Submitted by Brad Coker
December 7, 2016 10:29 a.m.
Public meeting on cell tower proposal scheduled for Monday, December 12 at 1 p.m. at The Golf Club of Amelia Island
On November 8, NexTower Development Corporation of Jacksonville and Concert Amelia LLC, owners of the Golf Club of Amelia Island, applied for a variance that would allow them to build a 130-foot cell phone tower on golf course property near Scott Road and Amelia Island Parkway in Summer Beach.
Although the plan has been in the works for at least seven months, local residents were kept in the dark as the application was on a fast track for a December 15 hearing before the Nassau County Conditional Use & Variance Board. “I only found out about it after Thanksgiving” remarked Gus Demertsidis, president of the Ocean Forest Homeowners Association. That hearing has since been delayed to January 26, 2017.
Meanwhile, residents are now mobilizing to fight. “We don’t need the tower” said Jim Mayo, a 22-year resident who lives north of the proposed site. “I have not had a problem with my cell reception for many years”. His statement was echoed by Angie Cornell who lives on the south side of where the tower will stand. “My husband and I have good service, both at home and when we walk our dogs through the neighborhoods along Scott Road”.
Other residents expressed concern about both the visual impact of the tower and how it would affect their property values. “I will have to look at that tower everyday and I have no doubt it is going to reduce the value of my home” said Steven Hayes whose house sits just 100 yards from the planned structure. Hayes’s fears are backed up by a study reported by the National Association of REALTORS®, which found that 94% of active home buyers said they were “less likely” to buy a home close to a cell tower and 79% indicated they would “never” buy one.
Brett Aroneck, a local real estate broker, said that the tower could adversely impact sales of all properties in the Summer Beach area, not just those with the tower in clear sight. According to Aroneck, “When the tower view properties sell, they will be considered comparable sales properties for surrounding homes and ultimately will be considered by appraisers when working on behalf of lending banks and prospective purchasers”.
When contacted to explain their plan and comment on issues raised by residents, ConcertGolf Partners representatives did not respond.
NexTower, however, is holding a public meeting to explain their proposal and to seek comments from local residents. That meeting is scheduled for Monday, December 12 at 1 pm. It will be held at the clubhouse of the Golf Club of Amelia Island. NexTower has indicated the meeting will last for two hours, with the first 30 minutes for their formal presentation and 90 minutes for questions from residents.
Editor’s Note: Brad Coker is a 13 year resident of Fernandina Beach. He owns a public policy and government affairs consulting firm based in Washington, DC.
Good luck in the fight but think it will be an uphill battle. Clearly the golf course is looking for some additional revenue in the leasing of the land for the tower. Do you think NexTower would incur the expense of the tower if they didn’t think they would be able to place carrier services on the tower? Personal communication services (PCS) operating at a higher frequency range than digital cellular require towers to be closer together.
Maybe they can disguise the tower like they did at the School Board building into a flagpole.
Your current cellular reception isn’t really indicative of whether a tower is needed. I used to design cell sites for Motorola. The additional antennas are for data speed and system capacity.
Without a lengthy technical explanation, there is a new LTE standard being rolled out by T-Mobile and Sprint that allows them to use more of the radio spectrum to provide greater range and higher data speeds. These different frequency bands each need their own set of antennas to maximize efficiency. Phones that have LTE-A channel bonding capability will see data speeds of 250Mbps or more in the next year or two.
It’s actually very easy to hide a cell tower in a wooded area, which we happen to have a lot of. The problem is that the tower needs power, wired/fiber network connectivity and maintenance access. You have to destroy a lot of woodland to make that happen.
You can’t hide it at all on a golf course, but you don’t have to damage anything either.
So that’s your quandary: destroy a natural area or build an eyesore. You can’t legally stop them from building it, but I assure you the company is willing to look at alternative sites that meet their needs and are less objectionable to the community. We spent a lot of time and money doing all we could to camouflage our towers into the surrounding environment, or locate them in heavily industrial areas.
“you can’t legally stop them” WHAT? The tower on the south end of the island has runed the “on island ” view coming for the back way from JAX. Now this? I do not golf folks but vote with your pocket and send a VERY clear message to Golf Club of Amelia, tower goes up and I’ll golf elsewhere. This is just another case of greed over quality of life. You are solwly killing the goose who laid the golden egg(Amelia Island)
This is just yet another case of corporate greed over quality of life folks. Slow but sure businesses( as well as some enterprising individuals looking for a buck) on AI are killing the Golden Goose with over building,etc.. I am not a golfer but I’d thing if enough folks sent a message to Golf club of Amelia, “tower~~yes ? well we’ll golf somewhere else” maybe just maybe they’d rethink this.
The apathy “you cannot legally stop this” really? Maybe check out the news out West regarding a certain pipe line and a company who thumbed their noses at a few people who stood their ground. Reminds me of a bumper sticker from the 1980’s”Sure you can trust the UnitedStates Government~~ask any American Indian”