WESTCHASE, Fla. — A community in Hillsborough County is pushing back against plans to build a telecommunications tower in their neighborhood.
If the plans go through, it will be erected on the property of the Philippine Cultural Foundation on Nine Eagles Drive in Westchase.
Anna Labat lives in the Waterchase Community, which borders the proposed tower site.
"To build this monstrosity in a beautiful, natural setting? It made me sick. I felt horrible," Labat said.
The proposed tower would be 195 feet tall, towering over the tree line which rests at roughly 50 feet.
Tampa-based Skyway Towers LLC. has applied for a special use permit to build a T-Mobile tower, camouflaged as a pine tree, on the Philippine Cultural Foundation property, saying it meets zoning requirements and that "there are no viable existing towers that would allow T-mobile to meet the needs of its network in this area."
However, the proposed site borders three neighborhoods and is less than half a mile from two schools.
"I don't want it that close to my schools. I don't want it that close to my kids. I don't want it close to me," Labat said.
"I think there are unknown safety factors when it comes to whatever it is that it's emitting," Labat said. "But besides that, the fact that there is such a large piece of metal in a place that has hurricanes every year... and these are very long, high mono pines, ...I personally have a serious safety concern, and I know many of my neighbors do as well."
Another resident of the Waterchase neighborhood, Chris Evanich, said the tower could be a visual nuisance for most people.
"What's going to happen is everyone's going to see it. So it's not just the street, it's the next street over. It's the next community over," Evanich said.
The special use permit will be reviewed by Hillsborough's Land Use Hearing Officer on Monday.
County Development Services tells 10 Tampa Bay that only "competent substantial evidence" can be considered, per FCC guidelines.
Evanich hopes the consideration includes the county's development commitments.
"The development plan includes a lot of natural beauty rights, which is ponds and lakes and oak trees," said Evanich. "So having a very large commercial industrial style structure sticking out, just doesn't match. It's just not common sense to have something like that."
Following Monday's 9 a.m. meeting, the county's Land Use Hearing Officer has a few weeks before they have to make a decision.
The meeting will be open to the public.
10 Tampa Bay reached out to Skyway Towers LLC and the Philippine Cultural Foundation for comment but has not heard back.