VALDOSTA – A cascade of no votes rained from the audience at the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission.

The cries were in response to Commissioner Gerald McLendon asking Valdosta Country Club members in the audience if they supported a new Verizon Wireless cell tower being built inside the golf course.

Spanning nearly four hours and requiring a 10-minute break, the planning commission held a meeting Monday night at the Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office that contained two zoning requests which caused consternation among attendees.

The first controversial item was the zoning of a Verizon tower off Bellemeade Drive, and the second item was the zoning of a halfway house for first-time, non-violent offenders out of prison in the neighborhood on Forrest Run Circle.

Residents packed the audience and lined the back wall to show their displeasure about the tower and the halfway house.

Commissioners approved recommendations to deny both requests. Chairman Vicki Rountree reiterated to the audience that the planning commission does not make final decisions, functioning as an advisory body that can only make recommendations to city councils and the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners.

Final action on both items will be decided by the Valdosta City Council at its scheduled meeting 5:30 p.m., Feb. 6.

The cell tower would be a 159-foot-tall, monopole tower disguised as a pine tree with fake shrubbery and four antennae.

When commissioners offered time for people in favor to speak, Andy Rotenstreich, representing Verizon, and Brad Folsom, representing the board of Valdosta County Club, spoke favorably about the potential construction and responded to questions from commissioners.

Rotenstreich said the location was chosen because of a gap in coverage, and the country club was the only entity willing to enter into an agreement with the company. He attempted to reassure people in the room claiming that close proximity to cellphone towers did not cause health problems nor lower property values of surrounding homes. 

Commissioners voted 6 to 3, with one abstention, to recommend the request be denied. 

Jane Williams, a retiree living at the end of Bellemeade Drive and one of three residents who spoke in opposition of the tower, spoke to The Valdosta Daily Times about her issues with a potential cell tower near her home. Health problems remained her greatest concern, but health does not legally disallow a cell tower from being built.

“Health, but the Telecommunications Act of 1996 will not let a tower be declined for that, so next for me is property value.”

Despite living on Bellemeade Drive for 26 years, Williams said she will move if the cell tower is erected near her property.

“I don’t want to turn on the TV 10 years from now and have a lawyer tell me that I can become part of a class-action lawsuit because the experts were wrong and cell towers were dangerous,” she said.

Rotenstreich declined to comment after the recommendation to deny passed, but Folsom, past president of the Valdosta Country Club and an attorney assisting the country club board, offered his thoughts after the decision.

“We’re neither happy nor disappointed. We thought we made a good business decision and a good decision for the club, and we’ll see how it turns out in City Council,” Folsom said. 

Ray Chitty, a member of the country club residing on Plantation Drive, said he was pleased with the denial recommendation.

“The commissioners listened to all the arguments, and they took a measured response,” Chitty said. “It’s an entire community, not just Bellemeade and Plantation owners but the surrounding area. I think they did a good job.”

He said he would like the next step to be a dialogue between the country club’s board and its members to find a different location for the cell tower.

“I’d love for the country club to go back and revisit and find an alternative site,” he said. “I’m a member of the country club. I love the country club.”

Unfortunately for Chitty, Folsom did not foresee such a meeting.

“We’re in a position where it won’t make any difference at this point,” Folsom said. “Contractually, we have to support Verizon’s application, so we won’t be able to meet with anybody.”

As for the other major item of the evening, Rosemary and Chad Bailey’s request to establish a halfway house for residents getting out of prison also received a recommendation of denial.

The location would provide housing for five residents after being released from prison and one live-in house manager, Rosemary Bailey said. She added those chosen for the halfway house would be first-time offenders who do not have violent offenses or sexual offenses. Residents at the home would require weekly drug screenings and a 10 p.m. curfew with stays between 90 days and six months. 

Several neighborhood residents of Forrest Run Circle met the request with strong opposition and addressed the commission citing concerns about safety and children living in adjacent homes to the proposed halfway house. 

Afterward, the county voted unanimously to recommend the request be denied with Commissioner Chip Wildes stating the request was “clearly out of line with the existing land uses.”

Jim Reed, a retired resident of the neighborhood, said the zoning for the neighborhood is out of date and allowed for the request to occur. Originally zoned for a multi-family apartment complex, the region turned into single-family residential neighborhood, he said.

“I think it’s wonderful that they decided to vote in that direction. For the activity they want to have in this neighborhood, it’s not conducive to the character of the neighborhood. This is a neighborhood full of children. It’s less than a quarter mile from a middle school and in the other direction, it’s less than a quarter of a mile from a daycare,” Reed said. “We don’t need that kind of element in our neighborhood, and there’s no guarantee that these people that are going to be assigned here by the courts, not by Ms. Bailey. They’re going to be the ones who can go to this house through the RPH program.”

Rosemary Bailey voiced her frustration with the vote and noted she would be at the Valdosta City Council meeting on Feb. 6.

“We will be at City Council to see what their thoughts are, and as far as the recommendation to deny, we’re not happy with that,” Rosemary Bailey said. “Had we known that Mr. Matt Martin’s office was not in support of this when we met with him on the 17th of December — had he explained that to us — we would not have gone forward with paying the fees that we’ve paid. So he misled us.”

Martin, planning and zoning administrator for Valdosta, said Bailey misunderstood him during their December meeting and did not recommend going forward with the halfway house.

Reed said the assertion the neighborhood is home to seven sex offenders is not true.

“The one sex offender that used to live there, he moved out about six or seven months ago. So, there is currently no sex offenders in that neighborhood,” Reed said. “They’re using old data and information to present currently in the meeting tonight.”