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The end of the three-month hiatus on new towers upsets some environmental activists.
By JAMES THORNER
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 5, 2001
Pasco County will let its 90-day cellular tower moratorium expire in two weeks, a move that upsets activists who complain that the spiky metal skeletons mar the county's skyline.
The county's legal department said the three-month freeze on approving towers has served its purpose in letting Pasco hire an engineer to review tower applications.
A second consultant is helping the county stiffen its existing cell tower ordinance and draw up a tower "master plan." But he isn't scheduled to complete his work until October.
In the opinion of county attorneys, extending the moratorium until the expert could revise the ordinance would violate the U.S. Telecommunications Act of 1996.
The act forbids local governments from discriminating against or imposing unreasonable delays on wireless telephone companies.
"The moratorium has served its purpose . . . the purpose was not to amend the ordinance it was to get time to get an . . . engineer on board to assist in reviewing the applications," said Barbara Wilhite, the county's chief assistant attorney.
That opinion didn't sit well with Kathryn Starkey of Citizens for a Scenic Florida. Starkey, wife of Pasco developer Jay B. "Trey" Starkey, supports limiting billboards, cell towers and other "visual pollution."
The county's refusal to extend the moratorium will let wireless companies erect towers under the current, more permissive ordinance, Starkey said.
Based on the exploding popularity of cell phones, more than 30 towers dot the Pasco landscape. An estimated two-thirds of Pasco residents can see a tower from their homes.
Starkey favors reducing the size of towers or disguising them as trees or stadium lights. Reducing the size of towers would require more of them, but that's a price Starkey is willing to pay.
"I'm not against cell towers -- I love my cell phone -- but companies have to catch up with the latest technology," Starkey said after commissioners dismissed a moratorium extension Tuesday night.
Questioning the county's legal staff, Starkey suggested commissioners ask tower consultant Ted Kreins about the legalities of keeping the moratorium in place.
Wilhite took offense at the suggestion, as she did in the past when Starkey questioned her views about restricting billboards. "I feel comfortable in my opinions," Wilhite said.