Local Communities Hunting For Inventive Ways To Camouflage Cell Phone Towers

O'HARA TOWNSHIP (KDKA) -- More communities are hunting for clever ways to disguise cell phones towers.

How about one crafted to look like a church steeple, a flag pole or even a tree?

A proposed amendment to a zoning ordinance in O'Hara Township asks for cell towers that would use technology to help the towers blend in.

For example, many people never realize the steeple at the nearby Fox Chapel Presbyterian Church is also a cell phone tower.

"Most of them don't even realize there's a cell tower here," said Cilla Bamford, the church's finance administrator. "You can't tell from looking at it."

She says the church has had the tower since the mid-90's and uses the money it gets in return to help pay the bills.

A bell tower at Mount Royal Cemetery in Shaler is also a cell tower.

And back in Fox Chapel, there are a few towers designed to resemble trees, complete with a texture on the poles to look like bark.

"It really doesn't look that much like a tree, but it looks enough like a tree," said Huck Vogel, who is vice-president on O'Hara's council.

They want to avoid a bunch of towers popping up that don't blend in, by beefing up their ordinance.

Companies such as Larson Camouflage in Arizona can create cell phone tower disguises ranging from pine trees to flag poles, palm trees to cacti.

Vogel says he's impressed with many of the ideas these companies can do, but not all.

"The thing that we're worried about, I've seen pictures of facilities out East that basically look like a water tank sitting on top of a telephone pole, and we don't want to have that," Vogel said.

O'Hara Council could vote on the proposed changes to the zoning ordinance next month.

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