A plan to erect a 75-foot antenna tower just northeast of the Rand Road and Hintz Road intersection in Arlington Heights — needed to improve improve cellphone coverage where Verizon Wireless says a “dead-zone” exists — took two steps toward the final stage to construction.
First, the real estate firm DRA Properties, representing Verizon Wireless; and Cross and Crown Lutheran Church, 1122 W. Rand Road, have agreed to a lease, which will provide additional revenue for the church that owns the property, according to officials.
Second, the village board this week approved a land use variation to permit the location of the tower at the Cross and Crown Lutheran Church property. The cell tower, and a base with a generator and electronics structure, and a surrounding 8-foot brick wall is scheduled to be constructed in August 2019.
The 75-foot tower, which was initially planned to be 100 feet tall, will be located equidistant from a neighborhood of single-family homes to the north, and townhomes to the southeast. By comparison, the high-voltage ComEd transmission line towers are 140 feet tall.
The design of the tower is known as a “stealth” tower design that conceals the antenna(s) and supporting wires and cable. The tower will have space for up to two additional cell carriers’ antennas.
ComEd rejected an attempt to place the cell tower in the ComEd right of way area, where high voltage transmission lines and towers are already located. ComEd was concerned about the cell tower having an influence on ComEd’s assets, causing a variety of potential problems. However, cell tower antennas are already attached directly on an existing high voltage transmission line tower about 4,000 feet southeast of the ComEd tower near Cross and Crown Lutheran Church. Initially there was no explanation why the cell antennas could not be attached similarly near the existing ComEd tower, just north of the Cross and Crown Lutheran Church.
One of the nearest multi-carrier towers is a tower located behind Trader Joe’s near Arlington Heights Road and Rand Road. The tower is at least 149 feet tall. The nearest tower, actually involves the AT&T antennas located on the existing ComEd transmission tower, 4,000 feet southeast, near the ComEd substation east of Chestnut Avenue and north of Rand Road. Those antennas are 162 feet up.
The ComEd high voltage transmission lines cross directly over the intersection of Rand Road and Hintz Road with a tower near each corner near the northeast and the southwest of the intersection. The existing ComEd transmission tower is about 90 feet northwest of the proposed location of the newly proposed tower.
Doug Dolan, of DRA Properties, said the firm’s first choice is normally co-location on existing structures or rooftops, but the Cross and Crown church building doesn’t have the capacity for the rooftop equipment required for the situation. Responding to radio energy and health concerns, Dolan claimed the radio frequency used by the equipment at the tower is equivalent to a home Wi-Fi system or baby monitor.
Cell phone tower antennas located near the top of an existing ComEd transmission tower just northeast of the intersection of Chestnut Avenue and Rand Road …
See also …
antennasearch.com | Towers Near 60004
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ComEd Right of Way left; Cross and Crown Lutheran Church right …