Council to consider cell tower proposal for 4th time

It’s getting to feel like déjà vu.

For the fourth consecutive regular meeting, the Maricopa City Council will consider tonight a request from Scottsdale-based Shaw and Associates on behalf of Verizon Wireless for a conditional use permit to build a cell tower near the northeast corner of the Cobblestone Farms subdivision.

Cobblestone residents living near the proposed site have complained a tower would be unsightly, obstruct mountain views, cause a potential health hazard from the radio waves and create a nuisance from vehicles accessing the site. Residents were also unhappy they received little notification from Verizon on its plans to build the tower.

Rick Shaw of Shaw and Associates attended the Aug. 16 council meeting with a new proposal from Verizon to reduce the height of the tower from 65 feet to 54 feet and disguise it as a palm tree with two 40-foot real palm trees in front of it to obscure the view of the fake tree.

Shaw stressed that to maintain good phone and Internet service, Verizon would eventually have to expand its towers in Maricopa from two to five. Responding to concerns that radio waves from cell phones cause brain cancer, Shaw said building new towers would actually decrease waves emitted from individual phones, because the phones wouldn’t have to work as hard to send and receive signals from a closer tower.

A decision on the tower has been tabled at the past three council meetings, and Councilmember Julia Gusse in a recent editorial criticized fellow council members for dragging out issues that, in her opinion, should be taken care of quickly.

Gusse said community members both for and against the tower have contacted her, but she will not vote on the tower because of the potential conflict of interest with her husband, two brothers and family friends working for Verizon Wireless.

“I can say honestly that I share my frustrations with you the citizen,” she wrote in her column. “I know one can only watch that snail crawl for so long before patience is lost.”

Council also will discuss and possibly take action on a second request by Shaw and Associates for approval of a Verizon Wireless tower on city-owned property in Rancho Paloma about one half mile east of John Wayne Parkway and a quarter mile south of Bowlin Road.