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A 150-foot tower soon will strengthen cellular phone signals in downtown Fort Wayne.
The Fort Wayne Board of Zoning Appeals on Thursday approved JB Towers LLC’s tower at 1701 Fairfield Ave. despite three neighbors’ objections to the project.
Centennial Wireless pursued an antenna on this tower after West Central residents complained another proposed tower south of Martin and Hendricks streets, near Broadway, would mar the skyline.
The city often asks cell phone tower developers to keep projects at or below 120 feet, but the taller tower will allow more wireless carriers to install antennas on a single structure, board member Andy Downs said. This project can accommodate up to five carriers. That capacity should limit the number of towers carriers need to build in that area, he said.
“The more (antenna) locations we can put on that tower, the better,” Downs said.
Bass Street resident Ronald Coakley objected to the location, even though JB Towers agreed to the city’s suggestion to move the tower to the property’s north side, away from neighbors. Other nearby vacant fields would be farther from homes, he said.
Coakley was worried the tower could fall and damage neighboring homes. He also was concerned the tower would ruin the view from his home.
“I don’t know where you guys live,” he told board members, “but I don’t think you want to look outside and see a big ugly tower.”
JB Towers plans to build a monopole with stealth antennas, which will limit the visual effect, said Jennifer Jones, the company’s representative at the hearing. The base will be enclosed with a wooden fence and landscaped. The company needed the board’s approval to put the tower near property lines on the narrow site.
The tower will provide capacity for carriers seeking to serve the Harrison Square downtown redevelopment project, said David Carter, the vice president of engineering for Centennial. Centennial has a tower on the Anthony Wayne Building downtown, but he said it needs another tower to adequately serve West Central and other downtown neighborhoods. Other carriers also seek capacity there.
In other business, the zoning board approved a parking reduction for a building near the southwest corner of Lake Avenue and Anthony Boulevard. Phil Giesking, the owner of Phil’s Hobby Shop, plans to use the neighboring building for storage. That building typically would need seven off-street parking spaces, but the board allowed it to operate without any.
jglenn@jg.net
