DWC member and Valley resident Jenny Vierling has brought this issue to our attention. Wednesday, 4/13 @ 6 pm is your opportunity to give feedback to the Planning Commission. -Spencer
The Planning Commission will consider the proposed cell tower at a public hearing at 6 p.m., Thursday, April 13 in the Board Room of the County Administration Building, 1101 E. 2nd Ave. in Durango.
*The tower is 40 feet taller than anything in the Valley. It is sited where there is nothing to camouflage the height. They are only asked to paint it a non-glaring gray so it will stick out like a sore thumb.
*It sets a precedent for future towers in the Valley. AT&T will have the highest point on the tower, and there is no data to show that other carriers by co-locating on the tower will be able to achieve the same coverage. As a result, they too will ask for their own towers
*Better sites: there are other commercial sites and the valley walls which would “hide” the tower much better. These were not pursued.
*Advances in technology: LTE Direct and D2D technologies are on the horizon. The whole purpose behind the cell tower is to address the increases in data usage. The new technologies actually offload the data from towers rendering the reason behind the cell tower obsolete.
-Jenny Vierling
