The Town of Olds’ Municipal Planning Commission has asked a developer wanting to build a 60-metre telecommunications tower to cut its height by half.
The Town of Olds’ Municipal Planning Commission has asked a developer wanting to build a 60-metre telecommunications tower to cut its height by half.
Calgary-based Cavalier Land filed a development permit application on May 30 to build the tower for Rogers Communications on a property at 6102 46 St. (Highway 27) between the highway’s intersections with Imperial Way and 65 Avenue.
At the commission’s Aug. 15 meeting, town staff outlined their concerns about the proposed tower, along with a number of objections from members of the community, and the commission ended up deferring the matter to a special meeting tentatively scheduled for Aug. 29 to give the developer time to explore whether a 30-metre tower would meet Rogers’ cellphone coverage needs in the community.
Town staff are concerned about how close the site of the proposed tower is to the Olds Hospital and Care Centre and how the tower could affect air ambulance traffic.
"The site is about 787 metres from the hospital helipad and we believe that as the town continues to grow, the hospital will continue to grow, the flights in and out of the hospital will grow as the hospital services expand," Werner Fischer, the town’s planning manager, told the commission.
He added the risks the proposed 60-metre tower poses to helicopters aren’t as severe during the day, but increase at night or in poor weather.
A town staff report on the proposal presented to the commission stated Transport Canada has approved the project, Nav Canada, a private corporation that owns and operates Canada's civil air navigation system, does not object to the tower concept and Stars Aviation Canada Inc., which operates medical assist helicopters, stated it sees no risk to helicopter operations in and out of the hospital.
The town also received nine letters and emails, as well as phone calls, from residents in the area where the tower would be built outlining concerns and objections to the project.
These concerns included that the proposal puts the tower too close to the hospital and residential areas and the project could have negative affects on health and property values.
On Aug. 7, the developers informed the town that Rogers Communications agreed to reduce the height of the tower by 15 metres and change the design from a lattice tower to a slimmer monopole structure.
Fischer told the commission that while staff feel the proposed 45-metre tower "is less obtrusive and more attractive than a 60-metre tower," staff are still "reluctant to support" the proposal due to the site.
"We’re not fully convinced this is the best location in the long term."
At the commission meeting, David Zacher, Cavalier Land’s telecommunications manager, said his company would have to look into whether or not a 30-metre tower would meet coverage needs for the town.
"So we can’t even comment on what the impact of dropping to 30 metres is."
An alternative proposal is to build an even higher tower at the site of the town’s Wastewater Treatment Plant off of 70 Avenue.
But Zacher said having the tower at that site would mean lower bandwidth capacity for cellphone users in the "middle of town."
"If we were to place a tower out at the treatment plant, again without getting too technical, we’re only getting one sector of coverage," he said. "If we’re in town, we get three sectors of coverage."
He added the choice is between one tower covering three directions instead of three towers each covering one direction.
Members of the commission such as Coun. Arvin Bull, Ken Hunt and Dave Harris brought up questions about the height of other telecommunications towers in Olds and ultimately called for the matter to be deferred to the commission’s September meeting.
"We would also be equipped at the time, and direct the company, essentially, to give us an assessment of the 30-metre tower and the effectiveness of the possibility of coverage of a tower 30 metres high," Hunt said.
Zacher said a deferral to the September meeting would mean construction on the project would be delayed until 2014.
Mayor Judy Dahl, who serves as the commission’s chair, said such a delay is unfair to the developer.
"I certainly would not defer this back, just for discussion, when everything is in front of us and everything has been pretty well detailed," she said, adding any deferral motion would need a provision that the commission would call a "special meeting" to "approve" the application once the developer can come up with information about the effectiveness of a 30-metre tower.
She also suggested approving the amended 45-metre proposal "with the option of 30 (metres) if that’s possible."
"I was very comfortable with the revised submission of 45 (metres)," Dahl said. "It gave me the reassurance that the applicant is working with the town as we have asked."
Larry Wright, the town’s operational services director, said a special meeting could be arranged "in a timely manner" and the target date for that meeting is Aug. 29.
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