NewPath to Host Public Meeting on Cell Nodes

NewPath Networks will once again host a public meeting Tuesday with residents about a proposal for 10 cell nodes in the area around the intersection of Vale and Fox Mill roads.

The 7 p.m. meeting will be hosted Tuesday at Navy Elementary School on West Ox Road in Fairfax to address the public's concerns and questions about a proposal that would place cell nodes atop existing utility and light poles along Vale Road, Fox Mill Road, Helmont Drive and Cobb Hill Lane to create better coverage.

The cell nodes are part of a distributed antennae system (DAS), or a network of nodes that work together to give coverage to an area. The nodes provide broadband antennas that can accommodate any wireless carrier, allowing for greater wireless coverage and capacity.

The May 22 letter lists 10 approximate addresses for the cell nodes that differ slightly from the approximate addresses given last August, but the proposal maintains the same goal, a NewPath Networks spokesperson said. See the list below for approximate addresses.

"As all of the poles are located within Department of Transportation Right-of-Way (ROW), they have no fixed addresses," wrote Greg Tully, managing director of infrastructure development for Network Building & Consulting, in an email to Oakton Patch. "As such, we use different naming conventions but typically it is the closest address or intersection."

NewPath Networks, represented by the law firm Donohue and Stearns, has submitted an application to Fairfax County. AT&T has hired NewPath, a subsidiary of Crown Castle, for the Oakton project.

Representatives from NewPath previously spoke with residents from the Vale area last August, which

In February,  in the Miller Heights and History Drive area of Oakton about a proposal for four cell nodes. Through a separate application within the Providence District, the cell nodes were planned as a part of the project being proposed in the Vale area of the Sully District. The Providence District application has since been withdrawn, while the Sully proposal moves forward.

The preliminary plans place cell nodes at the following approximate addresses:

• 2903 Fox Mill Road
• 3003 Fox Mill Road
• Fox Mill Road and Helmont Drive
• 11528 Vale Road
• 3153 Cobb Hill Lane
• 12006 Vale Road
• 3601 Vale Road
• 3265 Fox Mill Road
• 3281 Fox Mill Road
• 3229 Fox Mill Road