Six more utility poles to boost cellphone signals are planned for the Center Grove area.
Zayo, a contractor for Verizon, has submitted requests to Johnson County for an additional six poles. The poles would be in addition to five poles the company had already requested approval for previously near Center Grove High School and Fairview Road.
The 42-foot-tall cellular towers, which resemble utility poles, differ from traditional cellular towers in that they would only amplify the signals from existing towers in the area. They are significantly smaller, but residents and county officials have raised concerns about how many could be put up and if they would begin to clutter the landscape.
The county has been working on a policy to address that concern and is considering limiting how close the poles can be to one another.
The new poles are planned along Fairview, Berry, Peterman and Smith Valley roads and in Carefree Estates. The five previously proposed locations were also in the Center Grove area, mainly along Fairview Road.
Four of those received county approval, but a fifth, near the intersection of Fairview Road and Leisure Lane, received a tie vote from the county board of zoning and appeals. Now, the board may need to bring in a tie-breaking vote, since one of the five members recused himself from the vote, Johnson County Planning Director David Hittle said. That pole had also been moved from a first proposed location at the intersection after residents raised concerns about safety. Homeowners attended the recent board of zoning appeals meeting to lobby against the pole because of safety and property value concerns, Hittle said.
Currently, the county has no regulations for the smaller cellphone poles, which means every request has to come through the board of zoning appeals, Hittle said.
County officials are preparing new rules that would set a minimum distance between the poles and a maximum height, require them to be designed similar in appearance to nearby utility poles and be placed as far as they can be from a road. The goal is to prevent the county from being inundated with the poles while allowing companies to boost cellular service to residents, Hittle said.
Officials will get feedback from companies in the cellular service industry prior to the county commissioners voting on them at the beginning of next year, he said.
County planning officials haven’t begun to review the requests for the six new poles yet, Johnson County Planner Desiree Calderella said.
Zayo has indicated to the county that it wants to construct as many as 13 poles total.
One question county officials had asked was if the equipment to boost signal could be added to the poles of area utilities, such as Johnson County REMC, in order to reduce the amount of new poles being put up. Zayo said in a letter to the county that would not work in this situation.
