Rural Group Not Receptive To Plan For 5 Radio Towers

Residents who fear electromagnetic waves if five radio towers are moved from the Moran Prairie to farmland 10 miles south of Spokane are making political and legal waves.

A citizens group called Paradise Alliance will ask Spokane County commissioners tonight to rescind a building permit because of environmental concerns.

A separate lawsuit challenging the county’s definition of “tower” is pending in Spokane County Superior Court.

Citadel Broadcasting Co., which owns KGA-FM and KJRB-AM, wants to move five 400-foot towers to an 80-acre site at U.S. Highway 195 and Stutler Road.

The move would improve listeners’ reception in the Spokane Valley and Coeur d’Alene, Citadel chief engineer Bill Gott has said.

Citadel is being pressured to move its towers somewhere. Residents in several southeast Spokane neighborhoods have complained about interference on telephones and televisions. Parents of Mullan Road Elementary School students fear electromagnetic waves could cause cancer.

Rural residents are not any more receptive.

“Our main concern is that there’s going to be these huge towers 415 feet high,” said Jane Roberts, who lives within a mile of the proposed site. “Most people have moved away from the city lights. I enjoy watching the stars at night.”

Besides aesthetics, residents fear interference with their appliances and a lower-quality country life.

The county building department granted a building permit May 5, saying the general agriculture zoning permits towers. After consultation with state wildlife and environmental regulators, county officials also said the environmental impact would be negligible.

Residents are appealing the environmental decision, arguing Citadel clearcut the property without state logging permits and harmed wetlands.

Commissioners likely won’t decide to uphold or overturn the building permit until next month. If Citadel keeps the permit, then residents’ only recourse would be in court.

Citadel’s Gott could not be reached for comment Monday.

Tom Davis, the county’s code compliance coordinator, said the firm submitted an analysis by a soil scientist who found the wetlands would be protected and monitored.

In other action, county commissioners will decide the fate of a developer’s plan to put 20 residential lots on 11 acres east of Carnahan Road and south of 12th Avenue in the Valley. The subdivision would be called Kahuna Hills Fourth Addition.

, DataTimes