The City of Castlegar has given its blessing to the construction of a Freedom Mobile cell tower near the Highway 3/22 interchange, but the company is still refining proposals for two other towers within city limits.
Council granted its “concurrence” to the construction of a tower at 1919 Columbia Ave., consisting of a 40-meter pole and accessory equipment. But they heard ultimately, it’s not their call.
“Our actual ability to say no doesn’t really exist,” city manager Chris Barlow said. “It’s just working with, in this case Freedom Mobile, to achieve as many objectives as possible [for] the municipality.
“The municipality has some latitude to adjust some of the location. Maybe the visibility or the colour of the tower. But at the end of the day, there are mechanisms through the CRTC for these towers to be approved.”
A round of public consultation that wrapped up on June 6 saw no comments on this particular tower, although it did receive some general opposition to all three towers.
However, Freedom Mobile is still working on two other proposed towers at 4130 Minto Road below Grandview Heights and at 1306 Columbia Ave., at the top of Sherbiko Hill.
Planning manager Meeri Durand said that although council could support this site and reject the others, “one site doesn’t really meet the overall objectives of providing wireless coverage within the municipality.”
The city originally planned to ask Freedom Mobile to appear before them as a delegation, but staff suggested due to their “limited influence and authority” in the matter, it’s not necessary.
