Residents form group to fight proposed cell phone tower

The company plans to install the towering structure for AT&T Wireless within the enforced rural buffer zone -- which is supposed to restrict commercial development in the area -- after being issued a special use permit from the Orange County Board of Adjustment.

The permit has come under intense scrutiny from members of the community, and it is being challenged in N.C. Superior Court, with a verdict possible as early as next month. Both sides have made it clear that they will go the distance in protecting their opposing interests, even if that means taking the case all the way to state Supreme Court.

"The American Tower Corporation complied with standards of the zoning ordinance," said Michael Harvey, zoning enforcement officer in the Orange County Department of Planning. "The burden of proof was applicable with state law."

Residents differ on that interpretation. They have raised contentious points and other circumstantial inconsistencies over the issuance of the permit. They say it "goes against the spirit of what the rural buffer was set up to do, which is part of the intrinsic value of the community," said Steve Herman, speaking on behalf of the Rural Buffer Defense Group comprising about 30 families opposed to the prospect of having a tower in their neighborhood.

The group claims the expert testimony provided at the Board of Adjustment hearing by David Smith, a state certified real estate appraiser based in Durham, is faulty.

In particular, they criticized an impact analysis Smith conducted to show the value of property surrounding the proposed tower site would not be adversely affected by its construction.

Smith's analysis used a neighborhood near Pump Station Road with a cell phone tower in its vicinity, comparing the value of the homes nearest to the 180-foot tower to the ones farther away from it.

Using such home price comparisons is an established method used by appraisers in such situations, and Smith said it revealed there was no devaluation of the property closest to the 180-foot tower. He asserted that shows property values in the Sunrise-Whitfield roads neighborhood would not be devalued by the proposed tower.

But residents say he failed to mention a 483-foot tower looming in the background of the neighborhood.

The second tower "is not visible," Smith said last week, sticking to similar testimony he gave earlier at the Board of Adjustment hearing. However, the 483-foot tower can be seen clearly in photographic evidence and in satellite imagery taken from the Internet.

"The report was factually incorrect and misleading, with interpretations that would lead to different conclusions if they were corrected," Herman said.

A complaint has been filed with the North Carolina Appraisal Board against Smith.

"The complaint is currently being investigated," said a representative for the Appraisal Board.

The two-acre site for the proposed tower is part of the 10 acres Graham sold in the late 1970s to Burrell Kanoy Jr. The plot is adjacent to Graham's 32-acre parcel.

Based on various surveys conducted on cell phone tower leases, Kanoy is expected to make anywhere between $800 and $2,500 a month from his land deal. He refused to comment about the matter.

The entire 42 acres is undeveloped and heavily wooded, with parts of the Duke Forest trails running through it. American Tower Corporation has cited the secluded nature of the area in support of building the tower there because it would be hidden from view.

However, residents argue that during the winter the forest foliage recedes and the tower will not be completely hidden. They say the tower will be visible from some properties throughout the year, ruining the aesthetic landscape of the area.

Graham said her property is a tree farm and needs to be harvested in the near future because the trees have reached maturity. That would further reduce the forest veil surrounding the tower.

Members of the community who have an interest in this issue feel the tower company "did not take the neighborhood's consideration," said Craig Drake, another member of the Rural Buffer Defense Group. "The community meeting they held was a contrived expedience to present this facade of openness."

But they do not dispute AT&T's contention that there is a need for better cell phone coverage in the area.

"This is one of the most significant gaps in AT&T coverage," said Gray Styers, the attorney representing the tower company, handled by Excel Communications in Orange County. "It has been a goal for several years."

Other service providers also have a hard time reaching the area, and the proposed tower will allow up to six different antennas.

But Drake and other members believe the tower company did not take any other alternatives into consideration. One option would be to use a school a few miles away from the proposed site, or to implement other technological innovations not requiring a giant tower, such as the Distributed Antenna System and the Next G Network.

"The very thing we value and cherish will disappear before our eyes," Drake said. "This is one of the last remaining areas of what brought the citizens to Chapel Hill."

He believes the tower will open the door to further commercial land development in the buffer.

"Today it's a cell tower, for all you know tomorrow it will be another blight," he said.

Graham, who is nearing her 70s, said she treated the land as her third child.

"I have done everything to protect the property from losing its character," she said.

If the tower were to be constructed, "I would be very demonstratively angry, and after that I would probably cry a whole lot," she said. "It is primal how I feel about this land."

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