For the week of July 2 - 8, 2003

P&Z denies Della Mountain cell tower

Company plans to appeal decision

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By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer

Citing insufficient efforts to minimize the visual impacts of a proposed cellular telephone tower atop Della Mountain near Hailey, the Blaine County Planning and Zoning Commission last week denied by a narrow margin an application by Hailey-based Idaho Tower Co. to build a second, 70-foot-tall tower at the site.

Idaho Tower said it plans to appeal the P&Z’s decision to the Blaine County Commission, which could affirm, overturn or remand the decision back to the P&Z.

The P&Z voted 4-3 on Thursday, June 26, to deny Idaho Tower’s application for a conditional use permit to build the tower, which would accommodate facilities for six cellular telephone companies, including co-applicants Nextel Partners, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile.

"I don’t believe Idaho Tower has met the standard of visibility," said Commissioner Judy Harrison. "They’ve not tried to conceal, disguise or camouflage, or, through the placement of the tower, reduce the visual impact."

Conversely, Commissioner Larry Schoen was an outspoken advocate for the tower as it was designed, and called into question some of the judgments of his fellow commissioners. Schoen said he believed several commissioners misread the ordinance as it pertains to height and unnecessarily opened the door to a lawsuit.

However, Blaine County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Tim Graves pointed out that the ordinance contains two criteria pertaining to height, one objective and another that is open to interpretations.

Commissioners who voted to deny the application said they hung their hats on the subjective criterion:

"The (tower and associated structures) shall be designed to eliminate, to the greatest extent possible, the visibility of the proposed facility as viewed from a reference road, Wood River Trail System, or State Highway 75 as it passes through a municipality by means of concealment, camouflage, disguise and placement.

"While complete elimination of any visual impact cannot be accomplished in every case, the applicants shall make every available effort to insure that the visibility of the proposed (tower) is slight."

Commission Chairman Donald Nurge said the proposed structure did not eliminate visibility "to the greatest extent possible."

"I think there were other possibilities," he said. "This design standard is about visibility, and this facility has not been designed to be as little visible as possible."

During two public hearings held since mid-May, public sentiment overwhelmingly encouraged approval of the new Della-top tower. Most of those who commented encouraged approval because they said the new tower would be the best way to improve cellular telephone service in the Hailey area.

But Nurge pointed out that it is not the P&Z’s job to weigh the technical advantages or disadvantages of a given proposal, but to measure proposals based on their aesthetic merits using the county’s ordinance.

Even so, Idaho Tower co-owner Jennifer Campbell said the Della tower proposal struck the best balance between aesthetics and service.

"That’s why the Della solution—one tower, one time—makes sense to us," she said. "We really have exhaustively looked at alternatives. Neither from a technical vantage nor from a visual standpoint could we find a site as good as Della."

Campbell said that between five and 10 sites per carrier would be required on the valley floor to establish coverage equal to the proposed Della tower’s coverage. That would be between 30 and 60 valley floor sites.

"We really believe that viability is a visual issue," she said. "If the ordinance is too restrictive in terms of trying to shorten the height, or making it less visual and less viable, it’s actually forcing more of a visual impact on the community.

"I guess their priority is that they don’t want any new sites, and they want compromised coverage."

As for the issue of an existing red light atop a 70-foot-tall tower owned by U.S. Cellular on Della Mountain, and whether the county’s ordinance would allow the light to be relocated to the new, higher structure, the P&Z said the light relocation would not be a problem.

"The light’s not going away, whether it’s on one tower or another," said Commissioner Suzanne Orb.

Blaine County’s wireless communications ordinance requires that cellular facilities built in the county’s mountain overlay zone not exceed the height of any existing facility at the site, effectively limiting new construction to existing sites.

The mountaintop at Della Mountain is owned by the state of Idaho, which has designated the site as a communications center.

 

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