A proposed new ordinance governing communications towers in Fayette County may not satisfy anyone, but it's fair to everyone and its the best they can do, Planning Commission members say.

The county Board of Commissioners will take final action on the ordinance tomorrow during its 7 p.m. meeting, now that the Planning Commission has made its recommendation.

"I think we've got the best we're going to get that the public's going to buy and is going to allow the cell companies to do business," said planning panel member Al Gilbert before making a motion to recommend the tower ordinance last week.

Maureen Payne, representing Air Touch Cellular and saying she spoke for six other industry representatives, asked the group to take some more time. "We would like to ask that you have some additional workshops, now that we've got specifics on paper," said Payne.

Representatives of the seven cell phone companies and area firms that build towers for a variety of purposes met with the Planning Commission in a series of workshops in October to make suggestions and provide information as the group worked to devise a "master plan" for towers in the county.

Requests for permits to build towers have met with stiff neighborhood opposition in recent months, and the County Commission had asked the Planning Commission to study the needs of the communications firms and work out a compromise solution. Planners last week said they have had enough workshops and they are satisfied with the ordinance as it is.

Under the proposed ordinance, companies will be able to get permits to build towers without public hearings as long as the towers are within 500 feet of the county's main thoroughfares, are of monopole or lattice construction and 250 feet tall or less. Adminstrative approval of such towers also would hinge on their meeting a variety of design and location standards, including being at least 1,000 feet away from any residence, except a residence on the site itself.

Highways included in this "floating zone" include Ga. highways 85, 92, 74, 314, 279, 138, 85 Connector and 54, plus the future east-west arterial highway, Bernhard Road.

Towers up to 180 feet also can be approved administratively, without hearings, if they are on land zoned A-R (agricultural-residential).

Also, new towers outside the preferred highway zones must be two miles apart. The minimum distance between towers on the state highways will be only one mile.

Payne said the ordinance is too restrictive. She objected to large setbacks that towers have to meet if they are in A-R zones, and the fact that the ordinance allows no variances and requires monopole construction in those areas. "We want to leave the variances in there," she said, "and the monopole limitation may not allow you the flexibility you may want at a later date," she told the commission.

But Bob McElroy, a local resident, said the ordinance is too lenient. The provision for administrative approval of towers along thoroughfares will mean residents won't have any notice of coming towers, he said.

"We won't know about that tower coming up in our backyard until it's already been constructed," he said.

Commissioners said they think the ordinance strikes a happy medium. "We're trying to make this thing fair to everybody," said Gilbert during a recent workshop.