Cell tower proposal gets bad reception
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| Erica Burus photo/ If this were Mr. Ed he may get improved cell reception if a proposed cell tower is installed on the small pasture behind him. |
4 Site Tower Systems, LLC, has applied to the St. Louis County Planning Commission for a conditional use permit to erect a 100-foot-tall stealth type monopole cellular tower on property in the 5300 block of Studer Lane, off Hagemann Road.
The tower would be located on the south side of Studer Lane, approximately 500 feet east of Hagemann Road. The property is currently zoned non-urban and the property’s owner, Bradford Baldwin, is also president of 4 Site Tower Systems, LLC.John Wich, of the 5300 block of Studer Lane and a former Hagemann Crossing subdivision trustee, lives two houses away from the property and said there is no need for a cell tower in his neighborhood since there is already one located about a quarter-mile away on Tesson Ferry Road.
“Besides our subdivision, there are 50 homes in the Hagemann Crossing subdivision and five homes directly across the street from the property,” Wich said. “Each sit on about one acre and are anywhere from $750,000 to $1 million homes. It’s a residential neighborhood so it’s kind of a given that it shouldn’t be located here to begin with.”
Wich is concerned the tower would decrease the area’s property values. He’s also worried about the potential health problems associated with towers of this kind.
“We’re not really sure from a health standpoint what kind of rays, or whatever, are emitted from these types of towers,” Wich said. “I think he probably doesn’t care that much about how it looks and it isn’t much of a concern to him because he’s going to make money off of it.”
Russell S. Been, of Collective Solutions, a company representing 4 Site Tower Systems, said his company previously approached the Mehlville School District about locating the pole on the nearby Hagemann Elementary School property, but the district did not respond to the request.
“So we moved on to the next zonable property that was on the elevation that we needed,” he said, adding that many of the properties surrounding the location are also zoned for non-urban use with others zoned for residential uses.
The “stealth” pole appears as a flagpole with no flag attached, Been said. It also has its cell antennae located within the tower with no visible arms or antennae visible from outside.
It could accommodate four different cell phone providers, which would lease space on the tower.
Been said the tower is disguised by surrounding trees and would be difficult to see from almost any angle. He added that the tower would not emit microwave or other harmful rays.
“Most of those microwave and parabolic antennae are four to five feet in circumference and that type of technology would not function on this type of pole,” Been said. “The reason we chose this type of pole is that technically, by zoning ordinance, we couldn’t put up a tower with all the arms sticking out of it. The reason we chose this is because it’s more sensitive and has the least amount of additional visual impact.”
Been said the stealth-type poles are located on churches and other pubic and private properties throughout St. Louis County and go largely unnoticed.
He said the pole in question would be located in the middle of the approximately quarter-acre property with all the trees on the property retained for screening purposes in an effort “to be more conscientious about the neighbors.”
“We’re not trying to shove this down anybody’s throat, and since the school didn’t want to talk to us, this was the closest property that could meet the required setback to match the (tower’s) height,” Been said. “We’re 100 feet away from the nearest property line.”
The St. Louis County Planning Commission was expected to vote to either make a recommendation of approval or denial Sept. 8, after the Journal’s press time. The request would then move to the St. Louis County Council for a decision.
