Planning commission recommends rezoning of land for Viaero tower

The Kimball Planning Commission addressed their last meeting’s tabled agenda item concerning the recommendation to the city council to rezone some single family residential district (R-2) property to a light industrial district (I-1).

Mark Brown, chair of the planning commission, opened up the meeting to public comment. However, before the public spoke, it was noted that local governments cannot regulate environmental effects of cellular towers. According to guidelines presented by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), local governments are not allowed to consider health effects of cellular tower radiation in zoning decisions.

“No state or local government or instrumentality thereof may regulate the placement, construction, and modification of personal wireless service facilities on the basis of the environmental effects of radio frequency emissions to the extent that such facilities comply with the regulations contained in this chapter concerning the environmental effects of such emissions,” the Telecommunications Act stated.

With that in mind, Micki Brawner, resident who lives near to the area in question, took to the lectern to speak. Her points made, at first, did concern health. However, they quickly turned to the location of the tower itself.

“I did some research concerning the location of towers in other communities and almost all the cell phone towers are located on the edges of communities. For instance, Scottsbluff’s towers are not near residential areas at all. They are on main streets around businesses and on the edges of the community,” Brawner said.

Henry Jacobsen, an engineer and representative for Viaero Wireless addressed Brawner’s concerns about towers and their location near residential areas.

“As the technology becomes more and more advanced and the demand for 3G and 4G service increases, the towers must become more frequen,t because in order for that data to work at the speeds demanded, they must be closer to greater areas of data traffic. Where are those areas? Well, they are in residential homes. People want to have access to everything on their phones and in order to keep up with that Viaero has decided it’s a good move to have towers in more local areas,” Jacobsen said.

Another issue that was brought to the commission’s attention was why the city hadn’t leased property for the tower.

“Cell phone companies everywhere pay a pretty penny to lease the land they have for their towers, I don’t know why the city didn’t take advantage of that and choose to lease instead of allowing the tower to go atop of purchased land, or, at least, suggest places for the tower that wouldn’t interfere with residential areas.” Brawner said.

With that point having been made, City Administrator Daniel Ortiz explained the city’s side of that situation.

“As far as us leasing goes or picking out another location that might better suit the community, we didn’t do that, because it would be very much like if someone was trying to purchase a home and, instead of allowing them to purchase the home they were looking at, we told them, ‘Don’t buy this house. Buy that house, because it’s more suited to your needs. It’s not our call in that instance,” Ortiz said.

After Ortiz made his point, Jacobsen made it a point to explain that larger cellular companies often will lease land from the community and what that boils down to is the larger cellular companies having “deeper pockets.”

Larry Little, another local resident who will be living in close proximity to the tower, expressed concern about the amount of power being put out of the tower.

“So if Viaero has this tower and they are going to be letting other cellular companies “piggy-back” onto their tower, does that mean that there will be more GHz going out into the air?” Little asked.

Jacobsen took time to answer this question, explaining how the GHz would affect the area.

“There would be more GHz going out, yes, that would allow more wireless services to be used within the area if they are using our tower. This is not the same as the radio frequency though,” Jacobsen said.

After the public was heard, the planning commission assured those present that they would be able to put conditions in the agreement with Viaero that would mandate that they keep their property up to a specific code. For example, they could be required to have a fence, landscaping or any other number of items that would increase the aesthetics of the area and the tower itself.

Some companies have developed ways to camouflage towers so that they might look like trees native to the area in which they are being erected.

“What about [camouflaging]. I know some people have mentioned that with the way our wind gets that the camouflaging wouldn’t be doable,” Brown said.

Jacobsen explained that, in the case of the tower being camouflaged, Viaero would be responsible for maintaining the tower so that it remained in a presentable state.

Ultimately, the planning commission decided to recommend the rezoning of the land in order to allow for a 60 foot cell tower to the city council, along with the suggestion to look into camouflaging the tower.