A 25-metre phone tower designed to increase Optus and TPG service in Holt and surrounding areas has been proposed on the Burns Club's golf course.
A development application has been put to the planning authority by Downer EDI on behalf of Indara, a digital infrastructure company that was blocked from building a similar tower in Fadden mid last year.
The Burns Club has agreed in principle to host the tower, which would service Holt, Macgregor, West Belconnen and the Ginninderry project, if the application is approved.
The tower would comprise one monopole or pole, with four Optus 4G panels, four Optus 5G panels, three TPG 4G panels and three TPG 5G panels.
It would be located within a 92.16-square-metre site on the golf course's Spofforth Street boundary, and would be surrounded by a 2.4-metre chain mesh fence.
A new driveway would also be constructed to allow access for maintenance between two and four times a year, according to the application.
Two trees will need to be removed to build the tower, one of which is a protected tree with a medium arboricultural rating. The other has been declared dead, with no adverse impact to the area from removing it.
The tower was planned to "directly address existing coverage and capacity issues in the Holt area", as well as to future proof against predicted growth in the area, according to the application.
Co-locating the equipment at existing telecommunications sites was considered, but was ultimately deemed unsuitable.
The existing towers at Stockdill Drive in Belconnen, Ormsby Place in Holt, Southern Cross Drive in Macgregor and Parkwood Road in Belconnen were all rejected because they would not be able to service the target area, the application said.
Indara also considered building the tower on Recycling Circuit in Macnamara but rejected the site due to uncertainty around the precise location of telecommunication infrastructure in the redevelopment along the ACT/NSW border.
The Pine Ridge Horse Agistment was similarly discounted because of "topographical constraints" and the landowner's "expressed lack of interest".
Last year, the Friends of Ainslie Volcanics Grasslands unsuccessfully launched an appeal in the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal against a 28-metre Indara tower in Ainslie. One protester was arrested after failing to comply with a move-on direction when she sat in front of drilling equipment while the tower was under construction.
In September, a proposal for another 25-metre tower in Fadden was rejected by the planning authority because it would affect the locals' enjoyment of the open space, and have a significant visual impact on the area.
According to the application for the Burns Club tower, the golf course site represented an "appropriate balance between minimising visual and environmental impacts and delivering essential telecommunications services".
Telecommunications towers must be built in the areas they service, and need to be a certain height to be effective, the application said. The current design has the tower and other equipment designed in a non-reflective grey colour, to minimise visual impact, but Indara is willing to consider an "alternative colour scheme" at the authority's request.
Public comment on the proposed tower will end on Friday, July 31.
