Commission approves conditional use for 280-foot Verizon tower on county property search area

Madison County’s Planning and Zoning Commission approved a conditional-use permit for a 280-foot wireless communications tower proposed by Tower LLC (Vertical Bridge) for use by Verizon.

Applicant representative David McGee told the commission the tower is proposed to fill a coverage gap roughly a half-mile from a defined search area and that engineers identified the site as meeting Verizon’s coverage objectives. “When Verizon gives us an area to search ... engineers had determined that if we found [a site] in that half mile radius that it would provide coverage in that area,” McGee said. He added the proposed tower is designed to carry Verizon plus two future carriers so other firms could co-locate.

McGee said the structure would require lighting at 280 feet and that the company uses a dual-mode lighting system that displays steady red at dusk. In response to a commissioner question about first-responder equipment, McGee said the company would “have no issue at all” accommodating county first-responder communications gear if space is available on the structure.

The applicant listed a property address in the transcript as “1933 [redacted] Ferry Road.” McGee described the nearest existing tower as approximately 3.5 miles away and noted that coverage drops off traveling west on Cox Ferry Road from Highway 49.

A commissioner moved to approve the conditional use; the motion was seconded and carried by voice vote. The transcript records approval without further conditions read into the public record. The county will proceed with conditional-use permitting and any required building, FAA, or FCC coordination as part of subsequent permitting steps.