County approves planned 100-foot cell tower within mobile home park
Safety concerns over structure arise at board meeting
The Yuma County Board of Supervisors approved a special-use permit Wednesday for a 100-foot cell tower in the corner of a mobile home park, with debate focusing on safety concerns for those living below the tower and the necessity for a white strobe light required at the top.
The owners of the Sierra Pacific Mobile Home Park, at the southeast corner of Highway 95 and Avenue 5E, want to set aside the southeast corner of the 35acre property for the tower, which will be built by Verizon and have room for one or two more carriers to colocate their equipment. It will be 50 to 60 feet away from the nearest residence.
The permit was approved 4-1, with District 5 Supervisor Lynne Pancrazi voting no. She noted during the hearing, “This is in a residential neighborhood, and I have concerns about the possibility of one of our 100year storms hitting it, causing it to land on, and cause property damage and loss of life.”
Declan Murphy of Coal Creek Consulting, representing owners Parkway Plaza LLC AZ, said that would be extremely unlikely to happen, and he’d never seen a cell tower collapse in his 17 years in the U.S. mobile phone market.
He added this tower will be built to national standards, which became stricter two years ago, and account for circumstances not likely to occur in Yuma, such as ice, and earthquakes, which are a bigger threat here.
The tower will be “overengineered,” with more concrete and heavier steel than necessary, so it will be sturdy enough to hold the implements Verizon and the other carriers would
be using now to provide service, plus whatever else comes down the road as technology advances.
“The equipment is getting larger on these towers, in the last few years with 4G and now 5G coming along. We used to just put antennas on top but now we’re putting 60-pound radios. So now the industry knows, it’s very expensive to go back and have to redo a foundation,” he said.
He added there would be an 8-foot fence around the site of the tower and no pegs that would be low enough for any children or other unauthorized people to climb it..
Board Chairman and District 4 Supervisor Tony Reyes said there’s always a remote possibility that any tower could come down, but he is more concerned about aesthetics. “I think they can withstand almost anything, but they’re ugly.”
According to Wireless Estimator, a wireless service industry website, a cell tower collapsed in West Virginia in 2014, killing two workers and one volunteer firefighter. Last February, a section of a monopole tower under construction in upstate New York fell on and seriously injured one worker.
County Planning Director Maggie Castro said the county notified residents of the mobile home park about the hearings related to the case, and did not get any feedback from them.
District 2 Supervisor Russell McCloud asked about a county requirement that there be a white strobe light attached to the top of the tower visible during daytime, along with the red signal light that can be seen at night.
He said the strobe light would be a nuisance to residents of the park and are not required by any authority other than Yuma County. “It’s an additional expense, it’s an eyesore to the surrounding neighborhood, and that’s why I’m asking, where does it come from?” he asked.
Castro said the requirement was adopted more than a decade ago and applied to all towers that required a zoning variance or a special-use permit, and arose of comments that started at the Board of Adjustments meetings.
“Usually it was based on suggestions by crop dusters that would make it more visible during the day, and at night, with the red and white strobe light. So it was based on comments from both the Board of Adjustment members, and the general public.”
Murphy said other jurisdictions don’t require a red or white light on towers under 200 feet, but Verizon had agreed to having both on this tower. The board decided to remove the requirement for the white light in this case, but to keep the red light for visibility at night.
The meeting was held on Wednesday, rather than the usual Monday, because of Labor Day. In other action, the board:
• Approved a county improvement district for the Tacna Water system, after hearing any objections or complaints, and accepting a petition from the district to incur expenses to upgrade the current water infrastructure.
• Directed county staff to put together a request for proposals to contractors for poll books and possibly tabulation equipment. More than $753,000 has been set aside for the purchases in this year’s Capital Improvement Plan.
• Approved corrections recommended by the county assessor’s office on property tax rates and assessments adopted last week for all county jurisdictions, including tax rates for 28 districts, assessed valuation for two special districts and a levy correction for the Yuma County Library Fund.
The board also held a hearing to receive public comment on authorizing the county to take on up to $2.9 million in debt to make upgrades at several buildings, backed with $27.9 million in sales tax revenue over 15 years. No members of the public commented.
Mark Reader, managing director for investment consulting firm Stiffel, said a request for proposals to financial institutions, looking for a single buyer for the bonds, will go out Sept. 14. The board is scheduled to vote on a resolution approving the bond sale at its Oct. 2 meeting.
He said the county’s annual payments for the 10year bonds are expected to be $280,000 or less, lower than the $315,000 used for purposes of the public hearing, because interest rates are still low and the market is good for “safe” investments because of the global insecurity being created by the North Korean nuclear weapons tests.
Also at the meeting, the board endorsed proclamations of September as “Library Card Sign-Up Month,” “National Preparedness Month in Yuma County,” “Hispanic Heritage Month in Yuma County” and “Cocopah Month,” the last recognizing the 100th anniversary of the Cocopah Indian Tribe’s recognition as a sovereign tribe by the federal government.