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Board approves conditional use for telecom tower; developer had offered to move it 150 feet
Summary
Santa Rosa County commissioners approved a conditional-use permit for a telecommunications tower (2025-16-CU). The applicant said moving the tower 150 feet would trigger additional federal and state permitting and delay deployment; the board voted to approve without the relocation condition.
The Santa Rosa County Board approved a conditional use allowing public and private telecommunications infrastructure on property off Bingham Road in East Milton (case 2025-16-CU) after hearing from the applicant and brief discussion about tree removal and regulatory impacts.
Jonathan Yates, representing Diamond Communications and the applicants (Vivian and Terry Hastings), said the company would be willing to pull the tower back 150 feet to address neighbor concerns but warned that the change would take the project outside existing regulatory tolerances and require additional federal and state reviews, delaying construction. “With that kind of move, we're outside of the tolerances…we're going to have to go back through all our federal and state regulatory,” Yates said.
Commissioners discussed the trade-offs between moving the tower farther away — which would remove more trees and increase costs and delay — versus leaving it in the proposed location to speed deployment. Commissioner Smith said the board could accept the applicant’s decision; he moved to approve the case without the 150-foot relocation condition. The motion carried and the chair announced the case approved without the relocation requirement.
What happens next: The conditional-use approval allows the applicant to proceed, subject to any standard permitting and regulatory reviews. The board noted that community concerns about tree removal and siting had been considered during the planning process.
