T-Mobile will add three antennas to the top of the former Masonic Hall building on East Main Street in the heart of Carnegie in an effort to improve service for its growing customer base.

Carnegie Council members on March 11 approved an application from Signal Mountain Inc., representing T-Mobile, to add the rooftop communication facility at 146 E. Main Street.

The three, eight-foot-tall antennas will be hidden from public view behind an 11-foot enclosure that will appear as a chimney to the public, said Dave Chrzan of Signal Mountain, Inc., a real estate acquisition service.

“We’re trying to make it blend so you would not even know it was there,” he said.

In the last few years, the company installed similar antennas on the roof of a building on Capital Drive, Chrzan said.

“There the antennas are just visible. Here since it’s a more sensitive area and an historic-looking building, we wanted to conceal and camouflage it,” he said.

In the downtown zoning district, the maximum height of a rooftop-mounted wireless communication facility permitted is 75 feet. The E. Main Street antennas and screen wall will be about 91 feet tall, as the building they’re being constructed on is 80 feet tall.

The company sought and received a zoning variance for the antennas and screen to be higher than the permitted use, Carnegie leaders said at their March 11 meeting where council members held a conditional use hearing for the project. The planning commission previously recommended the project for approval.

The need for the antennas comes as T-Mobile is growing its customer base.

“You could make a call, but you wouldn’t be able to download information as fast as T-Mobile would like,” Chrzan said of coverage in the area.

The addition of the antennas will add “more capacity” within their site line, he said.

“It will improve coverage to all T-Mobile and (Metro by T-Mobile) customers that live, work and travel through the area,” Chrzan said.

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