Committee conditionally approves County Highway 2 cell tower pending Air Force signal study

The TechnoPro Review Committee on June 17 conditionally approved a minor development order for a 311-foot cell tower on County Highway 2 (project MIN26-000043), but staff said the project must resolve outstanding comments and await a required signal study from the Air Force before final approval.

Bob, a planning staff member, told the committee the application submitted by Folk and Foster on behalf of Fisher Joint Revocable Trust has “some outstanding comments, so they'll have to resubmit,” and said the proposal will “go on hold while they do the…signal study from the [Eglin Air Force]” as recorded in the meeting transcript. Staff entered the staff report into the record before taking public testimony.

Chris Iverson, who identified himself as representing Falcon Foster, said the applicant had submitted paperwork and would obtain the staff report and respond to comments. Iverson: “I appreciate that. And I could get the staff report from you.”

Staff recommended conditional approval subject to the applicant addressing all comments and receiving clearance from the Air Force signal analysis. A committee member moved to approve the recommendation and, after a brief clarification that planning and engineering comments were minor, the committee voted to conditionally approve the project. The motion was recorded as passing and the chair stated the project was “conditionally approved, pending successful…Eglin [Air Force] comments.”

The committee did not record a roll-call vote in the transcript; the public record shows the action is conditional and contingent on the applicant addressing staff comments and obtaining any required military/airspace clearance.

Next steps: applicant to resubmit responses to staff comments and await the Air Force signal/spectrum study; staff will reassess the application when those items are complete.