CARY - Town leaders want to allow cellular towers in and near residential neighborhoods - as long as they come with fake tree branches or other disguises.

The Cary Town Council unanimously supports a proposal to rescind town boards' power to veto disguised towers that are shorter than 150 feet. Under the new plan, discussed by the council last month, those towers could be approved by town staff as long as they meet preset rules.

It's an attempt to solve a paradox: Residents want better cellular service, but many hate the monoliths that provide it.

Currently, all towers proposed for residential zones must go through a public hearing, where the council can reject the application but also must follow complex legal rules in making its decision.

The hearings have proved problematic for both the builders and the town. The council has hampered the builders by denying several towers, but one company successfully sued Cary to reverse a rejection.

"We're trying to create an incentive for the private sector to provide stealth technology," said Councilman Don Frantz.

"If they have to hire representatives and attorneys to come before us, go through the process to get the tower approved ... they'll just do the stealth tower."

If the builders bite, the town may see a proliferation of masked telecommunications spires.

The town's focus group said Cary's cellular service is inadequate compared to similar towns, and phone companies want to build more towers to keep up with bandwidth demands.

While early towers could serve much larger areas, modern towers service only a one-mile radius, said Ben Levitan, a telecommunications expert. The resulting pressure to put towers near neighborhoods has inspired companies to dress their facilities as cactuses, church steeples, pine trees and more.

Councilman Jack Smith said the proposed guidelines would draw towers that are palatable for residents.

"If you disguise it and make it more compatible with the community, I think the community will be less resistant," he said. "Hopefully we will have some very strict compliance rules that most people are happy with."

The council also was interested in reducing setbacks for disguised towers.

Rules specifically encouraging tower disguises are rare in the Triangle, but Caldwell County requires them in some residential districts.

Cary staff also recommended that undisguised towers less than 150 feet be allowed in the town's agricultural residential districts without a hearing, but the council disagreed.

The council could approve the rule change at a public hearing in October or November.