Letter: An Alternative Approach To Cell Tower Location

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With regard to the proposal by Shared Tower Inc. to build a cell tower on Lindsay Rd. 40, I urge the council to take a step back, look at the overall development of the municipality, and ask the question “where should a cell tower go?”

I suggest designating utility corridors. This would ensure a more deliberate approach to planning than building towers and other infrastructure, willy nilly, wherever the proponents can find a willing host and/or cheap land.

Highway 6 is the de facto corridor from Wiarton to Tobermory. There is already a cell tower approx. every 5 k from Wiarton to Dyers Bay Rd. (I haven’t checked further.). It then follows that the Dyers Bay Rd. should be the designated corridor to that urban area. It is already a paved road with ditches. It is already lined with hydro poles, and it already has a cell tower at the Shouldice Rd intersection (though Shared Tower Inc. refuses to indicate this tower on its maps.) Furthermore, Shared Tower has made inferences that it will build subsequent towers if the Lindsay 40 tower is approved, so additional impact would be contained within known, designated area. There is considerable value to the public in knowing where infrastructure may be built in the future, and where it is prohibited. 

 The council could then support a corridor by approving the severance of lands for utility/infrastructure purposes, if required. Shared Tower has said it could not find alternate locations because there were not willing hosts. I believe there is land for sale along the Dyers Bay corridor, and the proponents should buy their own land, rather than off loading the liability to landowners. One of the requirements for approval of the severance and use of land for infrastructure should be a requirement to remove the infrastructure and return the land to its original condition if/when it’s no longer required. (Towers require considerable foundation support and there should be a contract or contingency fund to remove this when the tower ceases to operate. This eventually became a standard requirement in contracts for industrial wind turbines.) 

Designating utility corridors would help preserve the more remote areas of the peninsula for their ecological and aesthetic value, create certainty regarding land use for residents, and keep infrastructure contained within a known area to limit its impact. 

It’s the kind of action a council can take now that will yield benefits for the municipality and its residents, for years to come. 

Frances Anderson,

Landowner, Lindsay Twp.