Consultant receptive to DAS network

The Longboat Key Planning & Zoning Board dialed TE Connectivity Networks Inc. consultant Scott Wierson at its May 1 meeting by conference call — not cell phone.

And when board member Walter Hackett asked him to rank the top three options for improving north-end telecommunications, Wierson gave what was, for many, a long-awaited answer.

“I think the tower and the DAS (distributed antenna solution) both have merits,” he said. “In my opinion, DAS would provide better service because the antenna would be closer to the user.”

Wierson repeated the input on a cellular tower that he had given at an earlier Longboat Key Town Commission workshop:

A tower would be more strategically located for serving the north end at the Longboat Key Public Works compound than at the Longboat Island Chapel property, although its setback requirements need further consideration, according to Wierson.

A DAS network system is a small-cell technology that would require the installation of multiple hub stations on FPL lines that would send signals through fiber-optic cables.

The item was on the P&Z Board’s agenda for discussion, but the board wasn’t considering any legislative action at Tuesday’s meeting. Board members, who received the report late yesterday afternoon, said that they hadn’t been able to review the TE Connectivity report at length.

Wierson had also made an April 19 presentation to the commission during which he gave an overview of both options:

A DAS network would cost $590,000 to construct and would start out with three carriers, according to the study. A cellular tower could include five carriers and would likely cost $400,000 to construct but at a higher environmental impact.

Jim Eatrides, owner of Alpha-Omega Communications Inc., who with his business partner, Ridan Industries II President Kevin Barile, have an application pending with the town to bring a 150-foot cell tower to the chapel’s properties, disagreed with Wierson’s statements about solutions for the north end.

But Eatrides argued that a tower on the chapel site was the best solution and said that although the chapel and Public Works properties would be similar in the coverage they would provide, the Public Works site is too small.

He also disagreed with TE Connectivity about the technological feasibility and costs of a DAS network but asked to return to a future commission workshop after reviewing the report released the day before.

“Models are estimates of reality,” said Eatrides. “We don’t disagree with TE on all of their models. We don’t agree with the cost. We do want to go in and get all of the information and properly address all of these issues and do so in a timely manner.”

In an April 24 memo, Town Planner Steve Schield suggested to Town Manager David Bullock that existing telecommunications codes should be reviewed based both on the report’s technical recommendations as well as policy concerns of the community.

Attorney Michael Furen, who represents Gus Sclafani and Doreen Erickson, whose home is adjacent to the site of the proposed tower, told the board that the review is needed. He argued that any related changes to the zoning code should be fully vetted by the community and urged the board not to take any action that would “expressly or implicitly recognize cell towers.”