The Toilet Paper Tower
The infamous toilet paper tower built in 2023 in Downtown Charleston is my favorite tower.
SBA Communications used a 2016 FCC regulation tied to the Spectrum Act (Section 6409a), which prohibited local municipalities from denying or imposing design standards on "eligible facilities requests" for modifications to existing towers. Because there was already an old monopole, SBA was legally allowed to completely overhaul it into the toilet paper tower, bypassing the City of Charleston's strict zoning and architectural review boards. (The historical foundation did review some plans in 2020 and gave a thumbs up though)
Upon completion there was immediate pushback from the historic foundation since the tower didn't look like how they wanted it, along with a lot of locals pushing back. Some guy even started playfully projecting stuff on it for a few weeks.
In 2024, a fourth "roll" was added to the top, and I got a picture before the "roll" was put on if you want to try to identify it. Verizon is the 3rd roll from the bottom per the original plan. Plumbers now also exclusively rent the billboard right below it lol. In 2025, the historic foundation actually got something out of the FCC in January (2025). After the foundation and the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) found the tower drastically deviated from the 2020 approved design, the FCC then said in January 2025
>"Federal preservation officers have determined that the tower has hurt the city, signaling a mitigation process will be undertaken."
It's been over a year now with no updates, but it's grown on most people over the past 3 years.
https://www.antennasearch.com/HTML/individual/regTower.php?registration_number=1317247