Fayette planning officials are seeking public comment again this Thursday on a proposed master plan for communications towers in the county.

Representatives of seven competing cellular phone companies are expected to present their projections of how many new cell towers they will need over the next 18 months to two years.

Communications companies already have erected about 50 towers in Fayette County and plans for more have proved controversial during zoning hearings.

Towers less than 150 feet tall are allowed in commercial, industrial and agricultural zones without public hearings. To erect towers taller than 150 feet, companies must get special permits that require public hearings.

Following a series of controversial requests for cell phone tower permits, the Planning Commission is working to develop a master plan for the towers.

After a preliminary workshop meeting last month, commission members said they were disappointed in the lack of public comment, given the number who have shown up to protest individual tower requests.

During the workshop, the cell phone company representatives promised to develop estimates for the next 18 months and present those at the commission's next workshop meeting, Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. Commission members said they want estimates that go out three to five years, but the representatives said that's impossible.

"We have to do something," said Bob Harbison, commission chairman. "If conditions change down the road, then we as a commission will have to sit down and address that. Either way," he said, "We're going to have a plan."

Sean Caskie of Powertel Corp. said part of the problem in developing a master plan for seven companies is that their goals and philosophy aren't all the same. For instance, he said, Air Touch Cellular tries to locate its towers along major roads because its belief is that cell phones will be used mostly for mobile communication, in cars.

Powertel thinks people will eventually use cell phones to replace regular telephones at home. "We want our system to work wherever you are," he said.

How many towers are needed is partly a function of distance between towers and partly a function of how many people live in a given area, said Steven Bush of Nextel. "When we come into a new area, we can put up a tall tower and serve all the customers in the area," he said, "but there's a limit to the number of customers who can use that tower at one time. Once you have more customers in an area, that's what drives our need for more towers."

Commissioners told the company representatives to study the county's land use plan and use it to project future population throughout the county and use those numbers to predict future need for towers, but there are other complicating factors, said the representatives.

"The topography of the land affects how many towers," said Caskie. "There are topo maps of Fayette County," Harbison retorted. "I honestly think that if you tried you could come up with something we could use as a tool for planning."