Orange County NC Website
DRAFT <br /> <br />OC Board of Adjustment – 11/9/15 Page 110 of 156 <br /> <br />Ben Levitan: Absolutely. Worst-case scenario that I can see is you put up a 27 to 30-foot 1 <br />monopole cell tower and you camouflage it as a tree. That’s the most… otherwise I think this 2 <br />probably, I haven’t driven the whole area and I haven’t done a site survey, but I believe just from 3 <br />my general knowledge there’s sufficient buildings, lampposts, utility posts, water towers that you 4 <br />could use. And if you take the search ring 5-miles there’s plenty of existing cell towers already in 5 <br />that search that could be focused towards providing this coverage. I don’t see the necessity, I’m 6 <br />talking from a technical point of view, I don’t see… If I’m Verizon and I’m asked or one of my guys 7 <br />brought me this design I would tell them no, go back to where from. 8 <br /> 9 <br />Samantha Cabe: Let me ask you this. Does your opinion take into account that, essentially, 10 <br />Verizon would have to get permission from somebody to put these, whatever kind of cell tower it 11 <br />is, whether it’s the tall one, the medium one, or the small cell? Essentially they can’t put anything 12 <br />where someone’s not willing to lease them the property or allow them to? 13 <br /> 14 <br />Ben Levitan: Verizon has a department that does nothing but manage landlords. Every cell phone 15 <br />company does. And that’s all they do. They go out and…. Yeah, so I mean, this is part of the 16 <br />business. I mean, they’re sitting here trying to... just as they have to sit here and get permission 17 <br />from the city to do that, it’s part of the business. 18 <br /> 19 <br />Matt Hughes: So in your expert opinion, why would TowerCom and Verizon want to go this route? 20 <br /> 21 <br />Ben Levitan: I’m not privy to… Either they’ve just made a mistake, I don’t… For me, looking at 22 <br />this, I cannot see why you would design it this way. I just don’t see it. I don’t think it’s going to be 23 <br />cheaper. I can’t speculate. 24 <br /> 25 <br />Matt Hughes: Were you here at the last hearing? 26 <br /> 27 <br />Ben Levitan: Oh yes, until 11:35. 28 <br /> 29 <br />Matt Hughes: So you heard their expert go through what they were considering, why it wasn’t 30 <br />appropriate, and… 31 <br /> 32 <br />Ben Levitan: The bottom line is if you look at this chart, this solution doesn’t fix the problem. You 33 <br />want Mount Carmel Church Road to have coverage just like 15-501. Why would you put this up if 34 <br />it’s not going to solve your problem? I heard everything you said but it doesn’t solve the problem. 35 <br /> 36 <br />Matt Hughes: Remind me on this, up here… Where’s 15-501? 37 <br /> 38 <br />Ben Levitan: You see that? See how nicely that’s… 39 <br /> 40 <br />Matt Hughes: I’m not as familiar with below the UNC Campus area. 41 <br /> 42 <br />Ben Levitan: I agree with you, of course. That’s a heavily trafficked road. And so the coverage is 43 <br />real good. Mount Carmel Church Road I can tell you all the carriers. I researched all the carriers 44 <br />and what their coverage is like on that road. It’s all similar, kind of low. But the fact is, the fact that 45 <br />they all have not put in improvements just shows that it’s not a priority. It’s a low cell phone traffic 46 <br />road. What’s there is probably sufficient for everybody. Certainly AT&T said yeah, that’s sufficient. 47 <br />Sprint has said the coverage we have there is sufficient. 48 <br /> 49 <br />112