be citizen driven,” she said. “But if we can go out there with our planning staff and the county planning staff and explain to them how they can go through the process of creating zoning in their area, we want to be able to facilitate that if we can.”
Jack Burrell, council president, said the tower construction shows the need for land-use regulations in some areas.
“It just goes to show that zoning is not always your enemy,” Burrell said. “Those that would be against any zoning, there are many, many instances, in this town recently, that we can think of. That being one of them. Another retail outlet that was built near the high school recently is another that I’ve received a lot of complaints about that we can’t do anything about.”
Burrell said cell tower construction could affect other areas of Fairhope in the near future. He said new towers to accommodate 5G phones have a service radius of about 500 feet, requiring many small transmitters around the area.
“It can be very esthetically disturbing if we don’t get a handle on it,” Burrell said. “All the decades of beautifying the city could go to the wayside if we don’t watch it.”
