Article By Ann Schrader
A cell phone tower diquised as a tree in Conifer, Colorado, along US 285 at Blackfoot Rd. (The Denver Post | Brian Brainerd)
Cellphone towers are popping up everywhere as demand grows, but neighbors often don't know about them until they are a done deal.
While Jefferson County residents laud increased coverage, they worry about potential health effects and aesthetic sensibility.
Matt and Monique Martin were alarmed this summer when a neighbor in their south Jefferson County neighborhood said he was allowing a wireless company to erect a 35-foot-high cell tower on his agriculturally zoned property. Though the tower would be disguised as a silo, the Martins are concerned about potential health hazards of low-level radiation, especially since "this industry is so young there are very few regulations and safety checks in place."
"We are the guinea pigs, and only time will tell," the Martins wrote in a letter to neighbors.
Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, cities and counties are not allowed to consider possible health effects in deciding whether to allow towers.
The property owner, who has reconsidered the silo tower, joined the Martins and other neighbors in appealing the county-approved tower permit at last week's Board of Adjustment hearing. The board ruled the county process was followed, thereby upholding the permit.
In another instance, the Bear Creek Village Homeowners Association is challenging an oversized tower on a county right-of-way in the middle of the subdivision.
"It looks like a missile silo," said Bear Creek Village HOA board member Rick Reinig. "The neighbors don't have any say in this."
Reinig said Jefferson County first ignored the 300-home community's concerns. Now the county has set a mediation Tuesday with the HOA, the county, the tower owner and residents.
Towers in disguise
In the foothills, Bear Mountain residents earlier this year won a fight against a variance for a "monopine" — a cell tower masked as a pine tree.
At 80 feet in height in a forest of 35- to 40-foot trees, the tower would have stuck out like a proverbial sore thumb, said homeowner association president Maggie Cross.
The wireless industry, aware of concerns about the aesthetics of towers with their protruding antennas, tries to blend them in using camouflage.
Many are hidden in clock towers, church steeples and water towers, or are disguised as light poles, flag poles and trees.
"We determine where to place cell towers on a case-by-case basis depending on a variety of factors, including where subscribers are located and where better coverage is needed," said Timi Aguilar, an AT&T spokeswoman.
"We routinely work cooperatively with local communities to minimize the aesthetic impact of cell tower placement," Aguilar said.
There can be mutual benefits. A wireless company, desperate for coverage along Colorado 93 between Golden and Boulder, built a pavilion to house a cell repeater near Jefferson County Public Schools' north athletic complex at West 64th Avenue.
The pavilion is used by bicyclists, picnickers and hikers while unobtrusively expanding cell coverage.
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