MVCCA: Cell Tower Plans Must Offer Energy-Saving Solutions

Before a cell phone service company builds a new tower in Mount Vernon district, company representatives must submit an alternative, lower-impact plan if they want community approval. 

That’s what the Mount Vernon Planning and Zoning Committee decided at a meeting last week. Other issues, such as new development projects in the Mount Vernon area, were also presented during the meeting.  However, the only resolutions passed concerned cellular transmitter construction.

The resolution the committee passed calls for cell phone carriers to present a Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) alternative.

“DAS is like a series of cell towers,” explained Subcommittee on Cell Towers Chair Aimee Davis on Thursday morning.  “One big transmitter transmits a circle of radiofrequency.  A DAS is a system of smaller nodes that emit a lower power radiofrequency.  When you put them together within a particular circle they’re trying to cover, it gives the same type of coverage, if not better, because of the use of fiberoptics.”

Davis mentioned in New Orleans, DAS were put in stop signs, for example, and in colonial Williamsburg "the citizens demanded the DAS be invisible." Davis said DAS allows high coverage availability with low visual impact “if you demand it and work with the carrier.”

Cellular companies who want to build in Mount Vernon have a greater chance of securing official approval from the county if they pass MVCCA Planning and Zoning Committee guidelines.  Now, it is the Planning and Zoning Committee’s policy that the committee will not deliver this approval unless the company presents a DAS alternative as part of its proposal. 

“This resolution tells seven providers that they’d better have a DAS system," Mount Vernon District Planning Commissioner Earl Flanagan said Monday night. "So the target is the cell phone providers themselves."

The committee also passed a resolution recommending Fairfax County adopt a similar, regulatory requirement asking for DAS alternatives.

Not only does using DAS reduce visual impact, but some say it reduces the health hazards of large cell phone towers.  However, the committee decided not to address this in the resolution. 

"Health concerns are controversial," Davis said Thursday morning.  "If you are within the confines of the Federal Communications Committee specifications, then a community can’t raise health concerns as an issue.”  

According to Davis, these FCC regulations are based on research from the 1980s.  More recent studies have been conducted overseas in countries like Holland and Russia, Davis said, and foreign countries have stricter regulations. 

In the U.S., however, according to Davis, “if you say to a [cellular service provider] ‘This is bad for my children,’ all they have to say is, ‘I’m within the confines of the FCC,’ and they don’t have to discuss it with you legally.” She emphasized that community efforts can and should be made to change these outdated and potentially harmful regulations.

Also presented at Monday night's meeting were two development plans. Attorney Sarah Hall from Blankingship Keith, P.C. , who is working with Inova on the project, presented a long-range plan to expand Inova Hospital in the Mount Vernon area. Highlights of the discussion included additions of landscaping and greenspace, more private rooms and doctor offices, and a new wing including pharmacies and restaurants. Some of the challenges discussed included securing LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certifications for a high-usage hospital system.

The proposal involves an expansion which would nearly double the square footage of the current hospital, though not the footprint, since much of this space would be added vertically. 

Inova Health Systems’ Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning and System Development, Patrick Waters, said, “We’ve attempted to maximize our open space while still developing.  We’re also trying to make green space more usable.”

The time frame for the project is long-range, and President of Sittler Development Associates David Sittler said the expansion would begin “based on demand.” He said he hoped for “13 operating rooms to be finished by the end of 2013.” Another goal is to have the first new ambulatory care center built in the next five to eight years, he said.

All in all the committee members were pleased with the plan. “We’re delighted,” said  Wayne L. Wisniewski, attorney and Waynewood representative.

A more lukewarm reception was given to a plan put forward by Memorial Ventures LLC, which  proposed a one-story structure on the old Dairy Queen site on Route 1.  This building would include retail stores and a coffee shop, as well as parking spaces.

Some committee members said they felt this was not an efficient use of space and a four-story building would be more appropriate for the business district area.  However, the plan under consideration was for a one-story building. 

Commissioner Flanagan pointed out that even if the one-story structure is built, it wouldn’t have to stay there. “A one-story building can be torn down and four-story office building put in,” he said.

“I wasn’t going to say it, but that’s true,” said Inda E. Stagg, an attorney making the presentation for Memorial Ventures.