Planning commission approves reissued permit for 199-foot tower near Highway 47 despite neighbor objections

The Mecklenburg County Planning Commission voted to approve a reissued special-exception permit for a 199-foot monopole communications tower proposed for 11975 Highway 47.

Anthony Bologna, an attorney with Williams Mullen, presented the application on behalf of the applicant and said the proposal mirrors a previously approved plan whose permit had expired. He described the tower as a 195-foot monopole with a 4-foot lightning rod (199 feet total), with Verizon Wireless as the anchor tenant and room for co-location by up to four additional carriers. Bologna said the site is zoned AG and the plan includes existing tree lines and supplemental vegetation to screen the tower, and that the nearest residential dwelling is shown on plan Z1 as being in excess of 1,200 feet from the tower.

The context for the decision: an unidentified commissioner moved to approve the application, citing that it complies with the Mecklenburg County comprehensive plan and would not be detrimental to public welfare, and another commissioner seconded. Before the commission took the voice vote, nearby resident Lehi Sweeney addressed the panel and said the tower would be directly visible from his bedroom window and could depress his home’s resale value. "I'm going to be looking at this for the rest of my life," Sweeney said, urging that the tower could be sited elsewhere on the parcel to reduce local impact.

Bologna responded to the comment by saying the applicant’s measurements show the speaker’s house to be approximately 1,700 feet from the proposed tower and confirmed that, because the structure is under 200 feet, it would not require blinking obstruction lighting. He also pointed to the site plan’s tree lines and planned supplemental plantings as visual screening.

After discussion, the chair called for a voice vote and the motion carried. The commission’s recorded remarks noted the prior approval and that the current filing was a reissuance after the earlier permit expired; the transcript does not record a roll-call vote or individual tallies.

What happens next: the commission approved reissuance of the special-exception permit; the transcript does not specify implementation steps, appeal rights, or exact permit effective dates.