Last week, Verizon Wireless got the green light from Eagle County Commissioners to build an 85-foot monopine – with one caveat, reported Vail Daily. The approval includes a condition that prohibits construction activities at the site between December 1 and April 15, to minimize impact to wintering wildlife in the area.
In their approval of the application, along with the wintering wildlife restriction, commissioners also placed a condition on the permit requiring Verizon to provide documentation to the Federal Aviation Administration regarding height restrictions and/or necessary lighting. Additionally, the county stipulated that the tower construction must comply with the “recommended best practices for communication tower design, siting, construction, operation maintenance and decommissions from the Division of Migratory Bird Management for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,” reported Vail Daily.
According to Meagan Dorsch, a spokesperson for Verizon, the new tower will improve both coverage and capacity in the area. “People are using a whole lot more data these days,” Dorsch said. She noted the association that represents all wireless carriers in the county estimates 10 trillion megabytes of data will be used this year. That’s equivalent to downloading 15 million Netflix movies every day.
As a next step, Verizon will need county, state, and federal approval before it can proceed with construction. Once construction begins, it should take 90 days to complete, according to Dorsch.
November 28, 2017
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