A 21-metre telecommunications tower has been proposed for the car park of a busy riverside shopping centre, with the aim of significantly improving mobile phone coverage for the area.
The application for the phone tower at the River Markets complex at Bli Bli was submitted by Waveconn Operations Pty Ltd in March and is now in the public notification stage.
Waveconn, which develops and maintains mobile infrastructure for use by major carriers, has proposed the facility to support the Vodafone network.
The planned infrastructure includes a single-pole tower, antennas, a three-bay equipment cabinet and supporting equipment, located in a 24sqm compound near the Bli Bli Bakery at the north-eastern corner of the shopping centre.
According to the application documents, the tower would address a significant gap in phone coverage across Bli Bli and surrounds.
“The proposed facility will provide new and improved Vodafone coverage to Bli Bli and surroundings, including significant improvements to network coverage and capacity (including indoor coverage) in the River Markets shopping area, hotel and nearby commercial area as well as to the adjacent residential area of Halcyon Landing – which has provided a letter of support for the facility – the Riverside Caravan Park and the residential areas to the west of the Maroochy River generally,” a letter from SAQ Consulting on behalf of Waveconn states.
It says mobile reception in the area is currently limited, with no existing base stations within 2.2km of the proposed location, apart from a small Telstra cell about 700m away.
“Given the high level of activity around the River Markets and the increased demand from the locality in peak times (such as school holidays) when the caravan park is fully occupied, the already-poor level of service is diminished even further during such periods,” the letter states.
It says the facility has been designed to minimise visual and functional impacts on the area, and will not impact the existing car park.
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Some existing landscaping will be removed and may not be replaced, although the compound could be fenced to help reduce its visual impact. The monopole would not be climbable.
Although the tower exceeds the allowed 12 metres, the application argues that its slim structure means it will not dominate the landscape.
“Although technically exceeding the prescribed height limit, the building bulk and massing and the typical impacts arising from that are not characteristic of a telecommunications facility, which whilst tall occupy only a small portion of the overall view and have no appreciable impacts arising from its mass,” it states.
The site is about 20 metres from the nearest residence, which is within the Halcyon Landing retirement community.
A letter from John Lee-Bernstein of the Halcyon Landing Homeowners Committee included with the application outlines residents’ support for the proposal, describing phone coverage in the area as “dire”.
“The current coverage is very poor to non-existent … which is very problematic given a large proportion of residents do not have a landline due to extra financial burden and rely totally on their mobile phones to stay in contact with family and friends and access vital services,” it says.
“In addition, with the ageing population within our community and the government push for older Australians to remain in their homes longer, the need for fully operational personal safety monitors becomes a very important and currently they are not reliable due to the poor mobile signal strength.”
The public notification stage runs from June 9 to July 1.
