EBI’s consultation efforts helped assist the applicant’s due diligence efforts regarding the feasibility of a newly proposed cellular tower. In performing the archaeological and architectural assessments, EBI found that a National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) District, NRHP Site, Historic trail, and SHPO eligible facility were located within a ½ mile (1.6km) radius of the Area of Potential Effects – Visual Effects (APE-VE) and Area of Potential Effect – Direct Effects (APE-DE) of the new proposed macro cell tower.

Due to the potential for visual impacts to the various historic elements, EBI determined that further investigation would be required to assess whether the tower would affect the visual integrity of the historic district, site, trail, and SHPO eligible facility. EBI utilized their in-house Geographic Information System (GIS) team to provide data analysis regarding the proposed tower that posed a threat to the four historic elements.
The GIS team used the geographic location of the tower and LiDAR data to assess tower height with the associated ½ mile (1.6km) APE-VE buffer. Once the Digital Surface Model representing tower height, ground elevation and surface features was compiled, the team used a series of spatial analysis techniques to determine potential visibility from the historic features within the study area. Using existing spatial databases and digitized historic features, the GIS team was able to create robust analysis tools to support the teams defining locations which may be susceptible to visual impacts.

The GIS Team used the modeling results to understand the extent of the visual data, defining regions and locations that would be directly affected from the proposed tower, as well as additional layer geodata that demarcated if surrounding vegetation would impede the visual impacts to the four historic features.