DeKalb County's School Cell Towers on Hold, for Now

There are many things one can say about the government.  But, saying that it's wheels turn slowly would be an understatement.

A minor victory for Get the Cell Out - ATL?  We will take whatever we can get.  Apparently Commissioner Stan Watson has been checking into the legal issues regarding the placement of cell towers on school grounds and the entire project is now on hold.

In the video below, Michael Thurmond, Interim Superintendent of DeKalb Schools, was asked by the Northlake Community Alliance members about the cell towers and he defered to the county commissioners.

Commissioner Watson stated that the county commissioners have received the permit application and they have now placed it in the hands of the Legal Department to determine what, if anything, can be done legally with the request to put up towers.  He stated that the process curretnly would be giving communities the proper channels that would normally be followed for a "SLUP" or Special Land Use Permit.

If this means what we think it means, the public will be duly notified by proper posting of signage at each location, given the full amount of time necessary to address the zoning commissioners with their concerns and the decisions can be made with full knowledge and participation of everyone involved.

Here are a few links for you to follow if you would like more information about the "SLUP" zoning and appeals process.  This news may not sound like it is monumental, but it is actually a huge step in the right direction for our followers because it is the proper format established by the existing county codes for building structures that deviate from standard land use plans.  In order for any builder, including a commercial telecommunications carrier or their various subcontractors, to violate the ordinances established by a local zoning authority, a Special Land Use Permit is required.

The cell phone towers that were originally planned for our schools as announced and approved in 2011 in a quick window of public avoidance disguised as notification, were going to be built  without following the standard process for safe siting of cell towers.  Instead, the documents published by the school system on its website contained outdated, inadequate specs for towers with a much lower stability rating and a lower level technology on base station materials that had a high likelihood of falling over under certain wind conditions, which were not impossible to reach according to Emergency Management documents easily found online.

In addition to the lower rated "Rev F" type of towers being planned (Rev. G was the required standard of the industry at the time), but the towers were also being planned without adherence to the required "fall zone" and "set back" requirements.  These standards exists in DeKalb County so that a large, industrial type of structure that could be subject to toppling over would not be permitted to include any structure or pathways nearby that could reasonably be expected to contain living beings (like children or adults in schools, cars or even pedestrians in crosswalks or sidewalks on the grounds below) that could be placed in harm's way.  The serious nature of this concern was made clear to GTCO-ATL around the time that this debate originated when a cell tower in nearby Norcross in Gwinnett County caught fire and forced the evacuation of homes and a daycare center nearby.  (See: Fire Closes Rockbridge Daycare or Lilburn Cell Tower Fire Evacuations)

Thank you to the new, appointed school board and the new Interim Superintendent for operating in a more transparent manner.  Thank you to Commissioner Watson for the simple, easy to understand, perfectly legitimate sounding answer.  That was not so hard, after all, was it?

If your community was slated for a cell tower, you may soon be called upon to defend your property rights.  Start the process now if you need to hire an attorney or anyone else to help you.  These issues come up quickly and  you may not have another chance to address them on the subject until after it is too late.  Gulp!

Here is a link to a brief history and a county overview of the Special Land Use guidelines.  

Other GTCO-ATL articles that may help you fight a cell tower at the zoning level:  

Cell Towers, There is Just Nothing Pretty About Them (and That Just Might be Their Demise) 

T-Mobile's Time Runs Out in DeKalb

DeKalb Service Request for Cell Tower Compliance






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