PORT ANGELES — Neighbors of a proposed 150-foot-tall cellphone and radio tower site north of Sequim say they will appeal the decision by Clallam County to issue a conditional use permit and zone variance for the project.
The tower, which would be disguised as a fir tree, is proposed for property owned by Shirley Tjemsland in the Dungeness Heights subdivision at 686 Brigadoon Blvd.
William Payne, Clallam County hearing examiner, approved the permit and zone variance Thursday.
“We are actually very well-funded, and there is an appeal that is going to happen, and that appeal will lead to another appeal,” Dr. William Aurich, a spokesman for the neighbors in opposition to the project, said Saturday.
Appeals of hearing examiner decisions are made to Superior Court.
Although the use permit and zone variance have been granted, a building permit issued by the Clallam County Department of Community Development’s Building Division is required before the tower can be erected, according to the decision issued by Payne.
“The two approvals we just got [don’t] actually have anything to do with a building permit, so we have to finish documenting the design and prepare drawings and submit them,” Ken Hays, a Sequim-based architect whose firm designed the radio/cell tower and accompanying infrastructure involved in the project, said Friday.
Hays’ firm designed the tower and accompanying infrastructure for Radio Pacific — owned by Brown Maloney — and the Tjemsland family.
Radio Pacific owns and operates radio stations KONP AM-FM and KSTI-FM, both of Port Angeles.
North of U.S. Highway 101, “towers are only allowed up to 100 feet, unless you get a variance, and they have their own specific variance criteria for that,” Hays said.
He said he does not expect any construction to begin until the summer or autumn months pending the successful application of a building permit and navigation of the appeals process.
“I would guess maybe third quarter 2016,” he said.
Mike Erwin, who is building a new home at 683 Brigadoon, said during a Jan. 27 public hearing attended by about 75 people at the Clallam County Courthouse that the tower would be a “blight” and an “eyesore.”
Diane Hood, a former real estate agent who lives near the proposed tower site, is concerned the tower would drive down property values by as much as 21 percent.
Hood said she and her neighbors also are concerned about potential health issues caused by close proximity to the radio waves.
Aurich, a doctor of internal medicine, said medical studies have shown radiation emitted by cell towers can lead to medical problems.
“There is so much evidence now that these towers should be a minimum of 1,000 feet away from residential structures just because people live there all the time,” Aurich said.
“These people seem to think it is OK to stick us — at least 15 houses or so — [under] the shadow of this within 200 to 300 feet. It is just not fair.”
Aurich said those in opposition to the tower will not give up quietly.
T-Mobile and Radio Pacific “think they are going to win this because they don’t think we have the moxie to stick it out and fight it, but we actually do,” Aurich said.
He vowed, that through legal action, “this is going to be the most expensive radio tower that Radio Pacific will ever dream of putting in place.”
If the tower is erected, the neighbors “will be there with monitoring equipment and a website to show everybody in the community how much radiation they are kicking out every day,” Aurich said.
“We are not impotent by any means, [and] we are not going to tolerate it.”
Proposed infrastructure
The tower would be located inside a fenced, 2,500-square-foot area accessible by a 12-foot-wide gravel road connected to Brigadoon Boulevard.
Three FM antennas about 20 feet in length would be installed at the top of the tower, according to the plans.
T-Mobile would install an antenna array at 129 feet above ground level.
Other cellular providers could locate antennas at 109 feet and 119 feet above the ground.
The top 100 feet of the tower would be covered in artificial branches and foliage to camouflage the structure.
The facility also would include electrical and telephone utilities, a 100-square-foot electronic storage shed to house Radio Pacific’s broadcast equipment, two equipment cabinets for T-Mobile, a self-containing backup diesel generator and two structures that protect the cables running from the storage shed to the tower.
The tower would provide crucial infrastructure “vital to the quality of the life of its citizens,” Eric Quinn, a Pierce County attorney representing Gunnerson Consulting & Communications Site Services, has said.
Gunnerson Consulting represents the parties involved in the project.
Brian Gunnerson, the company’s chief executive officer, has said the tower would aid public safety agencies by providing a location to mount radio equipment that would allow better signal strength for police and fire personnel in the area.
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Reporter Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56650, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
