Cell phone ordinance review a hot topic at County Council's Orcas meeting

Cell phone tower ordinance review may sound like a dry-as-toast matter, but when the County Council came to Orcas Island on March 30 to discuss revision of the old cell tower ordinance, the fireworks of public policy-making were lit.

Patty Miller, speaking as the Economic Development Council’s representative to the Cell Phone Task Force, presented the work of that committee to the council in consideration of the Preliminary Draft Cell Phone Ordinance.

The 12-page “working draft” of the ordinance regarding Personal wireless service facilities (PWSFs) or “cell towers” is available online at sanjuanco.com/docs/agendas/Council/3573

Miller’s presentation included a power point display of the various options for changing the ordinance and the pros and cons of each option. Throughout her remarks, Miller emphasized that total cell coverage from any spot on the island can not be guaranteed.

Following Miller’s presentation, what amounted to a calendaring tutorial followed, as council members and the public questioned the process for reviewing, rescinding and revising the existing ordinance.

Council Chair Rich Peterson said the formation of the Task Force was prompted when he was approached by various public safety officials and members of the public, at the County Fair last August. They stated their concerns for more comprehensive cell phone accessibility, particularly in cases of  providing emergency services.

Several members of the Task Force spoke, including Charlie Richardson who described himself as “a cell phone agnostic.” Richardson said that, while serving on the task force, “I never got the sense that people were trying to cater to the carriers, and always had the sense that the task force was concerned about aesthetics and environmental issues.”

Richardson described the task force’s work as balancing the concerns of the original ordinance with advances in technological issues. He said that determining community standards and goals was the council’s job.

“We’re looking for that direction if we go forward,” Richardson said.

Eastsound businessman Erroll Speed said that community sentiments were reflected in the original ordinance (framed in 1997) and expressed concerns “regarding the composition and intent of the task force.” Speed suggested that the presence of council members on the task force were indicative of “a back-room deal.”

Pierrette Guimond  prefaced her remarks by mentioning the cell phone carriers are among the wealthiest businesses. Some of her concerns with the “proposed ordinance” were that there was a conflict having council members on the taks force “[making] recommendations to themselves,” the lack of any members from an earlier citizens advisory committee that helped formulate the current ordinance, changes in the permitting process, time spent discussing terminology “instead of really looking as to what would be best for the citizens,”  making things easier for the cell tower industry, the incomplete nature of the ordinance proposed, and the lack of protection offered by “the proposed 50-foot setback.”

Guimond also said “a conditional use permit is the only form of permitting that allows public input.”

All the presenters gave copies of their full remarks to be circulated to the Council members.

Jack Cory, San Juan Island resident and member of the Cell Phone Task Force, summed up the processing of the matter, saying “What is before us relates to the docket process.”

Cory reviewed that the Sheriff’s Department, Fire Department, EMTs and the public had asked for a review and revision of the current ordinance, Cory said. To start the process, a written request  must get on the docket so that it can go through the public process, including public hearings before the Planning Commission “If you want to look at it and get full public process, you have to put it on the docket,” Cory concluded.

Council Member Bob Myhr from Lopez Island suggested that the council itself should bear some responsibility for the confusion in the process. The County didn’t approve the formal process of setting up an advisory committee, so the task force was made up of volunteers, and in Myhr’s opinion, was “somewhat self-selected. That creates an issue; we made that mistake when we first started,” Myhr said.

County Administrator Pete Rose recommended that since the council initiated the request for revision of the ordinance, it should follow through to place the revised ordinance on the Fall 2009 docket.

The matter is scheduled for discussion before the Council in Friday Harbor on April 6 at 1 p.m.