Adding ten

feet to the height of an existing communications tower is better than

building a new tower.

So decided

the Fayette County Planning Commission last week. The group recommended

approval of SprintCom Inc.'s request to increase the height of a tower

on Morgan Road from 180 feet to 190 feet to accommodate the company's

cell phone tower and improve its service to the area.

The 127-acre

site of the tower is near the county's eastern border, near McDonough

Road. The land is owned by Mary Kartos and the existing tower is owned

and managed by Crown Castle Inc.

SprintCom had

earlier asked for approval of a new tower on the Flintwood Farms on McDonough

Road, but County Commission turned down the firm's request for an exception

to the rules. The site was barely more than a half mile away from the

Morgan Road site, and county law requires a two-mile separation between

towers.

"The [Morgan

Road] site is in a heavily wooded site and is isolated. That reduces the

intrusiveness of the site to the surrounding area," said lawyer Jim

Ney, representing SprintCom.

Planning Commission

member Jim Graw questioned why the firm needs to increase the height of

the tower, when there's room for an additional antenna now. But that antenna

would have to be placed at 160 feet high, and that wouldn't help SprintCom

customers get much better reception than they're getting now, Ney said.

"We'll

have the same series of complaints that we're getting now," he said.

If the tower is made taller, SprintCom's antenna would be at 190 feet,

and that would solve most of the problems, he said.

The company

also will reduce the height of a lightening rod on top of the tower from

15 feet to nine feet, to keep the tower below the 200-foot height at which

a blinking light would be required, Ney said. That will avoid a light

that might disturb anyone living nearby, he said.

"This

clearly aims in the direction we have hoped for in the county," said

commission Chairman Fred Bowen, commending the company on its solution

to the problem. The county's laws governing communications towers call

for as many antennae on each tower as possible, to reduce the total number

of towers in the county.

The group voted

unanimously to recommend the zoning change to allow the taller tower.

County commissioners will take up the request at their Thursday, June

28, 7 p.m. at the County Administrative Complex.

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