Texas firm pitches 160-foot cell tower

Wednesday’s question to Clovis’ planning and zoning commission: Is a stronger cell phone network worth the sight of a 160-foot tower?

The answer: Wait until December.

An hour-long meeting of the commission included a presentation from a Texas-based tower construction company and a national cell phone provider that serves Clovis. Both called customer data demands central in a request for construction of a 160-foot cell phone tower on a lot in the north portion of Hilltop Plaza near Main Street.

Clovis resident John Kibler thought the view from his window was still pretty important, and successfully convinced the commission to hold off on any decision and allow time for a citizen-based case to be presented.

Lubbock-based NTCH-NM came to the commission for permission to build the tower. City code created via a 2002 ordinance dealing with wireless telecommunications requires the planning and zoning commission approve special exceptions for towers taller than 85 feet.

Keith Fisher of NTCH-NM said the first client for the proposed tower is Cleartalk, but noted that it could serve at least three and maybe four additional carriers later.

“As the technology becomes more demanding, in wireless, infrastructure needs to be built out,” Fisher said. “We look at existing towers in the town as not enough to serve the town.”

Lance Tindall, director of radio frequency engineering for Cleartalk, said the goal of seeking another tower is to try to stay ahead of a mobile industry that demands more data with every new streaming device or streaming service.

“Voice is the last thing we talk about now,” Tindall said. “The first thing we talk about is data. Nobody expected Netflix 10 years ago, and now they’re 60 percent of Internet traffic.”

Tindall said Cleartalk’s existing three sites in the city are loaded up, and the new tower would help serve the northwest Clovis area it has designated as a problem. He noted that data problems are universal for area providers, because a customer Cleartalk loses will simply be a data demander on another company’s network.

Kibler, who lives within two blocks of the proposed site, said he felt it was reasonable to ask for more time to prepare a response to the presentation. He noted that the application was first made to the city more than two months ago on Aug. 29, and that the public wasn’t informed of it until a little more than two weeks ago in an Oct. 24 legal notice.

“You’ve heard a very one-sided presentation today,” Kibler said. “You’ve heard nothing from the people who lived there.”

Kibler said his objection was on an aesthetic basis, and noted that he’s put in about 15 hours of work mapping the area with the help of the county assessor’s office and has done multiple readings of the application sent to the city.

“Cleartalk said that is an ideal location for them,” Kibler said. “I don’t dispute that. But for some of us living there, it is not.”

Space is available to build a tower near Greene Acres Lake, Tindall said, but an obstacle is a requirement for a $25,000 study, and a new tower could be constructed at the proposed site for less than the cost of the study. Near the lake is a much taller tower for television that has been there for more than a half-century.

Sid Strebeck, who owns the vacant lot where the tower would be placed, said he needed to be convinced because his office is the closest thing to the tower. He believed it was a good move overall.

“If I thought it was going to preclude me from doing anything else with the lot,” Strebeck said, “I wouldn’t do it.”

Fisher said the company has built numerous towers throughout the country, and has seen the structures survive tornadoes of F-4 strength. If a tower was hit by a plane, he said it is constructed to collapse onto itself. Additionally, the tower would have space reserved should federal plans of a national first responder network ever come to fruition.

Commission members asked City Attorney David Richards what type of precedent would be set if the exception was approved. Richards said exceptions are each judged on their own merits, but noted the 12-year-old city policy might not be realistic given the changes to the industry.

The commission first moved toward tabling the decision, but Richards said the better course of action legally speaking would be to vote for a continuance to the Dec. 10 meeting. The suggestion was unanimously approved.