Zooming in
The latest tower, approved by Fulshear City Council at an Aug. 5 meeting, is set to be located at the city’s FM 1093 water plant, according to agenda documents. The proposed FM 1093 telecommunications tower will be a 105-foot-tall monopole.
The approval puts the city at five underway cell towers and antennas, with previous approvals including:Another lease is being considered for an antenna on top of the city’s Pecan Knoll elevated storage tank, city officials said.
Towers are built and leased out by individual contractors to cell companies, and revenue is shared with the city, City Manager Zach Goodlander said. Towers typically lease out space to multiple cell companies, although he said Verizon was spearheading the projects.
Why it matters
Goodlander said the city has tried to advocate for greater cell coverage for future years, but as residents called to complain about a lack of cell coverage, carriers insisted they were covered. Instead, the problem was overloaded capacity on each tower.
City officials have been “very aggressive” in communicating with cell tower companies and carriers to make city land available for tower easements, Goodlander said.
“I’ve been copied on residents sending complaints to the [Federal Communications Commission],” he said. “I would encourage residents to keep doing that—if you’re having issues, get the attention of cell carriers.”
Going forward
The Cross Creek Bend water plant tower is expected to be done within “the next several weeks,” Goodlander said.
Goodlander said he expects the tower on the Rogers Road and FM 359 intersection to be completed next, with progress on Pecan Knoll antennas to be completed within months once lease agreements are resolved.
