The Palm Coast City Council Tuesday is expected to approve leasing yet another site for a tall cell tower, the fourth in the past year and a half, to improve cell coverage in the city. The tower could accommodate up to four carriers.
The 150-foot high monopole would rise above the grounds of the Frieda Zamba municipal pool, behind Wadsworth Elementary School–more specifically, on a spot to the northeast of the pool, on the west side of Belle Terre Park. Its closest neighbors would be the south parking lot of the school and the pool complex. The closest homes are along Planview Drive.
The tower would improve coverage for the north end of the P-Section and the east end of the W-Section. Picture a coverage area delineated by Whiteview Parkway, Pine Lakes Parkway, Palm Coast Parkway and I-95: the zones within those lines would see improved coverage. It would become operational likely by January, says Don Kewley, Palm Coast’s chief innovation officer, with AT&T already signed up to be a carrier. (An existing, smaller tower there, owned by T-Mobile, provides coverage by T-Mobile, MetroPCS and Verizon.)
In the past year, towers went up in Palm Harbor, off Palm Coast Parkway behind Heroes Park, and near the Palm Coast Tennis Center and Fire Station 25 off Belle Terre Parkway. The first two are operational, with AT&T on each. The tower off Palm Coast Parkway went up in January, its circle of metallic mohawks atop the pole–otherwise known as the tower’s center of radiation– quickly claiming its part of Palm Coast’s otherwise vacant skyline. The tower near the tennis center ran into a few glitches but is expected to be operational by sometime in December, Kewley said–also with AT&T–thus providing coverage for the south end of the P Section and the east end of the R Section, if you’re an AT&T customer.
The towers are built by Diamond Communications, the company the city contracted with two years ago to take over its wireless marketing and infrastructure in an effort to better focus the recruitment of carriers to town. The city also relaxed development rules for higher towers. Diamond builds the towers at its own expense (the cost ranges between $200,000 and $300,000), leasing land from the city in five-year increments renewable nine times.
Diamond is to pay the city a $25,000 development fee at the start of construction on the new tower (at least that’s what the contract attached to the council members’ documentation states, though the memo summarizing the document lists the fee at half that, $12,500. Previous tower fees have been $25,000.) Diamond then takes 60 percent of revenue generated by carrier income. The city takes 40 percent.
The city has four towers of its own: at the Palm Coast Tennis Center, at Ralph Carter Park, atop the water tank in the Hammock, and on Utility Drive, behind the Woodlands. But only the first three have major carriers (Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and Metro PCS, depoending on the tower.) Diamond is now managing those sites as well, but the city keeps all revenue from carrier leases it already had in place (as it did with three carriers). If Diamond adds carriers on the city’s towers, then the city takes 65 percent of the revenue while Diamond takes 35 percent. But it’s obviously to Diamond’s benefit to locate carriers on its towers.
The four new towers were all part of Diamond’s master plan for the city. Are more towers planned in the immediate future? “These are the ones that are currently planned, so the answer is no, not technically,” Kewley said, but he’s not ruling out new sites.
Yoyoma says
Whole lot of holding onto yesterday. Cellular phone service will be obsolete in 5 years. It’ll hit the cellular and internet industry just as fast as the car hit the horse and buggy industry.
https://oneweb.world/
https://www.starlink.com/
https://www.geekwire.com/2019/amazon-project-kuiper-broadband-satellite/
Just to name a few. In 2025 (if not sooner) they’ll be tearing these new poles down. Watch and see.
Brian Mccoy says
Want to lay money where your mouth is? Il take that bet. No way will they be tearing any towers down due to any other communication tagt you are talking about. I service towers and do upgrades for all kinds of carriers . Not any time soon will they tearing down towers.
Thanks
Yoyoma says
You might want to start polishing up that resume.
All kidding aside, these corporations aren’t collectively sinking a trillion dollars into these satellite constellations to NOT replace the current antiquated distribution methods. Tower to tower delivery is gonna go away, and it will be sooner than later.
V W says
Palm Coast needs a High Definition (HD) TV BROADCASTING TOWER for free mainstream TV service throughout the city !!For many people, television has become a luxury due to the high price and excessive rate increases that happens on a yearly basis from All TV service providers !! ….Why isn’t the city trying to get mainstream HD TV signals broadcast for free like TV was in the good old days.!!…All major cities broadcast free mainstream HD TV.. Homeowners can receive free HD TV signals by using an inexpensive HD TV antenna….Palm Coast is out of range for the Orlando,Jacksonville and Daytona areas to receive the free HD TV signals that they broadcast….Surely the city can look into getting a “Repeater Tower” to pick up and broadcast mainstream TV to our city for FREE .The cost of a tower could possibly be subsidized by the major TV Networks.. “Spectrum has a monopoly for HD TV cable service thus their fees are outrageously high and GO UP EVERY YEAR !!!!.They have no shame and they will suck every Dollar they can out of their loyal customers !!THEY NEVER MAKE ENOUGH MONEY !!!.. ..If Palm Coast we had free HD TV signals Spectrum would surely lower their Outrageously High monthly fees due to the competition and loss of customers switching to free TV !! A lot of retired and elderly people on fixed incomes would benefit from free Broadcast HD TV as many enjoy watching the mainstream channels that they have watched all their life and the extra money they save could be better spent on other needs they have. All Citizens of Palm Coast City should have a choice of buying TV through a service provider or getting a FREE HD Broadcast TV Signal obtainable with an inexpensive HD TV Antenna!!
Jon S says
It’s December of 2021, the new tower behind wadsworth hasn’t been built yet. Did it get final approval?