INSIDE

Opponents vow to appeal tower ruling

By Meg Olson

Whatcom County hearing examiner Michael Bobbink has approved the Verizon application to build a cellular telephone tower on land owned by the parks district, but a group of local residents is appealing that decision.

On March 21 attorney Philip Buri filed an appeal on behalf of Steven Wolff asking county council to review Bobbink’s decision. Wolff claims to represent a newly formed local group calling themselves “Citizens for Responsible Communi-cations.”

“The group asserts that the proposed cell tower should be sited between the recycling center, aka the Dump, and Whidbey Communication’s 200 foot microwave tower,” wrote Wolff and Craig Jacks in a statement released by the group. “Siting the proposed cell tower in this area keeps all the ‘brown’ activities in one area and allows the park to remain green thus paving the way for plans to improve the natural environment of the park for future generations. This appeal will allow the merits of the case to be heard by Whatcom County Council  for the first time.”

In a March 11 decision Bobbink dismissed the county planning staff recommendation that the parcel between the transfer station and Whidbey telephone’s facility would be a better location for the tower. According to county code, he wrote, “location on the Recreation Open Space zoned site has priority over location in either Commercial Districts or Residential Districts.(…) The location chosen by the applicant is the highest priority location shown to be both feasible and available.”

It wasn’t the county’s role to second guess the decision of the local elected parks district board, Bobbink concluded, which had voted unanimously to support Verizon’s locating the tower on land they own.

“The site for the tower chosen by the applicant, on the park district property, is a remote area site, in as much as those are available on Point Roberts, and will be in a site which will have low off-site visual impacts,” he wrote. “There is nothing in the zoning ordinance which would support a hearing examiner decision overturning the choice of the park board based on the hearing examiner’s opinion that the property owned by the Board should not be used for this purpose.”

Wolff and Citizens for Responsible Communications have 30 days to pay a $200 appeal fee, buy a copy of the verbatim transcript of the hearing, and provide that to county council. Staff will then schedule the appeal hearing.