The Woodlands Township board of directors approved moving forward on three sites for new cell towers after a public hearing at its Sept. 17 meeting.
IT Director William Pham said towers were being considered at Cattail Park, Tamarac Park and Rob Fleming Park Recreation Center. Of the cell carriers AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, one carrier is interested at this time, officials said.
Explained
Katie Harms, a representative for Diamond Communications, the township’s contractor for the project, said the company currently operates four sites in the township at locations on Lake Robbins Drive, Woodlands Parkway and College Park Drive. She said the company has 4,000 sites across the country. Ten sites are being considered for cell tower locations in The Woodlands including:
Windvale Park
Fire Department Emergency Training Center
Terramont Park
Alden Bridge Sports Fields
Lakeside Park
Cattail Park
Bear Branch Park
Shadowbend Park
Tamarac Park
Rob Fleming Park Recreation Center
Harms said Cattail Park is the area with the worst coverage out of the three tower sites. Pham said the reason other sites aren’t being considered is that The Woodlands has land-use restrictions that prohibit cell towers, limiting sites to township property.
Sites are required to go through an environmental review. According to agenda documents, the sites were chosen based on:
The discussion
Board secretary Linda Nelson asked about the timeline to get the three sites up and running.
Harms said if the leases for the three sites in question are countersigned, it would be a nine- to 10-month process from the signing of the leases, noting they could become operational in the third quarter of next year depending on carrier budgets. It will likely be a five-year process to get all of the towers up and running, with Alden Bridge being the next one scheduled, if it is approved to move forward, she said.
Harms said it may not take that long for all of the sites, but it’s also possible that not all will be approved.
What else?
Cell coverage will extend up to a mile depending on the tower’s height, and they will be equipped with generators for use during storm outages, Harms said.
The board voted 6-0 to authorize President and CEO Monique Sharp to execute the lease agreements after Harms' presentation to the board and a public hearing.
