Balloon must fly before cell-tower plan can fly

It’s a bird … It’s a plane … It’s … a balloon flying from the steeple of Longboat Island Chapel as part of a Planning Zoning & Building application.

That’s right, if you see something floating in the air later this week near the 6200 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive, it’s not a UFO. It’s a balloon flying at 150 feet to simulate the visual impact of a proposed north-end cell tower.

Jim Eatrides, a Longboat Key resident and owner of Alpha-Omega Communications Inc. and his business partner, Kevin Barile, president of the Tampa-based Ridan Industries II, plan to fly the balloon over the chapel Thursday, Sept. 1, through Saturday, Sept. 3, as part of the three separate preliminary applications they submitted to P&Z Aug. 1.

The proposal calls for building a 150-foot, stealth cellular tower behind the church building on the 4.5-acre chapel property.

According to Eatrides, the 150-foot height is necessary to support six 10-foot cellular-service bands on a 90-foot tower.

According to the preliminary application, the tower’s location “has been chosen to take maximum advantage of dense and tall foliage on the site in order to minimize the impact of the (Stealth Personal Wireless Service Facility)” and will also add a landscaped buffer.

The town’s cellular-tower ordinance requires that a tower be placed on an institutionally zoned property — a zoning that only the chapel and the Longboat Key Public Works Department have on the north end.

Eatrides hopes to get on the agenda to discuss the proposal for the October P&Z meeting. Prior to the P&Z hearing, he plans to hold a public hearing at the chapel to address public concerns.