Clearwire withdraws cell tower applications from multiple Portland sites.
Hello neighbors,We have some great news regarding some planned cell towers in our neighborhoods! Recently, Commissioner Amanda Fritz posted this on her blog:
“Clearwire has formally notified the Office of Cable Communications & Franchise Management (OCC/FM) of the withdrawal of already-filed wireless applications for the following sites:
- NE 37th and NE Fremont
- SE Yamhill and SE 32nd
- SE 65th and SE Reedway
- N Greeley & Holman (Rosa Parks)
- SE 70th and Flavel
You can read more on the Commissioner’s blog at: http://bit.ly/hWcKCJThis is good news for the hundreds of Portlanders who spoke out at public meetings, wrote to officials, put signs in their yards and more to make it clear that they oppose siting cell towers in-front of people’s homes and near schools. While Clearwire was ultimately hampered by business issues, the strong reaction of Portlanders definitely resulted in a number of cell towers not being built in front of peoples homes as planned. We have heard from City Attorney’s office that any provider who wants to use a site previously approved “will have to go through the whole City siting process.” Thank you all for your hard work to date!
While many neighborhoods may have dodged a bullet, the story doesn’t end here. Clearwire will likely be back soon. Both AT&T and Verizon have recently announced that they will begin building new networks in Portland this year.RespectPDX will continue to advocate for regulation that respects people’s investments in their homes and character of our communities. In November last year, RespectPDX and Southeast Uplift co-sponsored a workshop. There we presented a comparison of Portland’s ordinance with those of Glendale, CA, Hempstead, NY, and Bend’s proposed ordinance. All these cities strike a better balance in regulating wireless companies in a more responsible manner than the current Portland ordinance.
The powerful community response to date has helped make the City aware that we expect them to do everything possible to stop cell towers being built in front of our homes and our schools. Let’s continue to make ourselves heard and demand a better system so that what we have been through for the last year and a half doesn’t happen to others!
Thank you!
Mixed emotions emerge from Clearwire’s withdrawal of its application. On one hand I’m happy for the hard working folks at RespectPDX.com and my neighbors but in the end, the holes in the wireless mesh make the level of service challenging to many neighbors living in these unserved shadow areas.
One should assume that Cleasrwire or a successor will be back at some time and it is hoped that they will propose more responsible sites for their communication equipment next time.
– Roger Jones
Roger,
Thanks for taking the time to articulate your position on this issue. Personally, I share it 100%. When Oregon’s state land use laws were created, we sure didn’t know this was coming our way. This is the perfect time to contact your State Legislator and make comment. We need to update our plans to allow for the future of technology, but not at a sacrifice to our residential areas. There is a balance there…somewhere. If we all work together perhaps we will find it successfully. The proposed placement of the equipment, while I understand there weren’t many options, has the great potential to impact our home values. One site was going to have the equipment box outside the 2nd level bedroom window. I was recently in Jackson, WY where I saw one landowners solution. The pole was made to look like the surrounding trees and the equipment was vaulted beneath the ground and only small radar dishes could be noticed. While perhaps not the ideal design, I thought it was interesting to at least see some creativity on the matter. And I was grateful that landowner had it installed as I was relying on it for my work.
~Michele