Speak up about proposed cell tower in La Cienega
There are times when in a small community struggling to maintain its rural way of living has something take place that makes residents wonder how it could have happened.
It was early February when the La Cienega Valley Association learned that the application and approval process had been completed for a 65-foot-tall cell tower to be located on State Land Office property in the middle of our community.
The La Cienega Valley Association has responded to several development proposals in our over-25-year history. We were stunned to be unaware of the application and approval process for the cell tower project. Our association contacted Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard (our former state representative). She was surprised that the association had not been notified.
We discovered that State Land Office staff and the project manager from the contractor, Gravity PAD, had conducted a “public” Zoom meeting in June. Neither the valley association nor El Rancho de las Golondrinas, the living history museum located less than a half-mile from the site, were aware of the meeting.
Our association invited Garcia Richard and the Gravity Pad project manager, Kevin Winner, to our March 1 Zoom board meeting to discuss the cell tower application and approval process. The meeting also included residents, State Land Office staff who oversaw the process and El Rancho de las Golondrinas representatives who spoke passionately and expertly on their opposition to having a 65-foot tower in the museum’s viewshed.
The board meeting did not resolve concerns about the cell tower approval process and its failure to solicit community input. There had been no community notice, and the process neglected to engage or involve the museum. In response, our association and El Rancho de las Golondrinas representatives began researching the process.
We identified issues with the cell tower approval process: As indicated in the National Historic Preservation Act and by Federal Communications Commission regulation, public notification for a cell tower installation requires notice to be posted in a local newspaper and to include a response time for comments. We have found no evidence this was done.
Our research also discovered issues with incorrect information contained in the project’s Cultural Resources Report. But our overriding concern is the failure to involve our community and El Rancho de las Golondrinas in the application/approval process.
The failure to notify/involve El Rancho de las Golondrinas stands out. The historic 400-acre museum, once a paraje — a resting stop on El Camino Real, is a step back into Colonial Spanish history. How anyone conducting a cultural assessment could miss the museum is simply unbelievable. The 65-foot cell tower would have a dramatic negative effect on the its viewshed.
On March 19, a valley association board member discovered a “legal notice” in the Santa Fe
New Mexican that contained the following instructions for comment for the cell tower, months after the contract for the project had been signed.
“Public comments regarding potential effects from this site on historic properties may be submitted within 30 days from the date (3/19/21) of this publication to: Hammerstone Environmental attn: Richard Burleson at the following email address, richardburleson70@yahoo.com.”
The La Cienega Valley Association encourages individuals and organizations who share our concern about the cell tower’s impact to El Rancho de las Golondrinas and our historic community to please email Burleson by April 19. We respectfully ask that the State Land Office decision be reconsidered and the cell tower relocated.