For the first

time since new rules governing communications towers were enacted last

year, Fayette County is being asked to grant an exception.

BellSouth Mobility

is asking for permission to put a 253-foot monopole tower on 150.08 acres

owned by Paul and Betty Ann Bowlden on Harp Road.

Regulations

governing such towers have established a 180-foot maximum unless the tower

is in a major highway corridor.

The county

Planning Commission will hear its request for a variance during its regular

monthly meeting Thursday at 7 p.m. at the County Administrative Complex.

The Planning

Commission's recommendation will be considered by the County Commission

during its Jan. 11 meeting, same time and place.

When the tower

ordinance was originally adopted in 1999, it allowed no exceptions, but

after cell phone companies and tower builders complained that the ordinance

was too restrictive, the Planning Commission recommended and the County

Commission adopted amendments allowing variances.

During tomorrow's

meeting, the Planning Commission also will consider amendments to county

regulations regarding soil erosion and sedimentation control, bringing

county rules in line with recently tightened state regulations.

Among proposed

changes will be a minimum fine of $250 per day for each violation. Current

law provides a maximum fine of $2,500 per day, but no minimum.

New state regulations

are incorporated into the proposed changes anywhere they are mor stringent

than the county's regulations, but not where they would weaken it, civil

engineer Dave Borkowski told the Planning Commission in a work session

last week.

"I didn't

want our ordinance any laxer than it is," he said. "If it wasn't

more restrictive than what our ordinance has, I just didn't include it

here," he said.

In another

proposed change, county inspectors will no longer have to wait five days

before imposing fines on violators.

Planning commissioners

also will consider a request from Bertha Morris to change the zoning category

of her 34.8-acre tract from A-R, which requires a minimum of five acres

for each home, to R-50, which allows homes on one-acre lots. Agent Randy

Boyd proposes to build 23 homes on the property.

Commissioners

also will consider three preliminary plats for subdivisions, a total of

54 homes on 163.3 acres. The land in all three cases is already zoned.

The Planning Commission can approve the preliminary plats without further

review by the County Commission.