More on the cell phone tower

The company in question is DigiTel, and the tower would be 180 feet tall, with blinking red lights to ward off airplanes. Alaska DigiTel has put in about a dozen towers in the Fairbanks area, and while this makes communication easier, a lot of neighborhoods are getting pretty pissed off at the company.

Aside from the negative impact on property values and aesthetics, the residents of the Parks Ridge Road area are concerned about precedent: if this tower can go in here, then one can go in on any ridgeline residential neighborhood. One very valid question the residents have is that if even an area zoned residential (supposedly this zoning is for the express purpose of securing an area from commercial or industrial purposes) can be used for this, then what's the point of zoning it residential? It renders the zoning meaningless.

Leon Lynch has written an excellent letter to the editor of the News-Miner on this.

A planning meeting on this tower will be held at the borough December 9. Comments can be sent directly to the planning commission (reference CU2009-003 - include your name and address).

The News-Miner has had several articles and opinion pieces on cell phone towers recently:

Birch Hill cellphone tower needs a new final resting place--outside cemetery, by Dermot Cole, August 25

Unseen hazards tower above eyesore, Community Perspective by Douglas Yates, September 8

Cemetery's future remains uncertain, by Rebecca George, September 11

Cell phone towers sprouting up in Fairbanks, by Chris Eschelman and Rebecca George, September 14

City of Fairbanks unsure of whose property cell phone tower is on, by Rebecca George, September 14

Local officials ponder cell phone tower zoning issues, staff report, September 29

City of Fairbanks may benefit financially from cell tower, DigiTel, by Rebecca George, October 16

Mark Musitano, 452-5542, is the contact person for the Parks Ridge neighborhood group.