ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 6, 1996 TAG: 9601090008
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANBURG
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
Residents on Price Mountain scored a victory this week when a Montgomery County panel upheld a ruling against a proposed new 120-foot tower atop the ridge.
The county Board of Zoning Appeals voted unanimously Wednesday to uphold zoning administrator Jeff Scott's decision against Paging Inc.
The case centered on Paging Inc.'s contention that it is a public utility and therefore had a right to put up the relay tower under the county's zoning ordinance. In November, the Blacksburg pager company had sought a building permit to construct the tower next to several others at the end of Oilwell Road.
Scott rejected the building permit application. He said the company could seek a special-use permit for the tower, requiring a public hearing and Board of Supervisors decision.
Marcus Long, a lawyer representing Paging Inc., said the company hasn't decided whether to appeal the decision to Circuit Court.
In a memo to the zoning appeals board, Long argued that Scott was misinterpreting the zoning ordinance and relying on a nonlegal dictionary definition of public utility. Long cited "utility" definitions in state and federal law and in a law dictionary to support his case for Paging Inc., whose president is Vernon Baker.
"They are a quasi-judicial body and here they are using a layman's definition and not even using it correctly," Long said. "The state of Virginia has made us a public utility but the county says we're not. You tell me."
The county zoning ordinance lacks a definition of a public utility, but may have one soon. The issue of towers is scheduled to come up for discussion at the Wednesday work session of the Montgomery County Planning Commission.
Tower permit applications typically generate high-profile controversies in Montgomery County. In September 1994, the Board of Supervisors granted a permit for a 120-foot FM radio tower on the west end of Price Mountain. But in June 1994, Contel Cellular dropped a request for a 185-foot tower over the Ellett Valley after an outcry from owners of expensive homes in the area. In 1992, the board turned down a request to build a 200-foot tower on Brush Mountain above Pandapas Pond. And in 1991, Reed Lumber Co. withdrew its request to build a 280-foot tower near the current proposed site on Price Mountain, the long, 2,453-foot ridge between Christiansburg and Blacksburg.
The year before, Contel Cellular won approval for a 180-foot tower that stands today atop Price Mountain, beside a 93-foot Bell Atlantic tower that's been there for 32 years and a Sheriff's Office tower.
LENGTH: Medium: 52 linesby CNB