Moore County planning board recommends conditional rezoning for 259-foot Verizon wireless tower

The Moore County Planning Board on Tuesday voted to recommend that the Board of Commissioners approve a conditional rezoning to permit a 259-foot wireless communication facility on a 0.11-acre portion of a roughly 631.63-acre parcel at 9739 NC Highway 2427. Planning staff and the applicant said the site is intended to improve coverage along Highway 2427 between Carthage and Robbins.

Planning Director Deborah Ensbinger introduced the process and packet materials the board should use to evaluate consistency with the county's future land use plan. Planner Ruth presented the request and said the parcel is zoned Rural Agricultural (RA) and is identified in the future land use plan as rural agricultural. Ruth summarized two community meetings the applicant held and the photo-simulation images provided to the county. Ruth asked the board to decide whether the request is consistent with the land use plan and to select goals and recommendations to support a consistency statement.

Jonathan Yates, representing Verizon Wireless and the applicant, told the board the applicant revised the proposed tower location in response to adjacent property owners' concerns and that Jordan (the landowner) allowed the relocation. "When we're placed in these facilities, they have to work within a network," Yates said, adding that the proposed facility would come in at 255 feet plus a four-foot lightning rod and that the county allows towers up to 300 feet. Yates said setbacks were met by a "huge factor," that the tower would take about 60 days to construct and that the facility would provide "adequate wireless voice, broadband, access to 911 for first responders," and CodeRED alerts. He also said the facility would provide roughly 3.2 miles of coverage in every direction and that the compound is sized to host multiple carriers.

During the public hearing, a nearby resident identified in the record as Mister Sullivan said he did not want the tower and questioned whether independent studies exist to show health or safety impacts. "He's a liar," Mister Sullivan said of the applicant during his remarks. Denise Sullivan, speaking for her father, described his military service and PTSD and said the family feared potential health effects; she emphasized her support for her parents and asked the board to consider their concerns.

After discussion, the board voted to adopt a planning board land use plan consistency statement (citing goal 1.1 to encourage the conservation of farmland and forest land) and to recommend approval of the conditional rezoning to the Moore County Board of Commissioners. The transcript records a voice vote with members answering "Aye" and the chair announcing that the motion carries; individual vote names are not provided in the meeting record.

The board also authorized the vice chair to sign the finalized consistency statement once it is prepared. The recommendation now goes to the Moore County Board of Commissioners for final action; the commissioners' review and vote were not included in this meeting record.