A global telecommunications company’s plan to build a 317-foot cell tower in Bluewater Bay has sparked opposition from homeowners.
Okaloosa County commissioners will hear the proposal Tuesday morning during a public hearing in Fort Walton Beach.
The company, Crown Castle, is asking to put the tower on a parcel on the north side of Bay Drive. One of Bluewater Bay’s main swimming pools is located on the property.
“It’s right in the middle of a residential area,” said David Serbe, who lives on nearby Wren Way in the Magnolia Forest neighborhood. “This thing is going to be an eyesore. It’s terrible.”
Serbe said he and other members of the Magnolia Forest Property Owners Association will attend the hearing.
The proposed cell tower and accompanying equipment shelters will be built on a 1,000-square-foot space and surrounded by a fence.
If approved, the tower will replace an existing one on Nelson Point Road, which will be removed after the new one is built.
The existing tower supports the antennas of many local government agencies. Those antennas would be moved to the new cell tower, said Elliot Kampert the county’s director of growth management.
“There are a lot of law enforcement agencies using that tower,” Kampert said. “Both the Sheriff’s Office and the Niceville Police Department and the fire districts.”
The proposed cell tower would accommodate AT&T, the antennas of three other wireless carriers and those of the local agencies.