T-Mobile put in a 45-foot tall temporary cell tower at the southern edge of Fairweather Park and Nature Reserve in 2013, and Medina, WA, residents, which include Microsoft founder Bill Gates, want it to stay temporary.
Highway 520 bridge construction forced applicant Independent Towers and provider T-Mobile to temporary build in the park, but city officials now like the area and want to permanently erect an 80-foot pole and equipment bunker. Residents, however, are federally suing and protesting, claiming that a “grassy field meant for public recreation and play” is now “an industrial cell tower facility,” reported the Seattle Times.
City officials say that 520 Evergreen Point Road is a great location with the “least impact on neighbors.” It also provides $32,000 of lease money to the city—money that isn’t tax money. City Councilmember Patrick Boyd told the Seattle Times that everyone wants coverage, yet no one wants a tower. “Every dollar we get from them (cell tower providers) is money we don’t get from taxes,” he said.
Independent Towers and T-Mobile are searching for an alternate site, but have come up short due to resident complaints in each area. The City of Medina is backing out of the fight, letting a federal judge take over, which wasn’t the case in 2014 when the original tower was first proposed. Then, a city hearing examiner denied Independent Tower’s request for the special use permit for the 80-foot pole in Fairweather Park, according to the Seattle Times. Then the examiner said that the park was not the least intrusive area and that Independent Towers failed to show that an 80-foot tower was necessary.
Then, Independent Towers and T-Mobile sued the City of Medina, “arguing FCC regulations don’t allow a local jurisdiction to deny permits necessary to fill a gap in coverage. Medina and the cell companies then privately started negotiating, and that is when residents became concerned that the city would place revenue from the lease above the examiner’s original ruling.
U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik ruled, “While the City, like any other defendant, is free to settle a suit rather than prolong the litigation, it may not do so in a way that violates its own ordinances and zoning regulations.”
Now residents are asking council members who privately negotiated the first time around to recuse themselves while Independent Towers/T-Mobile and the federal court decide on the final resting place for Medina’s Tower.
Jeff Ganson, Medina City Attorney, told KIROTV.com that the case is presently stayed. “There will be no court activity until the judge places the case back on a case schedule. The current stay lasts through February 22, when the parties must report back to the judge. We do anticipate filing a motion to dismiss the case by that date and will ask the judge to hear that motion even if the stay is otherwise continued. Ultimately, if the case is not dismissed, either voluntarily by the plaintiffs, because they choose to file a new application, or on the city’s motion, then at some point, the case will need to proceed to trial. But nothing about the lawsuit prevents T-Mobile and Independent Towers from researching and applying for a permit to erect a tower somewhere else, at any time,” he said.
Reader Interactions