Cell tower owner sues zoning board

The owner of a controversial 287-foot wireless communication tower has sued Monroe County officials over a requirement that the tower be shortened.\nCrown Castle Communications Inc. filed the lawsuit against the board of zoning appeals, asking Judge E. Michael Hoff to overrule the board or send the issue back to the board for further consideration.\nThe tower in Smithville has been a sore point with many residents because of its height and microwave relays, which they say has caused in-home electrical problems.\n"The complaints have been going on for a long time, and I don't know why there has never been any enforcement action until this point," said Robert Cowell, director of the Monroe County Planning Department which oversees zoning for the county.\n"The record clearly indicates that a 187-foot tower was approved by the board. And a much larger tower was constructed."\nIn 1999, the county passed an ordinance restricting the height of wireless communication towers to 199 feet.\nThe zoning board voted 4-1 last month to deny permission to leave the tower at 287 feet, even though it was built almost a decade before the height limit was set.\nThe zoning board rejected Crown Castle's request for a continuance so that landowner J.D. Honeycutt could attend. A Crown representative said Honeycutt would testify that in 1990, a county planning official had verbally authorized the 287-foot tower height.