Verizon trims plan for LCHS cell tower

A cell phone tower Verizon Wireless hopes to build on the Lake City High School property in Coeur d’Alene would take the form of a flagpole and stand about 100 feet tall, 15 feet shorter than what was originally planned, in an attempt to address citizen concerns about the tower’s visibility.

The original proposal was to be considered by the Coeur d’Alene Planning Commission at its meeting next week, but the Coeur d’Alene School District rescinded the proposal after hearing complaints from citizens, district business manager Steve Briggs said.

“We’re not interested in being anything but a good neighbor,” Briggs said. “The decision is to sort of evaluate and see if we can come back with, I don’t want to say a better proposal, but something that has less of a lightning rod to it. We’re not reinventing the wheel here.”

A 100-foot tower would trump the height limit for the area by about 57 feet, so Verizon would need to obtain a height variance from the city planning and zoning commission and a special-use permit for the residential area.

The new proposal would place the tower closer to the school and on the east end of the football field, about 150 yards from the site first proposed, Verizon spokeswoman Georgia Taylor said. Verizon would pay the school district about $1,000 a month for the right to operate the cell tower on school grounds.

Taylor said the proposal should be ready in time for the June 12 Planning Commission meeting. The tower would improve cell service for Verizon customers in the area, she said.

Cell towers are sometimes controversial because of their appearance and because of concerns about the health effects on those living nearby.

“It’s sort of an interesting dynamic,” Taylor said. “People’s expectation now is that their cell phone is going to work in their neighborhoods and their homes. … In order to do that, we have to place towers in neighborhoods and cities where it’s populated.”

While some complaints to the district have raised health concerns, opponents pointed to the appearance of the tower “more than anything else,” Briggs said.

Verizon also considered putting the tower across the street at the northwest corner of Hanley and Ramsey avenues, but the property owner, Greenstone Corp., did not respond, according to the request for a special-use permit. Verizon said it prefers the school site because it would blend in better with the tall lights of the sports fields and stadium.

The shortened tower height and flagpole look should address any other concerns about its visibility, Taylor said.

She said Verizon’s towers meet standards set by the Federal Communication Commission and that anyone concerned about the health effects should check the FCC’s Web site for details about the standards.

Coeur d’Alene resident Sue Anderson said in a letter to the newspaper that the FCC’s standards don’t address the many concerns scientists and researchers have about cell phone and cell tower radiation. Anderson wrote that about 3,000 students at three schools would be at risk if the tower were placed at Lake City, referring to the Lake City student body and the students at nearby Woodland Middle and Skyway Elementary schools.

Anderson referenced the board overseeing Los Angeles schools, which banned cell towers from school property in 2000, citing the “considerable debate and uncertainty” among scientists about the health effects on people, particularly children.

Briggs said the proposal has been in the works for more than a year but complaints didn’t start coming in until it landed on the Planning Commission’s agenda.