Borough puts brakes on tower approvals

PALMER — Anyone wanting to erect a tower in the Mat-Su Valley will now have to make good and sure they’ve talked to neighbors.

The Mat-Su Borough Assembly has passed an ordinance starkly delineating the public process a company must conduct before putting up a tower. Public notice has to be given and at least one public meeting held. The ordinance also addresses who is to be notified and how soon in the process a meeting must take place.

Eileen Probasco, the Borough’s planning chief, said the ordinance is one piece of a larger raft of legislation the department is working on to create an over-arching plan for towers and tall structures.

Jim Faiks came to the meeting armed with an electronically enhanced image of property near one of the Big Lake-area lakes. His son, he said, had superimposed a tower where Faiks’ neighbor had planned to build one. He also said neighbors had no idea the tower was coming until material was already on the property and the structure was ready to go up.

“I strongly support this ordinance,” Faiks said. “It really clarifies the intent of the public notice.”

Borough Mayor Curt Menard echoed Faiks’ sentiments. “Some of this stuff comes too fast,” Menard said.

Though Faiks was one of a half-dozen audience members who testified in favor of the ordinance, not all were so enthused.

“I support changes in the tower or tall structure regulations,” Rod Ewing said. “But not all of these changes.”

He pointed to places where the code was vague or overly strict. A member of the working group that drafted the ordinance, Ewing urged the assembly to give that working group more time to smooth out the rough parts.

“I really feel that the first applicant out of the gate with this will have substantial problems,” Ewing said.

Frank Knapp, who works putting up towers and is another member of that working group, said it’s unreasonable to put requirements that could delay the tower-building process as much as a year on an industry like the cellular communications industry, where technology changes significantly every two years.

The ordinance eventually passed with one dissenting vote cast by Assemblyman Rob Wells.

“I’ve heard enough conflicting testimony,” Wells said. Noting that the ordinance passed the Borough’s planning commission with great difficulty, he added, “I’d rather send it back to the planning commission.”

Assemblywoman Cindy Bettine said the ordinance isn’t exactly set in stone.

“There’s no reason why this can’t be amended later,” Bettine said. “There is nothing awful in it. It’s just public notice.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiers-man.com or 352-2270.