The Oglethorpe County Board of Commissioners unanimously accepted APC Towers LLC’s withdrawal of a request Monday night to put a 259-foot communications tower on Bowen Farm Road.
The withdrawn cell tower proposal was the fifth item on the agenda, but Chairman Jay Paul allowed residents to speak during public comment. Five of the six opposed the tower.
“We moved out here because we don’t want light pollution, noise pollution,” said Katie Pierce, who spoke against the tower. “I really can’t see any of my neighbors, and I love that.”
Multiple residents cited concerns about potential health effects from the cell tower.
“I'm not real big on telling people what they can and cannot do on their own property,” said Steven Bridges, a Bowen Farm Road resident. “That’s not how I was raised. My only concerns are possible health effects.”
Nathan Paul, the son of the parcel’s owners, said his parents had twice before turned down cell companies seeking to build a cell tower on their property. He said financial difficulties made them consider the offer this time.
“Combine rising property taxes and land maintenance with an aging couple on fixed income, and, as any financially responsible individual can tell you, certain decisions must be made,” Nathan Paul said. “Decisions like whether or not to hold them to their home when the costs are outweighing the benefits.”
Catherine Bowen Drewry, who grew up on Bowen Farm Road and purchased her property on the road in 1997, said she worries the company has expressed interest in returning to the same parcel.
“I don’t think that’s right,” Drewry said. “I’d like you to just know that we have spent countless hours researching this — and it’s time we should have been spending out on our farm.”
Eight residents who live in the area had attended the Oglethorpe County Zoning Board meeting in March to speak against the cell tower. The board voted to deny the application.
BOC returns to meeting room
The meeting returned to the BOC meeting room on Union Point Road after it was moved to the Oglethorpe County Courthouse for the March meeting to accommodate more people.
About 40 people attended Monday’s meeting. The BOC room seats 30, but county staff brought in six chairs to help with the expected crowd. At least five people stood in the foyer.
Brad Johns, who was arrested for refusing to cede the floor after multiple warnings from officials at March’s BOC meeting, was cut off by Jay Paul during public comment after Johns called his arrest last month “foul.”
“You controlled everything that happened to you that night,” Paul said. “And I’m going to stop you right now.”
Johns ceded the floor after a deputy approached the lectern.
BOC splits on zoning requests
The BOC voted 3-2 to approve a variance request from William Cunningham to subdivide a parcel on Cunningham Road (District 1).
The BOC also approved a previously tabled variance request from David and Tammy Owens to waive paving requirements for a Yancey Road property by a 4-1 vote (District 4).
“We’re not asking for anything more than to live peacefully on our property,” Tammy Owens said.
The BOC approved 4-1 a previously tabled request from RBA Oglethorpe Investments, LLC to subdivide a large parcel (over 25 acres) on Faust Farm Road (District 4).
The board amended the request to prohibit further subdivision of the parcel for the next 40 years and that the county will only maintain the current dirt road, despite additional traffic from the subdivision.
“The condition of the road is the condition of the road,” District 2 Commissioner Andy Saxon said.
In other business, the BOC:
- Unanimously approved a rezone request from Tim Hayes to rezone a parcel on Sims Cross Road from general agriculture to agricultural residential (District 1).
- Unanimously approved a conditional use request from APC Towers IV, LLC to put a 259-foot communications tower on a parcel zoned for A1 on Sandy Cross Road (District 2).
- Heard about the Local Emergency Operations Plan, which was up for its five-year renewal. The Local Emergency Operations Plan outlines how city and county governments will work with state and federal agencies in the case of an emergency.
- Commissioner Tracy Norman spoke in favor of drones used by the county government for mapping and surveying. He said the county has found multiple violations of homes that don’t exist in the tax records. “I’m glad we’ve got that tool, and that zoning can go after these people, put the tickets on the board, let them face the court and then pay the taxes they’re supposed to be paying this county,” Norman said.