Planning commission denies Tlingit and Haida’s permit for wireless tower near Wrangell

Equipment arriving in Wrangell in January of 2023 has been set up to provide a test wireless broadband system being used by about a dozen households. (Photo courtesy of the Central Council Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska)

By Larry Persily

Wrangell Sentinel

Tidal Network, which is looking to expand the reach of its wireless internet service in town, is considering its next steps after the planning and zoning commission unanimously rejected the tribal nonprofit’s permit application to install a 250-foot-tall signal tower back from the highway near 13-Mile.

“We are currently reviewing our options,” Chris Cropley, Tidal Network director, said in an email Aug. 20, a week after the commission rejected the application.

In denying the conditional-use permit, the commission asked Tidal Network to bring back its application with more information, specifically to answer why the tower needs to be so tall, what kind of lighting would be required atop the structure, and more science on any health effects of wireless signals, said Kate Thomas, the borough’s economic development director.

“There was so much public comment and resistance from neighbors and nearby property owners,” Thomas said in an interview after the Aug. 14 commission meeting.

About a dozen people attended the public meeting, she said.

Communications towers are allowed under conditional-use permits in areas zoned rural residential.

The commissioners want a better understanding of how visible the tower will be to nearby property owners, whether the Federal Aviation Administration will require additional lighting on the tower, and how much the new installation will expand the reach of Tidal Network’s wireless internet signal, Thomas said.

Tidal Network, operated by the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, started up in Wrangell last year, with plans to expand across Southeast Alaska, using a 2022 federal grant to build towers and install equipment on its own towers and also on leased towers.

It installed its own tower near 3-Mile earlier this summer but is waiting on equipment before transmitting and receiving from that location. The network is looking to serve areas of Wrangell, and other Southeast communities, that lack high-speed internet service or lack dependable signals.

The proposed new tower would occupy the back corner of a wooded, upland lot about a half-mile short of McCormack Creek near 13-Mile Zimovia Highway. Tidal Network will purchase the privately owned lot if it goes ahead with the plan.

The 4.1-acre parcel is the third lot back from the highway.

Cropley said geography determines the height of the tower needed to reach a coverage area — the signals cannot go through hillsides. The network looks at current levels of service in an area to determine locations for new towers.

“I’m against it,” Leilani Sanford, who lives within 300 feet of the property line for the tower lot, said in an interview before the commission meeting.

“I’m very much concerned about the health issues,” she said, adding she believes 1,500 feet is a safe distance for residences from towers and radio signals.

“We live 13 miles from town for a reason,” Sanford said. “We want to look at the trees and the water,” not a communications tower. She has lived there more than 10 years.

Sanford said she uses Starlink for wireless service, adding that most residents in the area use either Starlink’s satellite service or get internet from Alaska Power & Telephone lines that run almost to 13-Mile.

According to the permit application, the tower would be surrounded by a chain link fence. “Much of the surrounding timber will likely limit adjacent residences' viewshed of the tower itself; therefore, there are no anticipated appearance issues,” according to the staff report prepared for the planning and zoning commission.

Staff had recommended approval of the application.

• This article was originally published by the Wrangell Sentinel.