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Castlegar Council declines to endorse cell tower proposal

Rogers is proposing two tower locations in Castlegar
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Rogers Communications is proposing a cell tower at this property at 1958 6th Ave. Photo: Betsy Kline

Castlegar City Council has decided against giving their stamp of approval to an application from Rogers Communications for two new cell towers in the city.

Even though council will not be endorsing the application, they actually have no authority over the final decision — that is in the hands of federal regulators at Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada.

City planner Meeri Durand explained, “Because the decision making body is at the federal level, we can certainly voice expectations and advocate, but we are not in a position to make decisions.”

The application called for one tower at 1301 3rd St. in the CP Rail Yard behind the Station Museum and one tower at 1958 6th Ave. on the Shaw/Rogers property next door to Shoppers Drug Mart and Kootenay Centre Cinemas.

While Rogers did investigate adding antenna equipment to rooftops in the downtown area as an alternative to the proposed rail yard site, city staff reported that there were no buildings of adequate height to accommodate the option.

Mayor Maria McFaddin voiced serious concerns about the 6th Avenue proposal.

“As a building location in our community, they don’t take care of their space very well and there are a lot of complaints from the neighbours for that,” she said.

“Until they can actually prove that they can do that well, I have a problem giving them more infrastructure to put on their property.”

Another frustration expressed by McFaddin was the lack of options to encourage the regulators to have cell phone providers work together to share towers, rather than filling the city with an increasing number of towers.

Council asked staff to look into the telecommunications policies of other municipalities for ideas and options.

READ MORE: Kalesnikoff secures land and $6.7M grant for new Castlegar facility



Betsy Kline

About the Author: Betsy Kline

After spending several years as a freelance writer for the Castlegar News, Betsy joined the editorial staff as a reporter in March of 2015. In 2020, she moved into the editor's position.
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