Two cell tower proposals met different fates at the Oglethorpe County Zoning Board meeting on March 19.
The board denied an application from APC Towers to construct a 259-foot wireless telecommunications tower at 202 Bowen Farm Road, while approving a similar tower on Sandy Cross Road in a separate vote.
Eight residents who live on Bowen Farm Road and nearby attended, wearing stickers that read “No Tower.”
Catherine Bowen Drewry, whose family Bowen Farm Road is named after, urged the zoning board to reject the proposal, citing concerns about visual impact, environmental harm, property value loss, cultural history and lack of proper planning or necessity.
“We’ve worked really hard to make this farm be as conducive to life for all people. Well, I don't mean just people, I mean animals, birds, insects and plants and, you know, make the water better,” Drewry said. “It's still an active thing for us, and we do have a lot of wonderful diversity out here. It is beautiful.”
Drewry described the land as a mix of rolling hills, pasture, creeks and forest that her family has maintained in partnership with the Natural Resource Conservation Service since the 1960s.
She also raised concerns about the tower’s effect on wildlife, including the risk posed by guy wires to birds and migrating species, as well as the potential loss of the area’s dark night sky due to tower lighting.
“There is no plan showing the depth or method of excavation to anchor the tower and guy wires,” Drewry said during public comment.
Anthony Purnell, a radio frequency engineer for T-Mobile, said 202 Bowen Farm Road was determined to be the best location to cover the coverage gap in that area.
“When you see the areas where there’s white, that means there’s no coverage at all in that location,” Purnell said. “So this site will fulfill or provide additional coverage, as you see on this slide here.”
Another resident, Sarah Pattison, said the Bowen Farm Road proposal threatened the qualities that drew her there and added that residents value the area’s rural character and worry it could be permanently altered.
“I think it's really important to be conscious about where they (cell towers) get put so that we can preserve this rural landscape,” she said. “If we don’t protect it, it won’t be here.”
Both residents said they have not experienced issues with cell service in the area and suggested the tower could be placed in a more suitable, already developed location.
Meanwhile, the zoning board approved a request from APC Towers for conditional use for a 259-foot tower located on Sandy Cross Road.
The zoning board tabled a request from TowerCo for T-Mobile in October 2025 to place a 255-foot cell tower off Melton Road when 30 people attended that meeting in protest.
The cell tower proposal will go before the Oglethorpe County Board of Commissioners at 6 p.m. April 6.
In other business, the zoning board:
- Approved a rezone for Tim Hayes at 2 Sims Cross Road from A2 (General Agriculture) to AR (Agriculture Residential) to subdivide five acres for family. The remaining 47.73 acres will remain zoned A2.
- Approved the February 2026 zoning minutes.