NOVA Builder Wants to Erect 150-Foot Telecom Towers Next to City School, Kids’ Baseball Park
THE FXBG ADVANCE MONDAY 7/13/26 MORNING READ
By Steve Watkins, ADVANCE EDITOR
A Northern Virginia company is seeking approval from the city of Fredericksburg for two 150-foot wireless telecom towers, one next door to Walker-Grant Middle School and the Idlewild subdivision, the other a block from the Sunshine Ballpark and a neighborhood just north of Fall Hill Avenue.
The company, Milestone Towers, has scheduled two online “Town Hall” meetings for neighbors who live in proximity to the proposed projects, which they’ve dubbed “Gateway Boulevard Wireless” and “Sunshine Park Wireless.” Attendees are required to register to virtually attend the sessions, both of which will be curated by Milestone. The “Gateway Boulevard Wireless” session is scheduled for Monday, July 27, 6:30-8 p.m. The “Sunshine Park Wireless” session is set for Wednesday, July 22.
Other than the names of the two projects, and site maps, both online information sites are identical, as you can see HERE and HERE. Milestone says that the towers will host AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, and provide significantly improved coverage for users in the two areas.
Idlewild HOA president and Fredericksburg City School Board member Andy Wolfenbarger said Milestone first proposed a long-term lease to put a 15-story “monopole” on Idlewild property, either in a wooded area a few feet away from the new middle school, or next to the Idlewild Club House. At 150 feet, the structure would be the height of the Statue of Liberty from base to torch.
“We couldn’t find any HOA property that passed our sniff test and satisfied the vendor’s requirements before the city and vendor found a spot that they both felt [was] a good fit,” Wolfenbarger said in an email last week.
The company now wants to erect the towers on two parcels of wooded land owned by the city—one a few hundred feet north of Walker-Grant, the other a similar distance from the Sunshine Ballpark.
Milestone cites FCC and World Health Organization research and standards on their Gateway and Sunshine websites to address worries about children’s and residents’ sustained exposure to “non-ionizing” radio frequency energy that will be emitted from the towers. You can find their summary, with links to studies, HERE.
Barbara Jennings, a local realtor, has raised concerns about the financial and aesthetic impacts on “homes, schools, parks, and history” in Stafford, where even taller wireless telecom towers are being considered.
“At 170 feet, these structures are roughly the height of a 16-story building,” she posted on her business website. “They dwarf the tree canopy. They rise above nearly every home, church, and school in Stafford county’s established neighborhoods.”
The towers under consideration in Stafford will run past at least five schools, Jennings wrote, and one would be in proximity to Ferry Farm, George Washington’s Boyhood home. You can read more about Jennings’ concerns, including her analysis of the impact on property values, HERE.
Another critic, the nonprofit watchdog organization Environmental Health Sciences, has posted a list of “Top 10 Health, Safety, and Liability Risks of Cell Towers Near Schools and Homes”:
1. The Critical Role of Cell Tower Fall Zones.
2. Cell Towers Can Increase in Height with Little Public Process.
3. The Visual and Aesthetic Impacts of Cell Towers.
4. The Fire Risk of Cell Towers.
5. Hazardous Materials on Cell Tower Sites.
6. Cell Towers Drop Property Values.
7. Cell Towers Create Daily Full Body RF Radiation Exposure.
8. Cell Tower RF Radiation Levels Will Likely Increase Every Year.
9. Insurance Authorities Compare RF Radiation Risk to Asbestos.
10. Companies Warn Their Shareholders of RF Health-Related Risk.
You can read more about Environmental Health Sciences’ Top Ten, and other researchers’ and analysts’ concerns, HERE.
The Advance sent a list of questions to City Council about the two Fredericksburg tower projects late last week:
Concerning the proposed wireless telecom towers next to Walker-Grant Middle School and the Sunshine Ballpark:
Has City Council approved these projects? If so, when?
How much will the city be paid by Milestone Towers to lease the property, and how long is the lease?
If land purchases, what acreage and how much for those?
Has City Council discussed safety concerns? If so, at what meeting?
Did Council direct city staff to research safety issues? Has there been a report and recommendations from city staff and/or the planning commission?
Please provide a copy.
***
Steve Watkins is Editor of The FXBG Advance. You can contact him HERE.
This is a fine example of the value of a free press. Go get ‘em!
Email Clerk of Council Brenda Martin, bmartin@fredericksburgva.gov
TONIGHT or BEFORE 1:30 PM Tuesday, July 14, 2026.
Even a simple statement: Be sure to State name/address (or voting precinct), 22401. 'I object to Milestone Towers or ANY telecom towers next to Walker-Grant Middle School and the Sunshine Ballpark. Thank you for your consideration.'
If you want to make it longer, then pull info from this 'FXBG Advance' post by Steve Watkins. but no more than 3 THREE min for EMAILED PUBLIC COMMENTS TO BE READ OUT LOUD BY STAFF.
such as, 'Top 10 Health, Safety, and Liability Risks of Cell Towers Near Schools and Homes'.
Get email in by 1:30 PM on July 14, 2026. to BRENDA. If you miss the 1:30 deadline for WRITTEN public comments, then ask that your email be read out loud at the NEXT COUNCIL meeting, which is the FIRST Tuesday of each month at 7:30 PM
Ask Brenda to send your 22401 EMAIL to City Council and City Mgr as a PUBLIC COMMENT.
OR
Show up at the City Council meeting tomorrow July 14 (Bastille Day), at the mic. 7:30 PM. Go to side entrance of City Hall which is on Hanover St. next to J Brian's. Go through the GLASS DOORS.
You can sign in at the podium to speak or better yet, send an email to BRENDA by 1:30 PM July 14 that you want to speak at the mic. and could she please put you on the speaker list?
Brenda will then put your name on a list in order received. That increases your chance of speaking early in the meeting. It also gives you more time to write your comment in the 1:30 PM- 7:30 PM period.
If you show up 'in person' at the Council meeting, you have a long 5-min (or less) to speak.
Residents with school children should be especially alarmed by this news that a TELECOM tower and its radiation are being proposed near Walker Grant Middle School.
Note: A "TELECOM tower" and "cell tower" are essentially the same thing.
But all residents should be speaking up. Fredericksburg is only 10 sq miles. We are not going to be able to keep up with all this UNSUSTAINABLE Growth.
You may even want to include some of this info in your public comment:
Tell Council to ENFORCE the Local Zoning & Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) Under Fredericksburg’s Unified Development Ordinance (UDO), wireless communication facilities and support structures require specialized municipal oversight.
Enforce Federal Loopholes: While the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 prohibits denying a tower based on environmental or health effects of radiofrequency emissions, cities can legally DENY towers based on aesthetic impact, fall-zone safety risks, or failure to prove a "gap in coverage."
e.g., Under the TCA's prohibition against preventing wireless services, many jurisdictions and courts have required telecommunication providers to prove there is a "significant gap" in their service coverage and that their proposed tower is the "least intrusive means" of fixing it. If a carrier fails to demonstrate this gap or explore less intrusive alternative locations, a city can legally DENY the application.
Ask Council to direct staff to develop policy/procedure to: Enact a MORATORIUM: Localities can pass temporary bans on new wireless facilities while they update their comprehensive plans or zoning rules.
Towers are governed by the City of Fredericksburg Unified Development Ordinance. In commercial or industrial districts (e.g., General Industrial I-2), tall telecommunication structures up to 199 feet can be built, provided a Special Use Permit and Comprehensive Plan review are approved.
Be savvy too. Know that you're being used as a 'prop' by any applicant/developer when they invite you to a screening by name/email to pass their 'gatekeeper' to join their corporate 'Town Hall'. Even record this 'TOWN HALL" yourself so you can pick it apart after the Zoom.
Research if what you heard is 'fact or fake out'. Most of the time, it's corporate 'fake out' as per their industry 'playbook' propaganda.
These dudes are reshaping our urban landscape in Fredericksburg, in Virginia and the Eastern Seaboard.
Be aware too that a standard TELECOM tower can NOT power a data center. However, look at this interesting connection: Because TELECOM sites already have fiber connectivity and secured land, infrastructure providers utilize these sites to build 'EDGE' data centers.
Instead of the tower powering the data center, the tower AND the DATA CENTER typically pull from the same local electrical grid, or the DATA CENTER is built with its own robust power capacity AT THE BASE OF THE TOWER. (Data Center Dynamics, 9-26-2023); 'Understanding Power Distribution Units/PDUs in DATA CENTERS & TELECOM (1-13-2026): https://matismart.com/understanding-power-distribution-units-pdus-in-data-centers-and-telecom/