Orange County NC Website
Approved 7/8/2013 <br />OC Board of Adjustment – 6/10/2013 Page 5 of 92 <br />for that demand and AT&T has been approached over the past few years by residents of Orange 1 <br />County, customers and businesses and they have also been in contact with the Chamber of 2 <br />Commerce and Orange County is looking for better service within the County so AT&T has come 3 <br />forward with plans to increase their telecommunications coverage within Orange county and they are 4 <br />planning to provide a real significant investment in Orange County so tonight there will be two 5 <br />applications before the Board of Adjustment. The one we will speak about today and there is a 6 <br />second one that would come after this application. AT&T and American Tower also filed a third 7 <br />application at the same time and that application was for another monopole telecommunications 8 <br />tower to be located in the Phelps Road area. After that tower application was submitted, I was 9 <br />approached as the attorney for AT&T and American Tower by some members of the County to let me 10 <br />know there had been new County property in the area and that was the new Solid W aste Facilities 11 <br />Center located on Walnut Grove Church Road. Orange County, the planning department, asked that 12 <br />we look at that facility rather than the lease that we entered into with a private property owner and so 13 <br />we are in the process of entering into a lease with the County for that facility. The reason I bring that 14 <br />up is that I think it is important to realize that AT&T and American Tower are making this investment 15 <br />in Orange County but also trying very hard to work in a collaborative way with the County. We are 16 <br />trying to reach a win-win situation to be able to provide telecommunications coverage in the best 17 <br />possible way in the County. Currently we are only proceeding with two applications. I would like to 18 <br />talk briefly about the need for this telecommunications tower. There is a significant gap in coverage in 19 <br />the northeastern part of the county and when there is a gap in coverage, the first thing AT&T and 20 <br />American Tower will do is prepare a search ring to determine where that gap in coverage is and to 21 <br />locate places where the AT&T antennas could be located. The first place that AT&T and American 22 <br />Tower would be considering would be existing structures. For example, a water tank or existing tower 23 <br />or building that is of sufficient height that it could locate its antennas on. As Mr. Harvey said, there 24 <br />are no such structures in this area of Orange County so therefore American Tower started looking for 25 <br />property to lease and approached Mr. Fagan about leasing a 100x100 foot portion of his property. 26 <br />This will resolve this gap in coverage and this gap in coverage is north of the Little River Regional 27 <br />Park and it is to fill in coverage between Highway 57 and Highway 157. Under tab 20, we have a 28 <br />propagation map. The first propagation map shows where the tower will be located. This is the area 29 <br />where there is a gap and the whiter area means no coverage whatsoever. Pink means not reliable or 30 <br />very spotty. Most of this area is white or pink. Blue means you would be able to have some 31 <br />coverage as a pedestrian walking outside. The green means that you would have coverage in your 32 <br />vehicle. Yellow means you would have coverage in residential buildings and red is the coverage you 33 <br />would like to see the most of and that would be business in-building coverage. After this contrast, 34 <br />this will show the coverage that will be available after the telecommunications tower. 35 <br /> 36 <br />Larry Wright: For the first Figure 3, could you show that to the audience. 37 <br /> 38 <br />Karen Kemerait: This is the second propagation map. This is the area where the tower will be 39 <br />located (see white and pink). This is where coverage will be available. 40 <br /> 41 <br />Samantha Cabe: Can I ask a question as an alternate? 42 <br /> 43 <br />James Bryan: There is not a firm legal gray area. Some boards allow alternates to participate and 44 <br />some don’t. 45 <br /> 46 <br />Michael Harvey: We allow alternates to participate. 47 <br /> 48 <br />Samantha Cabe: I need clarification. In your coverage maps… is there any signal whatsoever for 49 <br />AT&T? 50 <br /> 51 <br />Karen Kemerait: That is AT&T coverage and one of the things we are talking specifically about AT&T 52 <br />and AT&T will be the carrier that will be located on the tower and as our application shows, there is 53