Neighbors show concern for proposed radio/cell tower

Proposal would allow for 150-foot-tall structure north of Sequim

By Chris McDaniel • January 19, 2016 7:02 pm
An artist’s rendering shows what a proposed 150-foot radio/cell tower would look like from the neighborhood off of Brigadoon Boulevard.
An artist’s rendering shows what a proposed 150-foot radio/cell tower would look like from the neighborhood off of Brigadoon Boulevard.

Plans to build a 150-foot-tall radio and cellphone tower north of Sequim near the Dungeness Heights Subdivision has drawn ire from neighboring residents.

“I cannot believe there is not an alternative site within this whole community than in this residential neighborhood,” said Diane Hood, 66, a former real estate agent who lives near the proposed tower site.

Hood said she and a group of other residents opposed to the project had planned to attend a public hearing in December to speak out against the cell tower. That meeting was postponed, at the request of Gunnerson Consulting — the group representing parties involved in the project — to Wednesday, Jan. 27.

The radio/cell tower, if approved, would house FM and cellular antennas and would be disguised as a giant pine tree, according to plans submitted to the Clallam County Department of Community Development.

The plans call for the tower to be built at 686 Brigadoon Blvd. on property owned by Shirley Tjemsland.

The radio/cell tower and accompanying infrastructure have been designed by Ken Hays’ architectural firm at the behest of Radio Pacific, owned by Brown M. Maloney, and the Tjemsland family, Maloney said in December.

Radio Pacific owns and operates radio stations KONP AM-FM and KSTI-FM, both of Port Angeles. The company is considering the launch of a third station in Sequim, Maloney said.

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.

That area is leased by Radio Pacific from the Tjemsland family, Maloney said.

Hood said she is concerned placement of the cell tower will drive down property values and be a blight on the landscape.

“The Appraisal Journal states that it will reduce your property value around 21 percent after a cell tower is built in the neighborhood,” she said. “Nobody wants to live near one.”

Hood said she and her neighbors also are concerned about potential health issues caused by close proximity to the radio waves, she said.

And, Hood said, there is no need to construct the tower because cellphone signals in the area already are adequate and the radio antennas could be placed on existing towers elsewhere.

The Clallam County hearing examiner on Aug. 26, 2015, approved plans for a 100-foot-tall radio tower to be constructed at the same location. It would service three antennas used to broadcast Radio Pacific’s radio stations.

 

After the August approval,

T-Mobile signed an agreement with the Tjemsland family and Radio Pacific to co-locate cellular phone equipment at the site, Maloney said.

 

For the most part, new cell antennas “have to locate on existing towers,” Maloney said. “As soon as we got the OK for the tower, then the next thing you know, we had someone interesting in using it as a cell tower.”

 

But that requires a larger 150-

foot-tall tower to accommodate the FM antennas for Radio Pacific and three additional cellphone antennas, he said.

 

“If it is used for cellphones, then it has to be taller,” Maloney said.

The three FM antennas would be about 20 feet in length and located 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 new plan is contingent upon the approval of new permits and a separate review process.

If the county approves the new plan, the facility would include the tower and antennas, 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 top 100 feet of the tower would be covered in artificial branches and foliage to camouflage the structure.

No aviation lighting is proposed.


Chris McDaniel is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.