Unless there’s a snafu with signal testing, Indian River Shores seems to have finally settled on a location for a cell tower at the end of Fred Tuerk Drive near the electric substation.
When the site near the electric substation had been proposed in the past, town officials were threatened with litigation.
But several weeks after an update was distributed to town residents, Town Manager Robbie Stabe said no opposition has emerged to the announced location.
“So far, so good,” he said this past Monday. “No threats or complaints as of late. I even had a positive conversation going with one of the John’s Island residents who has been very opposed in the past.”
The site also avoids a battle with a group of Bermuda Bay residents who were adamantly opposed to construction of a tower on town property adjacent to their homes.
“This location is the furthest away from any residential structures and, because the electric substation already exists, the addition of the tower in an already unfavorable location should not detract from any surrounding properties,” said Stabe.
“This location will also potentially provide a more than adequate cellular signal to the entire town,” Stabe said.
He added that a tower at the planned location “may eliminate the need to install a second cell tower on John’s Island property.”
The John’s Island club board has been considering erecting a tower somewhere in the community, but club officials said they were waiting to see what course of action the town would take first.
At a workshop in October, the consensus was that the town should make it a top priority to secure commitments from at least AT&T and Verizon as soon as possible.
The 130-foot tower being proposed could support up to five different carriers.
The approval process for the tower will begin with a vetting by the Town’s Planning, Zoning and Variance Board, hopefully at its meeting Dec. 14, and will culminate with public hearings before the Town Council.
Once it has been built by Datapath Tower Company and leased by cellular providers, the town will begin receiving revenues from the lease payments.
That influx of cash could offset property taxes or, should the town council choose, pay for future enhancements to the town or to public safety services.
“This tower is preferred by all of the carriers,” Stabe said of the Bee Gum Point location,“ because it provides them with a superior signal and also provides them many options to better fine-tune their signals to ensure optimal coverage throughout the town.”
Environmental advocates concerned about impacts to the migratory bird population in and around the 111-acre Bee Gum Point nature preserve, acquired by the Indian River Land Trust in 2011, spoke at the Oct. 22 workshop, asking the Town Council to proceed with caution. Consultants from Datapath Tower said an environmental impact study would be part of the permit approval process, and those aspects would be closely examined.
The closest cell towers to the Town are at Sea Oaks to the north in the unincorporated county, and on the Village Spires condominium on Ocean Drive in the City of Vero Beach, leaving more than a five-mile stretch of the Town with little or no signal, dropped calls and challenges to public safety officers who rely on cellular to transmit information to on-board computers and to phones.
