The Tuesday Douglas County Planning and Zoning meeting approved special use permits for two churches, but was not as kind to cellular phone service, denying permits to T-Mobile for two separate tower locations.

The action came at the regular 6 p.m. monthly joint meeting of the Planning and Zoning (P&Z) Board and Board of Commissioners (BOC). The P&Z board hears the presentations and votes to recommend approval or denial. The BOC has the final vote.

Harvest Chapel International, Inc. received approval for a three-year special use permit to allow church services on property located at 2110-C Fairburn Road. The church is housed in a strip mall business condominium unit owned by Neal Dettmering. Both the P&Z Board and BOC gave unanimous approval. The request had been tabled at the May 5 meeting.

In a similar action, Rev. Samuel Davis received a special use permit to allow a church in a shopping center at 3713 Kings Highway. The vote was unanimous by both boards.

Sarran Marshall of PM&A, representative for T-Mobile South LLC, presented two requests for 150-foot cell phone tower permits and both were denied. In his presentations, Marshall argued that the towers were needed to fill in gaps in cellular phone coverage. He said the company explores options of using other companies’ existing towers before deciding to erect a new tower.

The first application was for a tower at 3679 Spivey Drive in the Beulah community on property owned by Jerrall C. and Christa A. Harden. This tower would have been a pine tree type in a wooded site near a residential dwelling.

Mrs. Harden and a neighbor, Nancy Gonzalez, spoke in favor of the tower, saying that everybody likes to use cell phones. However, several other neighbors spoke in opposition, saying the tower would be “an eyesore” and would drive down property values.

Despite a recommendation for approval with conditions by the county’s Planning and Zoning Department, the P&Z voted 4-3 to recommend denial and the BOC followed with a 4-1 decision to deny, with District 4 Commissioner David Latham casting the sole opposing vote.

A T-Mobile request for a 150-foot standard telecommunications tower on Mt. Vernon Road met a similar fate. It also had a recommendation for approval with conditions by the county Planning and Zoning Department. It would have been built on isolated land owned by Jack H. Richardson in a Georgia Power easement containing towers and high voltage power lines.

Joe West, in the process of buying residential property on Mt. Vernon road, spoke against the request, expressing concern about what it would do to his property value. He said the proposed tower would “stand out like a sore thumb.”

Following the trend of the previous vote, the P&Z Board voted 6-1 to recommend denial and the BOC agreed with a 4-1 vote. Latham again cost the dissenting vote.

Floyd Evans had filed a request for a special use permit to park a refrigerator trailer for fruit and vegetable storage at 4017 Bankhead Highway. However, he asked the boards Tuesday night for the right to withdraw the application without prejudice, meaning he will get his application fee returned. Both boards gave approval without any opposing votes.

The joint meeting also approved an amendment on exterior siding to the Unified Development Code (UDC). The boards tabled until Sept. 1 the adoption of new county zoning and future land use maps.