By DAVE HAMRICK
dhamrick@thecitizennews.com

It's once more around the mulberry bush for proposed changes to Fayette's ordinance governing communications towers.

The county Planning Commission will discuss the proposals again during a work session tomorrow night. During its business meeting April 6, the commissoin had planned to pass the proposals on to the County Board of Commissioners. But after an hour of discussion with representatives of the American Towers company, commissioners decided they need more time to think.

“I'd like just a little bit more time,” said Planning Commission member Jim Graw before making a motion to table the matter.

American Towers attorney Jim Ney told commissioners there's no way his company can fulfill its federal obligation to provide coverage in Fayette County for cell phone companies with the county's ordinance and proposed amendments.

Frustrated, Graw said the county has no independent expert to turn to in checking out Ney's statements. “I want to find an expert that'll be our expert,” he said.

Ney and other industry representatives have asked the county to allow towers closer together and closer to homes. Currently they're required to be two miles apart and 1,000 feet from the nearest home (except in the major highway corridors, where towers can be as close as one mile), and that in effect prohibits any more towers in Fayette, said Ney.

“We have major coverage gaps [in the county,] areas where you simply can't make a call,” he said, pointing out that the Federal Communications Commission requires that cell phone companies provide equal coverage throughout the nation. “If you don't open up enough areas for reasonable coverage, I think you open up the ordinance to [court] challenge,” he added.

Enacted just last year, the law is so restrictive that no new towers have been permitted in the county.

After talking about the ordinance in its March 23 work session, the Planning Commission had agreed on changing the distance between towers to 1.5 miles, and allowing towers to be within 750 feet of the nearest home, but Ney last week said that's not enough of a change.

He gave commissioners a series of maps showing all the existing towers as well as some proposed new ones, and said a 1.5-mile separation would prohibit the new towers, prohibiting cell phone companies from providing complete coverage.

But commission member Bill Beckwith pointed out that the group also was considering doing away with the current prohibition on variances for towers. “In cases where there is a hardship, they could proceed with that avenue,” he said.

Beckwith and commission vice chairman Fred Bowen both voted to approve the changes and send them to the County Commission, but Graw voted against the motion. With only three members present, barely a quorum, a unanimous vote would have been required.

Beckwith and Bowen then voted in favor of Graw's motion to table.

The group will discuss the ordinance again tomorrow at 7 p.m. at the County Administrative Complex.