Council committees discuss utility pole placement, office zoning

A wireless infrastructure company's request to put two new utility poles in the city was met with resistance from the city council's special issues committee tonight.

Crown Castle wants to install two power poles in the city right-of-way, one on Windsor Drive and one on Oxmoor Road near Patriot Park. At the May 15 committee meeting, council members objected to the aesthetic appearance of the poles and asked for more camouflaged options. Crown Castle representatives at the time said there were no existing poles they could use to install the equipment that would cover the gaps in service they needed.

Tonight, Crown Castle project manager Darryl Forster brought back designs for composite poles, which would enclose the cables within the pole but would be about 41 feet high with the antenna at the top. These are the last two poles Crown Castle plans to install in the city, and Forster said most of their other installations were made on existing poles.

Special issues committee members suggested relocating the proposed Oxmoor Road pole about 120 feet farther away from the street and closer to Patriot Park, in a spot where it would be less visible and on the opposite side from decorative lighting. Ward 3 Representative Walter Jones said he would still prefer to see the number of utility poles in the city reduced.

“I struggle with the fact we don’t have enough coverage with the existing light poles,” Jones said.

After a call to the company engineering department, Forster said there had been some confusion on what equipment would be installed on the poles, and there may be a possibility of using existing ones. The special issues committee asked Crown Castle to try again to place their equipment on existing poles, and carried over the issue to discuss at a later meeting.

In a planning and development committee meeting tonight, council members briefly discussed a public hearing on July 10 for a zoning ordinance change. The change will add a personal fitness studio to the accepted uses for buildings zoned for C-1 Office Building District.

The amendment was prompted by a recent zoning request on Oxmoor Road, where a potential yoga studio requested rezoning to C-2 commercial zoning. Residents opposed the rezone because other C-2 uses include a gas station or fast food restaurant, but none of them opposed the idea of the fitness studio itself. Ward 1 Representative Britt Thames said he would like to eventually consider other Office Building District uses that were similarly non-disruptive to the neighborhood, but the July 10 hearing will only include fitness studios.

St. Vincent's Health System also seems set to take over the former Bob's Bikes space at 1944 28th Ave. S. The company has made a request for a sign variance, allowing multiple signs, on the building for a new urgent care clinic.