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Effingham County resident says preexisting house should not bar Verizon tower as board weighs ordinance setback
Summary
David Rollins, who owns property at 2727 Riverside Drive, told commissioners that a house on his parcel is abandoned and argues it should not prevent a proposed Verizon tower; county staff said demonstrating the structure is uninhabited (including pulling service) is the usual remedy and staff will follow up.
David Rollins told the Effingham County Board of Commissioners on July 21 that he has been working with Verizon for about two years to site a cell tower on his property at 2727 Riverside Drive but that county rules and recent staff guidance may block the project.
“I have property on 2727 Riverside Drive in Effingham, and Verizon contacted me about 2 years ago wanting to put a Verizon tower on the property,” Rollins said. He told the board he had notarized letters, photographed and boarded up an on-site house and provided that documentation to county staff and to the tower company.
Rollins said staff later told him the county’s setback requirement for residences is now 1,000 feet from a tower site; he measured the abandoned house at roughly 542 feet from the proposed tower location. “The house is… abandoned,” Rollins said. “Nobody’s living in the house.”
County planning staff and commissioners responded with procedural clarifications. A county staff member noted that the ordinance defines a protected residence and that one practical way to ensure a structure is not treated as a residence is to require a permit to reinstate electrical service. That approach, staff said, provides a public-record way to verify occupancy.
“If we show it’s abandoned, it’ll solve the other” ordinance issue, a commissioner said during the exchange. Staff also described a possible compromise: requiring a formal disconnection of service or a demonstrated change of use so the structure no longer qualifies as a residence for setback calculations.
Rollins told the board he needs at least some electric service to power equipment in a nearby shed and that pulling the meter would force costly work to move service lines. He also described safety concerns on Riverside Drive, including intermittent phone service and a past incident where a downed power line created a hazard for drivers.
Commissioners said they heard Rollins’ concerns and that the district commissioner would follow up with staff to review options, including site inspection and verifying the way the ordinance applies to an apparently abandoned structure. One commissioner offered to meet with Rollins and staff and then report back.
The board did not take any immediate action on the tower permit during the meeting. Commissioners instructed staff to review the documentation Rollins provided and to discuss possible remedies, such as variance options or a formal verification that the structure is no longer a residence.
What happens next: the district commissioner said he would contact Rollins after talking with planning staff to outline potential next steps, including whether a variance, formal abandonment determination, or utility-disconnection requirement would be necessary before a permit could proceed.
