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Brandon council hears heated testimony on proposed 90-foot cell tower at 108 Park Street; moves to executive session on legal risks
Summary
Elevated Towers asked the council to rezone 108 Park Street to allow a wireless monopole; residents and parents urged denial citing proximity to two schools, flood‑plain concerns and neighborhood impact, while the applicant and an RF engineer argued the site is needed to add capacity and redundancy; council deferred decision and voted to go into executive session on potential litigation.
The Brandon City Council held a public hearing on a request to rezone 108 Park Street to general business so Elevated Towers can seek a conditional use permit to build a wireless communications monopole. Craig Snyder of Elevated Towers said the company’s exhaustive site search left the firm with a single practical parcel and asked the council to reverse a prior decision that the request amounted to spot zoning.
The proposal—originally planned as a 120‑foot monopole and reduced to 90 feet to meet setback rules—would place the tower near a water‑tower site and within reach of two schools. Elevated Towers argued the tower is necessary not only for coverage but for capacity and redundancy, warning that a single carrier site creates a single point of failure for wireless service and public‑safety communications. Snyder told the council he has engaged Kutak Rock for legal counsel and that federal law restricts municipalities from denying towers for radio‑frequency concerns, saying: "The 1996 Telecommunications Act disallows, as a reason for not allowing zoning of towers, anything related to radio frequency radiation." (company presentation)
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