Vienna’s town council unanimously gave its blessing last night (Aug. 24) to a new AT&T rooftop telecommunications facility that could help alleviate some longstanding issues with dead zones and weak cell phone coverage.
The new facility at 527 Maple Ave East, located on top of a three-story building that includes offices for a health care provider, florist, and other businesses, will consist of three antenna arrays and surrounding screening.
While Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile already have antennae on the roof of the same building, the new facility will allow AT&T to improve service for its customers along the Maple Avenue corridor, including James Madison High School, Cunningham Park Elementary School, and several area parks and recreation facilities.
“This site has been in process one way or another for more than a decade, believe it or not,” Doug Sampson, legal counsel for AT&T, said during the public hearing. “It’s taken us a long time to get here, but we’re here now, and planning staff has been great to get us over the finish line here.”
Technically, the town council’s vote was not to approve the project itself: under state law, localities can’t require a conditional use permit for proposed telecommunications uses. Instead, the council voted on whether to allow portions of the necessary screening to extend more than 9 feet above the roof, the limit allowed under Vienna’s current zoning code.
When built, the western screen wall will be 8 inches above the town’s maximum allowable height, and the north wall will be 22 inches.
“This site was chosen specifically because Verizon and T-Mobile are already located there,” said Sampson. “And locating both along Maple Avenue and on a site that already has telecommunications facilities are both preferred under the comprehensive plan.”
AT&T will not exceed the height of their structures that are already on the building, so there will be no net increase to the total height, he added.
The height modification was also unanimously approved by the town’s planning commission in June. No residents spoke against the project, and two testified in favor of the motion.
“We are tremendously in support of this and have been advocating … against the poor cell phone service,” said Peggy James, executive director of the Vienna Business Association. “We have many, many calls, many complaints for all of the [wireless] services, not AT&T alone.”
Town staff noted that they would return in a month with draft language for a possible zoning amendment related to wireless infrastructure, allowing less stringent reviews that would treat the projects closer to “by right” applications.
Back in May, staff and wireless providers told the council that, to solve the town’s reception issues, taller antennas and potentially a new review process with less oversight from the Board of Architectural Review (BAR) would be needed.
The recommendation followed the Virginia General Assembly’s passage of legislation sponsored by Del. Holly Siebold, whose district includes Vienna, limiting localities’ ability to reject applications from mobile providers.
Despite the time it took for AT&T’s new facility to be approved, council members made clear they welcomed it.
“I think this is a minimal adjustment,” Councilmember Chuck Anderson said. “I welcome the day when we don’t have to deal with these minimal adjustments like this.”
The rooftop facility is not the only one that could affect service in Vienna: just outside town limits, in Fairfax County, a cell phone tower is proposed on Our Lady of Good Counsel Church’s grounds.
