Residents and business owners of Sunset Park are surprised and outraged at the 4-2 passing of the Tampa City Council vote on the 150-foot zoning law for a new monopole tower in South Tampa.
The tower will be built in a community strip on the edge of the neighborhood just off of Henderson, just 30-feet away from a chiropractor's office and a four lane highway. Currently, zoning laws do not allow towers to be higher than 80-feet in residential area, but with the new vote the 150-foot tower will be 132-feet away from Sunset Park condominiums.
Many residents raised concerns about the image the tower will bring to their neighborhood. Marlin Anderson, President of Sunset Park Homeowners Association, expressed the opinions of those in the community. "You don't put a tower at the entrance because it's ugly. You put this in front of Sunset Park, and you diminish the entire city," Anderson said.
This article appears in Mar 17-23, 2010.