Cell tower planned for Sisters

Last updated 5/23/2000 at Noon

The contentious wrangle over telecommunication towers on the Central Oregon skyline will likely find its way to Sisters.

An American Tower Corporation official confirmed that the company is interested in siting a tower somewhere near Sisters along Highway 20.

"Highway 20 is one of the corridors we're trying to work on and I'm sure there will be a tower in the Sisters area to serve Highway 20 and also to serve Sisters," Don Larson, American Tower's area manager for Oregon told The Nugget.

However, Larson noted, there is no Sisters project on the front burner.

American Tower is currently going through the Deschutes County land use process to site towers in Plainview and Tumalo.

"We're going to go for those sites first," Larson said.

Those projects have roused the ire of neighbors who are concerned that 150-foot towers will degrade their views and those of motorists on the highway. Citizens have made their concerns known at public hearings.

Larson said his company knows residents don't like towers, but he said American Tower Corporation is simply doing what is allowed.

"You can get upset with us for coming in to build towers, but the bottom line is we're following the local rules as established by Deschutes County," he said.

Those rules require a conditional use permit to establish a pole, which is usually sited on leased private property. According to county planner Damian Syrnyk, towers must be sited where they can be effectively screened by topography and vegetation.

American Tower Corporation plans a 13-tower network to cover Deschutes County, Larson said.

If the network of 150-foot towers is not allowed, Larson argues, the county will likely see a proliferation of shorter towers as individual cell phone carriers put up their own towers.

"What'll happen is, each individual carrier will come in and say, 'I want a 100-footer right here,'" Larson said. "Instead of 13, you might have 60 or more."

Larson believes the cell phone tower issue has become more heated in the wake of the controversy over the tall golf driving range nets constructed at the west end of Bend.

According to Syrnyk, the golf net controversy did shape the way the county approaches height issues. The county board of commissioners decided that applications involving tall vertical structures should automatically be referred to a hearings officer.

"They want more eyes looking at it; they want people to have the opportunity to be heard," Syrnyk said.

According to Larson, company engineers locate a 1/4-mile "search ring," where a tower would meet technical specifications. Then the company seeks land to lease for a site.

Cellular phone technology is "line-of-sight" technology," American Tower real estate manager Chip Davis told The Nugget in April.

"If they're not visible from the highway, they won't work; you won't get a signal from the highway," Davis said.

Syrnyk confirmed that no applications have yet come in for a Sisters tower.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.