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Standards are key in cell tower planning
By Jim Cornelius

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Sisters city councilors got a good look at the wireless future at a workshop on Wednesday, April 4.

It's a future that will require good planning if Sisters wants to balance the values of the community with the needs of a growing industry, according to consultant Ted Krienes.

"Standards are key," Krienes told the councilors repeatedly in the three-hour workshop.

According to Krienes, a partner in a Tiburon, California consulting firm specializing in wireless technology, cities can require that cell facilities be disguised and that potentially large amounts of lease money could go to the city.

The city council paid Krienes and Krienes $2,000 to conduct the workshop and they were pleased with what they got for their money.

"I learned a lot," said Mayor Steve Wilson. "It was extremely valuable from a knowledge standpoint."

Krienes emphasized that cities have a great deal of control over what wireless facilities can be placed in their jurisdiction -- as long as they have strong ordinances and base decisions on solid findings of fact.

The consultant noted that many people believe that the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 forces cities to accept cell towers.

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"Wrong, wrong and again wrong," Krienes said. "You have your full zoning authority protected by this act."

He also said that towers are not the only means of siting wireless facilities.

They can be placed on street poles, street lights, on the tops of buildings.

Cell companies often argue that they need a tall tower or pole located in a particular spot, in order to get coverage in a given area. They argue that there can be one tall tower or many shorter ones.

That is a myth, according to Krienes. Towers can be shorter and even placed amid trees and still get good coverage.

And, Krienes, insisted, coverage isn't the most important element of cell phone technology.

Even a tall tower that covers a huge area offers limited capacity, the consultant explained.

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As more users take up "space" in a cell, capacity drops. Inevitably more facilities are needed -- not for coverage, but to handle the volume of use.

The result could be a skyline prickling with towers -- or an area filled with wireless transmission devices disguised and hidden all around.

City planner Neil Thompson sees real possibilities for making 21st Century technology fit into Sisters' 19th Century ambiance.

"There are design elements that were common to the period (turn-of-the-century West) that could disguise a cell facility," Thompson said.

For example, Thompson said, a cell facility could be put on top of a building in the guise of an old-fashioned water tower.

Thompson joked that he'd like to see a company build a cell tower that mimics the old, wooden fire watch tower that stood in Sisters in the early days (there's a photo at city hall).

Thompson recommended that the city council and planning commission develop a wireless technology plan as an element of the city's comprehensive plan.

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Wilson emphasized that Sisters is not trying to turn away the wireless industry. Instead, the city hopes to accommodate wireless technology while retaining its Old West flavor.

"If you're going to play in our neighborhood, you're going to play the way we play and treat each other with respect," Wilson said.

In an effort to treat a current applicant respectfully, the city will probably allow Spectrasite to put a device on the pole behind city hall (which already hosts a temporary Voice Stream facility) until its application for a tower is resolved.

The company sought a 150-foot tower to be erected at the south end of Sisters.

The city planning commission approved a tower of unspecified height to be located in the public facility zone near the city's sewer treatment facility.

However, that zone has a 35-foot height restriction for any structure.

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The unresolved height issue has left the application in limbo.

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