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Tower decision looming on the horizon

Arguments for protecting Damascus’ rural vistas dominate final days of zoning hearing on a proposed radio tower array

Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2006

A decision will not be made until January on whether a Michigan-based broadcasting company can build four radio towers in Damascus.

The rural vistas of the community were at the heart of opponents’ testimony in a recent hearing on whether the radio towers should be permitted on the highest point in Damascus.

In the final two days of testimony, Oct. 19-20, county Hearing Examiner Lutz Prager heard from neighbors of the proposed 411-foot-high towers and Planning Board environmental supervisor Pam Rowe.

The new Damascus Master Plan adopted in May includes language intended to protect the town’s rural vistas, Rowe said.

‘‘The intent was to look at rural vistas as part of the community character of Damascus,” she said.

Pamela Bussard led residents in forming Damascus Residents for Responsible Tower Citing to fight the towers.

‘‘Damascus is a series of ridges and streambeds,” Bussard testified. ‘‘At night you can see stars from horizon to horizon. There’s not a lot of tall buildings or structures — that’s what I mean when I talk about vistas.”

The towers would have the same visual impact as a 10-story building, she said. They would ruin the character of the town and Damascus would no longer be seen as a rural, agricultural area, she added.

Neighbors Joan Snow and Martin Trevan brought panoramic pictures of the ridge to show that Damascus still looks rural.

The county Planning Board said the radio towers proposed for the highest point in Damascus do not meet county land-use guidelines outlined in the Damascus Master Plan and the Legacy Open Space Plan.

It had recommended the hearing examiner dismiss the application for a special exception permit to build four radio towers because the application is missing a forest conservation plan and is therefore incomplete.

Land use planner Grace Fielder said earlier in the hearing that the property’s former owner had filed a preliminary forest conservation plan for the parcel and two adjoining parcels when the land was subdivided in June 2003. That plan is still valid, she said.

That forest conservation plan has expired, Rowe said.

Forest conservation plans are specific to the use of the property, she said. The forest conservation plan was drawn up for a plan to build homes on two of the three lots. A final forest conservation plan for those lots omitted the lot on which the towers are proposed.

Until recently the parcel was farmland, Fielder said. The trees on the property are relatively new.

‘‘Our staff looked at the site when evaluating Legacy Open Space land for the [Damascus] Master Plan,” Rowe said. ‘‘Some areas such as the ridge have high-quality forest.”

Ground wires for the towers would extend into stream valley buffers for Little Bennett Creek, she said.

Prager accepted a petition from Charles Harris with more than 500 signatures opposing the towers collected at the Damascus Community Fair in September.

The Federal Communications Commission issued Michigan-based Birach Broadcasting a building permit for the radio towers Nov. 26, 2003. The permit is specifically for four 411-foot towers for radio station WDMV to be built on a rural piece of land 800 to 1,600 feet north of Bethesda Church Road near Johnson Drive in Damascus.

Neighbors have been fighting the project since it was first proposed as a seven-tower array three years ago.

The main issue in the case will be whether Federal Communications Commission approval can override local zoning ordinances, said lawyer David Freishtat, who represented Birach.

Birach Broadcasting bought radio station WDMV, operating at 540 AM, in 1990-91, president Sima Birach Jr. testified. The station is based in Pocomoke City on the Eastern Shore. Soon after taking ownership, the company began looking for a new site for its towers so the signal would reach the Washington area without interfering with existing radio stations.

Birach had used a Michigan company to find the site and design the proposed radio tower array.

Citizens for Responsible Tower Citing brought a Maryland-licensed telecommunications engineer, R. Morgan Burrow Jr., to testify about the technical aspects of the application..

Birach could achieve its stated aims with two or three towers that are about 70 feet shorter than the ones proposed by using top loading, a technique that uses the top layer of tower wire to electrically extend the tower height, he said.

‘‘I would never, never in the Washington, D.C., area proposed anything with 400-foot towers — too controversial,” Burrow said.

Prager will keep the record open for addition information until Dec. 19. He will report his findings to the county Board of Appeals, which will rule on the application by Jan. 19.