Cell carrier proposes tower next door to school

WASILLA — The Mat-Su Borough has filed notice that a cellular telephone carrier is looking to build a tower on borough land near Goose Bay Elementary School.

“Verizon proposes to lease a 50(-foot) by 50(-foot) area in an unused wooded area at the northeast corner of the Goose Bay Elementary School parcel to install a 130(-foot) self-support tower for placement of wireless panel antennas and microwave dishes in support of their network build-out in Alaska,” the company’s application to the borough states.

The tower would have four microwave dishes and three panel antennas with room for six more.

Verizon is a major telecommunications company in the Lower 48 that announced intentions about a year ago to enter the Alaska market. According to the application, Verizon intends to build out the Valley portion of its Alaska network in spring 2013.

The borough’s acting community development director, Marian Romano, said the usual process in these kinds of deals is to have a round of informal meetings between the company and the borough, followed up with a pre-application and then an application that will be the subject of public meetings.

The borough accepted comments on the tower lease until the start of this month and is planning a public meeting between now and when the lease arrives before the Mat-Su Borough Assembly, which should be near the end of the 30-day application process. That public meeting is unusual in these types of leases, Romano said, but it’s appropriate given the level of concern generated by the proposed tower.

The borough also is requesting a study of radiation coming off of the tower, said borough permitting services manager Alex Strawn.

“It is a study of the radiation of the surrounding area, it will include all of the different classrooms as well as the school yard,” Strawn said.

Romano said that study also is something the borough requested because of community concerns.

“Our leasing agent required that they produce one because we anticipated there would be concerns,” Romano said. “That’s going to be available for the informational or community meeting when it’s scheduled.”

At least one letter to the editor in the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman has voiced concerns about the tower, as has at least one reader. Radiation is among the concerns, as is the potential for a tower to collapse.

Towers have been a contentious issue at the borough. The assembly in November 2011 put the brakes on a move to pass a comprehensive tall structures ordinance and instead rescinded the rules it had on the books.

Towers on private land can go up without needing an OK from the borough assembly. The public notice and series of meetings in this case are a result of the tower being proposed on public land.

“We have a lot of towers going up, it’s just a question of (which ones) we’ve had a public process for,” Strawn said.

Another tower on borough land, a public safety tower for the city of Anchorage on land near the fire station on Knik-Goose Bay Road, went through a similar process.

Borough Assemblyman Jim Colver said he thinks that existing tower might provide for a compromise if Anchorage and Verizon could co-locate.

“That backs right up to that Goose Bay Elementary property,” he said of the land the public safety tower is planned for. “To me it makes sense to put them in the same cluster.”

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.