News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
A hearing at Sisters City Hall on Thursday, January 25, could clear away a hurdle in the path of wireless telecommunication companies who want to put up towers in Sisters.
The city council will decide whether to approve an amendment to an exception to statewide land use planning goals to allow structures other than a sewer treatment plant on Section 9 at the south end of town. The city wants the option of siting cell towers there instead of downtown and also hopes to move city maintenance shops to the area.
If the city approves the amendment, the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners are expected to sign a new development agreement on the property which would allow cell towers.
That does not necessarily mean towers will be sited there, however. Spectracite, a company working on behalf of Sprint, won approval last November from the Sisters Urban Area Planning Commission to put a tower of undetermined height on Section 9. The city must sign a lease in order for a tower to be placed.
The City of Sisters has decided to seek the advice of a consulting firm specializing in wireless telecommunications before deciding whether to sign a lease for a tower.
City planner Neil Thompson said that he has been operating under the belief that the city must, by law, accommodate cell phone towers. Thompson thinks that the Section 9 site is the best location for the towers.
"I still think that if you've got to have cell towers --Êa big 'if' -- that's the place to have them," Thompson said.
The "big if" comes in the wake of Thompson's preliminary discussions with the consulting firm of Krienes and Krienes out of Tiburon, California. According to Thompson, a representative of that firm indicated that the city "should not assume you have to have towers."
If the city approves the land use exception amendment, it will likely render moot an appeal by Spectracite of one of the planning commission's conditions of approval. The commission stipulated that a new development agreement must be signed before approval could be granted. Spectracite is challenging the city's authority to impose that condition.
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.
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