INSIDE

Change in tower site requested

By Meg Olson

Hearing Examiner Michael Bobbink is asking county planning staff to look at alternative locations where Verizon Wireless could build a 150-foot steel lattice communications tower.

At the conclusion of a December 12 hearing in which he heard testimony from a dozen speakers both for and against the project, Bobbink said that his “only real concern” was that a “higher priority location may have been overlooked or ignored.”

Bobbink gave county staff until December 21 to look at other sites and how they would fit county siting priorities relative to the current proposed location on land owned by the Point Roberts Parks and Recreation District northwest of the school and Baker Field.

In his comments to Bobbink at the hearing, audience member Steve Wolf raised the possibility of putting the tower somewhere else, specifically somewhere not in one of the community’s parks. “The park will be ruined,” Wolf said. “There are more suitable locations for the cell tower.” Wolf suggested that the property adjacent between the dump and Whidbey Telephone would be a more suitable location.

The property in question has a history with towers: a proposal by former property owner Leslie Agron to build a television tower on the property went through two conditional use permits and contentious appeals before declaring bankruptcy in 2002. The project was never built and permits expired.

The property’s current owner is Arlyce Hamilton; her brother Rick Parsons is developing the land as a private horse stable and pasture. Parsons said they had not had discussions with the county or Verizon Wireless, but would be receptive to the idea of putting a cellular telephone tower on the property. “I spoke with my sister and she’s very positive about it,” Parsons said.

The current agreement between the local parks department and Verizon Wireless is for $1,000 per month to lease a 50 by 60 foot area in which to build the tower. “We’re not trying to scoop anyone but I personally think this is a better location, rather than slicing and dicing up the park,” Parsons said, adding they were retaining significant treed buffers which would make the tower less visible to the public than the telephone company’s tower is now.

Several other speakers at the December 12 meeting brought up the impact the tower would have on the usability of the park, including primary school employee and school bus driver Anita Jacks who thought an area used for nature walks with local school children should not be home to a cell tower. Verizon representative Andy King responded that the use of 3,000 square feet of park space would not preclude other uses of the property.

Other speakers brought up their concerns about possible health issues associated with cellular telephone towers, and Bobbink repeatedly asked that testimony be limited to whether the application met applicable codes and policies, specifically county code. “As established by law I am unable to consider issues not relevant to this application,” he said.

Though he did not speak at the meeting, adjacent property owner Don Meikle wrote that he would reconsider his family’s plans to donate part of their land to the park system if a tower was built in the park. “All taxpayers who have subsidized this park have done so on the historic understanding that parks are for people, not for commercial exploitation,” he wrote.

Parks representatives Irene Waters and Linda Hughes spoke at the hearing in defense of the parks district decision to lease the land to Verizon. Waters said the land the parks district had been granted between Benson and Johnson Roads had historically been used for “the good of the community,” including a lease of land to the school district and the dump, and land sold to the fire and water districts for their facilities. With the local fire department, the sheriff’s office and the hospital district all in support of better cellular telephone service, the tower would provide a service to the community. Waters has also at district board meetings commented that the $12,000 annual lease payment would be a significant help for local parks programs, which run on $36,000 per year.

Martin Blackman with the county land use division said they plan to ask Bobbink for more time for both their staff and Verizon representatives to consider locating the tower on the Parsons property. “We are asking the applicant to look into an adjacent property that might be preferable.” he said. “As far as our code criteria it does look promising.”

Bobbink has said after county staff submit their revised recommendations he will allow written comment on those but will not take further oral testimony. Once the record is closed he will review the application and comments submitted and could render a decision or choose to reopen the hearing for further testimony.