Cell phone tower tabled

Charlie Roberts is having a hard time getting his cellular phone tower built.

The Cape Girardeau City Council tabled his special-use permit request again Monday night, but this time it was the cell phone company that asked that the request be put on hold.

The proposed cell tower would be built at 2215 Broadway, at Charlie's Auto Body. Currently, there is a 140-foot tower there and Roberts plans to have that tower torn down and replaced with a 150-foot tower that would support three cell antennae.

Roberts made his initial request on Jan. 9 to the Cape Girardeau Planning and Zoning Commission and that board approved the request 10-0. At that time, all that was needed to build a tower was a special-use permit.

However, a cell tower subcommittee was nearing the completion of a new set of tower regulations and the council decided to table the issue in fear the new tower might break the new guidelines. The new tower regulations were given final approval Monday night.

Now, more than two months after what appeared to be a slam-dunk approval, Roberts still has no tower, nor the income he would receive from it.

"They wanted new regulations, but I don't understand why I should wait around until they pass the law," said Roberts, who did not attend Monday night's meeting. "That's the way I feel about it, but they're just doing their job. I don't have any hard feelings toward them or anything."

Roberts may find himself with no tower at all.

Other sites explored

Among the new regulations is the condition that the cell phone company must try to co-locate on an existing tower within one mile, if possible.

Theresa Malone, a zoning specialist for a company that does business with Sprint, said Monday that the company is exploring other locations.

"We didn't expect that this site would demand this much attention and create this much of a stir," said Malone from her office in Grand Rapids, Mich. "We're re-exploring and we want to make sure we find all the options available. We just want to make sure we have time to comply with the ordinance and that's the bottom line."

The council has the authority to waive any of the proposed tower regulations.

The council tabled the special-use permit request at a Feb. 4 council meeting. At that meeting, Malone said timing was important because Sprint could lose business because of dropped calls and poor signals. The proposed tower would work in conjunction with a tower already in place on nearby Kingshighway. Malone said the extra tower is needed to handle more capacity.