Stop the Nichols Road Cell Tower Near Vaughan!
- by: Cobb County Families Against the Nichols Road Cell Phone Tower
- recipient: Cobb County Planning Commission & Board of Commissioners
We, the undersigned citizens and voters of Cobb County, are opposed to the granting of a Special Land Use Permit for the purpose of constructing the proposed T-Mobile cell phone tower on property currently zoned R-30 residential and located at 5746 Nichols Road. We are opposed for the following reasons and urge the Cobb County Planning Commission and the Cobb County Board of Commissioners to deny T-Mobile's request for the Special Land Use Permit for the protection and welfare of the adults and children of west Cobb County.
(1) The proposed cell phone tower does not belong on land zoned for Single Family Residential Housing that has no commercial development within approximately 1.5 miles. A tower of 185' is completely out of scale with, and in great contrast to, the natural aesthetics of the surrounding area, and the introduction of this structure to the landscape would be an eye-sore and forever alter the residential and pastoral character of the community.
(2) The proposed cell tower will violate section 134-37 and 134-273 of the Special Land Use Permits of Cobb County Zoning Ordinance because of the gigantic discrepancy between the height of the tower and the natural setting of the area, it will be impossible to adequately screen the tower from view of the surrounding residential community.
(3) Cobb County first requires documentation that there are no structures within a 1-mile radius of the proposed location that the applicant can use, instead of building a new structure. T-Mobile replied in its proposal that there were no available structures within a 1-mile radius of the proposed location. We as local residents know that there is adequate cell phone coverage in the proposed area. According to antennasearch.com there are currently 4 towers within a 1.5 mile radius of the proposed site, 8 towers within 2 miles, 15 within 3 miles and 27 within 4 miles.
(4) The tower will be 366 feet away from the Vaughan Elementary School property line and less than 1,000 feet from the school building itself and could present a danger to children at the school. Unlike a tower placed in a difficult-to-access or well-monitored commercial area, this tower will be in an area that the children can view daily and travel to quickly and easily. The tower will be unmanned and on private property. School officials will have no legal authority over access to the facility, and if children from the school attempt to access the tower, there will be no one on-site to stop them. T-Mobile will put up a fence, but a fence can be climbed by curious children.
(5) The tower will lower property values of the single family homes in the community, and Cobb County will be at risk for the loss of tax revenue as impacted residents seek to have property tax assessments lowered. There are various appraiser journals and industry publications that support the arguments of reduced property values and cell phone towers. While the health risks of cell phone towers are still being investigated, there is no doubt that concerns over health risks are ubiquitous in the media and on the internet and would cause some potential home-buyers to avoid our area. A search on Google on 7/10/09 yielded 0.9 million results for "cell phone towers health risks". A search for "smoking health risks" yielded 1.3 million results. The fact that there is almost as much information on the internet concerning health risks of cell phone towers as there are on the health risks of an activity universally accepted as hazardous for over 20 years, makes a strong common-sense case that the concern over the health risks of cell phone towers will make it more difficult to sell residential property near a tower and will therefore decrease the value of this quiet, residential, family community as a whole.
We, the undersigned citizens and voters of Cobb County, are opposed to the granting of a Special Land Use Permit for the purpose of constructing the proposed T-Mobile cell phone tower on property currently zoned R-30 residential and located at 5746 Nichols Road. We are opposed for the following reasons and urge the Cobb County Planning Commission and the Cobb County Board of Commissioners to deny T-Mobile's request for the Special Land Use Permit for the protection and welfare of the adults and children of west Cobb County.
(1) The proposed cell phone tower does not belong on land zoned for Single Family Residential Housing that has no commercial development within approximately 1.5 miles. A tower of 185' is completely out of scale with, and in great contrast to, the natural aesthetics of the surrounding area, and the introduction of this structure to the landscape would be an eye-sore and forever alter the residential and pastoral character of the community.
(2) The proposed cell tower will violate section 134-37 and 134-273 of the Special Land Use Permits of Cobb County Zoning Ordinance because of the gigantic discrepancy between the height of the tower and the natural setting of the area, it will be impossible to adequately screen the tower from view of the surrounding residential community.
(3) Cobb County first requires documentation that there are no structures within a 1-mile radius of the proposed location that the applicant can use, instead of building a new structure. T-Mobile replied in its proposal that there were no available structures within a 1-mile radius of the proposed location. We as local residents know that there is adequate cell phone coverage in the proposed area. According to antennasearch.com there are currently 4 towers within a 1.5 mile radius of the proposed site, 8 towers within 2 miles, 15 within 3 miles and 27 within 4 miles.
(4) The tower will be 366 feet away from the Vaughan Elementary School property line and less than 1,000 feet from the school building itself and could present a danger to children at the school. Unlike a tower placed in a difficult-to-access or well-monitored commercial area, this tower will be in an area that the children can view daily and travel to quickly and easily. The tower will be unmanned and on private property. School officials will have no legal authority over access to the facility, and if children from the school attempt to access the tower, there will be no one on-site to stop them. T-Mobile will put up a fence, but a fence can be climbed by curious children.
(5) The tower will lower property values of the single family homes in the community, and Cobb County will be at risk for the loss of tax revenue as impacted residents seek to have property tax assessments lowered. There are various appraiser journals and industry publications that support the arguments of reduced property values and cell phone towers. While the health risks of cell phone towers are still being investigated, there is no doubt that concerns over health risks are ubiquitous in the media and on the internet and would cause some potential home-buyers to avoid our area. A search on Google on 7/10/09 yielded 0.9 million results for "cell phone towers health risks". A search for "smoking health risks" yielded 1.3 million results. The fact that there is almost as much information on the internet concerning health risks of cell phone towers as there are on the health risks of an activity universally accepted as hazardous for over 20 years, makes a strong common-sense case that the concern over the health risks of cell phone towers will make it more difficult to sell residential property near a tower and will therefore decrease the value of this quiet, residential, family community as a whole.
We thank the Commissioners for their time in considering our objections and urge them to deny T-Mobile's request for a Special Land Use Permit.
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