County denies construction of new cell tower

The Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) for Kootenai County voted Thursday to deny a proposal to install a cell tower outside Coeur d’Alene. The proposal failed 2-1.

A proposal for a Conditional Use Permit was submitted by Weis Towers LLC and Inland Cellular. The permit would’ve granted the applicants a lease to build a 150 ft lattice tower with an equipment shelter within a 100 x 100 ft fenced area. The site was planned to be north of Interstate 90, approximately 2.8 miles east of the Alder Creek Road and Wolf Lodge Creek intersection.

The Board cited cell towers’ adverse effect on property value and increased insurance premium costs for surrounding homeowners due to higher risk of lightning induced fire hazards as reasons for denying the proposal.

Commissioner Bruce Mattare maintained that federal law could not be used as precedent to construct the tower because “the gap in cell service coverage was not conclusively established”

Mattare referenced the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which says “no local jurisdiction should be able to prevent [cellular] service from being provided to a community where none currently exists.”

“It was not established that the gap in service was continuous but rather under only certain conditions in this particular location.” Mattare said.

Chair Leslie Duncan added there was social reasoning for rejecting the case, citing that surrounding homeowners affected by the plans have expressed their disapproval.

“If the majority of citizens do not want to live with certain technology, is it still demanded that technology be provided whether they want it or not?” Duncan said.

Commissioner Bill Brooks, who voted against the motion to deny the proposal, stated the evidence against the proposal was subjective and not authoritative.

“To say my neighbor’s baby got sick is anecdotal… I haven’t seen anything other than anecdotal evidence.” Brooks said.

Several community members in attendance, some of which belonged to the local grassroots initiative Stop Smart Cities, opposed the proposal based on health concerns due to 5G technology. Despite support from community members for this concern, the BOCC denied this issue factored into their decision.

“The cellular towers may or may not have an adverse health affect, but the BOCC could not take this fact into consideration per law” Mattare said.

This is the second proposal for a cell tower installation that the BOCC has voted down within the past year. The Commissioners reversed their decision to approve a cell tower installation near Potlatch Hill Road on January 26 of last year. Then recently elected Commissioner Mattare cast the deciding vote to repeal the approval.