Orange County NC Website
The Board also heard testimony that Smathers' report was <br />inconclusive because of a lack of similarity between <br />Wildwood and Greenfield Road. For example, the average <br />lot size on Greenfield Road is one acre, as compared to <br />1/, acre in Wildwood; Greenfield has restrictive covenants <br />that prohibit aboveground wires, while Wildwood does <br />not. Based on these differences, it was argued, <br />Smathers' report does not prove that the proposed tower <br />would not diminish property values. [Record, 2-8, 2-13.] <br />Contiguous property owners who testified before the <br />Board on this issue were: <br />Russ Tovmsley testified that he and other contiguous <br />landowners think that the tower would diminish the <br />value of their properties. He testified that the <br />impact report submitted by American Towers was <br />flawed, in that it did not take into account market <br />conditions, improvements to the homes, and <br />differences between the comparison neighborhoods and <br />Greenfield Road homes. Townsley also distributed <br />photographs to the Board which show the natural <br />setting of the homes on Greenfield Road, that power <br />lines are buried, and that trees grow up to the <br />street. He testified that this shows that a 235' <br />tower would not be in harmony with Greenfield Road. <br />Mr. Townsley also testified that American Towers' <br />contention that no cellular service was available in <br />the Highway 54 West area was false. To prove this <br />he submitted a taped recording of cellular phone <br />calls made in the area in question. The tape also <br />showed that both analog and digital signals were <br />available on Highway 54 going West from Carrboro. <br />[Record, 2-8,9.] <br />Jon Webster testified that he and his wife had <br />purchased their home on Greenfield Road a year ago, <br />and that they might not have if they had known that <br />a tower would be located close by. Webster <br />testified that the existing vegetation in the <br />neighborhood would be inadequate to obscure a <br />blinking tower. [Record, 2-9.] <br />Rakhski Khan testified that if the tower went up in <br />its proposed site, 500 feet from her back deck, her <br />property would not be worth the same to her anymore. <br />She testified that she never would have purchased <br />10 <br />