The Botetourt Planning Commission voted 5-0 to recommend that the Board of Supervisors turn down a commission permit and a special exceptions permit (SEP) for a new Verizon cell tower on Davis Run Road near Buchanan.

RES Springwood Farm LLC and Cellco Partnership for Verizon Wireless applied for the commission permit and SEP for the cell tower.

The recommendation came despite Verizon’s representative Lori Schweller with LeClair Ryan law firm telling the commission the tower is needed to address the heavy use on the company’s Purgatory Mountain tower and demands on cell service that are growing. Verizon’s representative told the commission the wireless company’s Purgatory tower got the most overloaded of any of its towers in Virginia.

Neighbors’ opposition to the tower location seemed to be the driving force behind the commission’s decision. Commission member Steve Kidd told Verizon representatives in August they may want to look at an alternative location when neighbors showed up in force and with a 41-signature petition opposing the location.

The county’s cell tower consultant from CityScape also revised its opinion about whether to consider an alternate location, and told the commission another site within the “search ring” would likely have less visual impact than the tower Verizon proposed that’s essentially in the middle of a field and visible from a number of homes in the area.

Susan Rabold said the consulting firm did not look at alternate locations until last month when residents argued against approving the SEP at the location the company asked for.

Several Davis Run Road residents told the commission the visual impact would affect the value of their property, and one, Kenneth Hale, presented the commission with a survey that he said showed how cell towers affect property values.

The tower, as proposed, would be visible from  every direction, and residents said it would disrupt what one called a particularly attractive viewshed.

Prease Road resident Richard Pauley told the commission if the tower had been in place when he bought his home he would not have purchased the property.

“I don’t want to give up why I moved there so someone driving on the interstate has better cell service,” he told the commission.

Mary Lynn Harris, who lives off Springwood Road, told the commission she favored the new tower and pointed out challenges Botetourt is having with cell and Internet services.

She read from a county-commissioned survey of residents and businesses that showed the majority want better cell and Internet service.

The county is sponsoring a Broadband Summit later this month to try to identify how to accomplish improved service across the county.

Schweller told the commission the company may look outside the search ring should the county turn down the SEP request, but Verizon may need another site as well to compensate for the lost coverage if this tower isn’t approved.

Schweller said other sites are planned in the future, and noted that should this one get denied it could be a while before Verizon returns to find another location because of the way the company budgets for towers. She noted that a site on Penn Hollow Road near Springwood is still in limbo after the county turned down an SEP application over two years ago.

Schweller told the commissioners a “stealth” tower, one that resembles a tree or silo, would not be suitable for the Davis Run Road site. The Board of Supervisors approved a change for a cell tower at Blue Ridge Park to allow a “silo” for a cell tower there after Blue Ridge Parkway officials opposed the type of tower the county originally approved.

The Planning Commission sent recommendations to the Board of Supervisors to approve six other zoning-related items and deny a seventh.

The commission recommended the supervisors approve a proposed addition to the zoning ordinance that will allow Home Agriculture.

The supervisors, commission and Planning and Zoning staff have spent several months writing amendments to the zoning ordinance and holding public meetings to be able to include some agriculture uses in residentially zoned areas.

As written, the amendment to the zoning ordinance would allow certain fowl— such as chickens— and honeybees, all with restrictions, in residential areas.

The commission also:

• Recommended approving proffer changes for property owned by Frank L. and Patricia E. Bramlett for a vehicle repair business on Blue Ridge Boulevard (US 460) near Bonsack.
• Recommended approving proposed text amendments to address surfacing requirements for parking areas and storage lots like the one Altec Industries built at Botetourt Center at Greenfield to store trucks. It will allow those types of lots, with conditions, to be gravel rather than paved. Another part of the amendment will reduce required parking spaces for retail businesses where 50 percent or more of their business in on-line and products are shipped to customers.
• Recommended a proposed text adding Cabin or Cottage, Resort as a use permitted by special exception permit as part of the county’s short-term rental section of the zoning ordinance. The commission also recommended approving, with conditions, Frederick E. Taylor Jr.’s request for an SEP for a Cabin or Cottage, Resort in order to operate short-term vacation rentals in the existing mill house and cabins on Breckinridge Mill Road, Fincastle; site of the former Breckinridge Mill.
• Recommend approving, with conditions, a request by Sean M. Fleming for an SEP for a commercial kennel to board and train up to 20 dogs in the Agricultural (A-1) Use District on 20 acres parcel at 540 Wagon Wheel Run off Timber Ridge.
• Recommended denying a request for a change of proffers by Wendover Associates LLC related to exterior building materials on a 1.30-acre portion of a 2.05-acre lot at the intersection of Wendover Road and Roanoke Road (US 220) in Daleville.