The Battle Over AT&T's Cell Tower Plans
Fall 2000 - Winter 2001

As you know from previous Civic Association Newsletters and meetings, historic Minor Hill has been a major battleground in the larger cell tower war. Communications companies see Minor Hill as an excellent site for communications towers. Williamsburg residents look at the same small piece of real estate and see potential for parkland and playland - things that were woefully neglected by Arlington County officials back in the forties and fifties when this part of North Arlington was developed. These two goals again came into conflict in the fall of 2000 over a cell tower proposal from AT&T.

What AT&T Wanted for Minor Hill: AT&T's initial proposal was to build a 100 foot monopole plus a 336 square foot (12' x 28') equipment shelter on Minor Hill, between the two existing water reservoirs (reservoir 1 and reservoir 2). To fulfill an Arlington County requirement for citizen input, AT&T called a community meeting on 9 January 2001.

Despite the fact that few neighbors received the AT&T letter announcing the meeting, word of the event got out through e-mails, phone calls, and flyers. Around seventy Arlington residents braved the cold and the ice to let AT&T get a sense of neighborhood opposition to cell tower plans.

AT&T then changed its proposal, as indicated in the maps and materials the company handed out in the January 2001 meeting. AT&T presented two options.

• One option was to build a 120 foot pole (yes, that's twenty feet higher) near the existing Minor Hill pump station adjacent to North Powhatan street, adding a 12' by 28' equipment building.
• The second option (which is AT&T's preferred option) was to build a 100 foot monopole in the space between reservoir 1 and reservoir 2, while increasing the size of the equipment building by a factor of nearly three. Under this option, AT&T wuld have built a 30' by 30' (900 square feet) building large enough to accommodate not just AT&T's equipment, but also equipment of other communications companies (to whom, apparently, AT&T was planning to rent space on their tower). AT&T would also have removed many of the trees which now provide a buffer for the houses backing up on Minor Hill, regraded the whole area, relocated storm manholes, and built a new berm, cutting through the existing tree line.

What Williamsburg Neighbors Want for Minor Hill: Williamsburg residents were and remain strongly opposed to plans to build telecommunications towers on Minor Hill. Instead, the community supports measures to beautify the Minor Hill/Emily Sharpe Park area and to develop the recreational potential of the area. We included both beautification and development of recreation potential in the Minor Hill recommendations in our Neighborhood Conservation Plan. Neither goal would be served by building a communications tower and 900 square foot equipment building on Minor Hill, while removing many of the existing trees -- further degrading an already ugly vista.

Williamsburg residents were also concerned that AT&T's tower would merely be the first of many, paving the way for additional towers and ugly industrial-type support structures. This would further mar the property and doom any chances for adoption of a land-use policy that is sensitive to neighborhood concerns and reflects respect for the rich history of Minor Hill.

In our August 2000 WCA meeting, residents voted to make Minor Hill one of two priority projects competing for Neighborhood Conservation Plan funds in the spring 2001 funding round. After consultations with County staff, we asked the County to explore funding a Master Plan for the area, embracing a series of measures that would be eligible for several types of County funding. Adoption of a master plan would also protect Minor Hill from future cell tower threats.

How You Can Help:

If another cell company attempts to site a tower on Minor Hill, we will need to mobilize community action to deter it. What worked in the AT&T case was a strong show of resistance by neighbors. When it became clear to both AT&T and to County staff that the Williamsburg neighborhood was organized and determined to oppose placement of a cell tower on Minor Hill, AT&T abandoned their plans. Neighborhood organization is crucial. That's why we need an active civic association.

Over the longer term, what we really need is an established plan for Minor Hill that is responsive to the community's interests, not the interests of the communications companies from out of state. This is why we decided to include a Minor Hill Project as one of our spring 2001 funding items. County staff has now come up with a draft Minor Hill Use Plan, which will be presented to the community in the May/June 2002 time frame. For more information, contact Don Gross at 703-237-1059.

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