The city manager averts a showdown over a communications tower when he suggests county and state needs be combined.
By SHANNON TAN
Published February 19, 2004
LARGO - The state needs to build a communications tower of up to 300 feet to improve radio coverage in the Largo area.
The county wants to replace its 240-foot communications tower at the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office complex with a taller tower.
Sounds like a win-win situation.
So on Tuesday, city commissioners decided to put off voting on the state's proposal to build a tower next to the parking lot of the Mary Grizzle State Office Complex. That site, about 0.6 miles southeast of the Sheriff's Office complex, had been vehemently opposed by nearby residents.
"You can kill two towers with one stone," City Manager Steven Stanton said, "and avoid messing up another neighborhood."
Residents had signed petitions, made phone calls and written letters opposing the tower, which might be six times the height of the three-story Mary Grizzle complex at 11361 Ulmerton Road.
"There's got to be a better place for it than right behind the residential area," resident Chris Hoyne said.
And apparently there may be.
Just a few hours before the scheduled public hearing, Stanton learned that the county wanted the tower to be built at the Sheriff's Office complex to replace the 240-foot tower already there.
That tower is more than 15 years old, said Pam Montanari, radio systems manager for Pinellas County. The county has been looking to replace the existing tower.
A new tower could be used for both the county's and state's public safety communications. It would be built farther away from residents than the existing tower, and a buffer of trees is already in place, she said.
Hoyne agrees.
"I think that would be a better place for it than right behind our homes," he said.
There are about 40 homes on Lakeside Drive SW, behind the Mary Grizzle parking lot. The proposed tower would have gone up on a vacant lot next to the parking lot - about 250 feet to the nearest property line.
Residents worried about property values being affected, electromagnetic radiation and other potential risks. When the Mary Grizzle building was constructed, the use of heavy equipment caused cracks in their homes. Building a tower there would cause more damage, they said.
The State Technology Office isn't sure the sheriff's complex site will work as a replacement site.
"We already evaluated the sheriff's complex," said Carla Gaskin, communications director. "It wasn't suitable for our needs."
The site is lower in elevation, Gaskin said, and a tower there would not provide adequate coverage.
In December, the planning board rejected the State Technology Office's hardship relief request to build the tower near the homes.
Largo city code allows a maximum height of 190 feet for communication towers except in areas zoned only for residential use. To build a tower taller than that height, the applicant must file a request with the planning board for hardship relief.
Since the planning board's rejection of its proposal, engineers worked on designing a 200-foot tower instead. The state would build the tower, test the radio coverage, and add another 100 feet if needed.
But residents were still in opposition. Jim Liston, who owns property on Lakeside Drive, showed up at Tuesday's meeting prepared to say his piece.
"I left there confused," he said after officials removed the public hearing from the agenda.
Gaskin said she had thought the county would propose adding another tower to two already existing at the Pinellas County Emergency Management Center. But the county said there's not enough room for another tower at that site.
The city, the county, the State Technology Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement plan to meet to sort the matter out, Stanton said.
The state has 220 communications towers in Florida, including two in Pinellas County. All the towers are higher than 300 feet, Gaskin said.
Another tower is needed to improve radio coverage in the area, which is affected by a rise in terrain because of a ridge near Ridgecrest Park.
