A 250-foot communications tower proposed for 17.87 acres on Ga. Highway 85 breaks some of the county's rules for such towers, but it has one thing going for it.

It's not in anybody's back yard.

AirTouch Cellular will go before the county Board of Commissioners Nov. 12 with a unanimous "yes" vote from the Planning Commission for its proposed tower on the Fayette/Clayton border, even though the site for the tower is across the road from another tower and is within 113 feet of residential property.

County laws require that communications towers be 1.5 miles apart, and be set back from residential property by at least the height of the tower, which in this case would be 250 feet.

But the residential property in question is vacant, a large wooded tract zoned A-R (agricultural-residential), and otherwise the site is surrounded by another vacant residential tract, a shopping center, Camp Creek and Hwy. 85.

The tower on the east side of 85 is only 150 feet tall and couldn't accommodate AirTouch's antenna.

If that tower had been built taller, there would have been no need for this one, said an AirTouch representative.

Planning commissioners took their cue from the zoning staff and recommended approval of the tower with several conditions, including one condition that a monopole tower be constructed rather than the lattice tower that was requested.

A 250-foot monopole tower represents a breakthrough of sorts. Commissioners were prepared to strike that condition during discussions last week, but AirTouch representative Maureen Paine said previous beliefs that monopole towers should be 200 feet or shorter are being shattered.

"Things have changed and the engineers have come up with the ability to do that," she said. "I have seen two 250-foot monopole towers" built by another cell phone company, she said, adding that AirTouch can agree to the condition.

The Planning Commission tabled three other tower requests and one rezoning request to give the applicants the benefit of a full board. Commissioners Jim Graw and Bob Harbison were absent from the meeting.

Rezoning and tower requests require "yes" votes from at least three commissioners, and with only three present, that put the burden on applicants of getting an unanimous vote.