When Derek Stuart bought his retirement condo in Mission Hill Grande, he said he knew he'd have to be looking at one transmission tower. That 25-metre white spire had been sticking out of the nearby strip mall on McKenney Ave. for years.
Now, he might have to look at two.
"This is what I'm going to have to look at for the rest of my life," he said, showing a photo of the view from his west balcony — a clear skyline interrupted by the new tower, which he has sketched in black marker.
Stuart was one of about 25 residents at Cornerstone Hall Monday night for an open house on a proposed transmission tower in the Mission Ridge strip mall on McKenney Ave. If built, the tower will stand 35 metres tall – about the height of a 12-storey apartment building – and be just east of the Quiltessential Co. A 25-metre tower owned by Telus stands at the other end of the mall.
The polite, but firm, residents said they opposed the tower's location due to its effects on property values, aesthetics and their health.
"There is nobody in our community of over 300 people who want this tower," said Stuart, speaking as vice-president of the Mission Hill Grande condo board. "We've got one existing tower there. We don't want another one."
Wind wants it
St. Albert currently has 14 transmission towers ranging from 15 to 68 metres tall, said Craig Thomas of the City of St. Albert.
The roughly $250,000 tower is being proposed by SBA Canada, said Vanessa Cartwright, host of the open house. SBA is a company that builds towers and rents space on them to other carriers. This tower could hold up to four carriers, including Wind Mobile, and will initially feature three round microwave dishes and three long, rectangular antennas.
Wind currently has coverage in the north and south of St. Albert, Cartwright explained; this tower will take care of the middle. Consultants searched every site within 300 metres of their ideal spot (the St. Albert Catholic Parish) and found that the mall was the only other viable location. The Catholic Parish was not interested in leasing land for the tower, Cartwright said.
Today's smart-phone users demand gap-free coverage, said Ed Hachey, spokesperson for SBA Canada, so towers have to be close together to offer it.
"You don't have the flexibility to move them around one or two kilometres," he said, as you end up interfering with other towers.
Wind asked Telus if it could put its transmitters on its tower, said Erica Rigik, spokesperson for Wind, but learned that one was full.
Residents don't
Resident Chris Smith was blunt when he summed up the sentiment of the room.
"We want our neighbourhood to remain the way it is. We don't want a great butt-ugly tower sticking up in our backyard."
Stuart suggested that the tower instead be built either by the Catholic school board office or the reservoir on Larose Drive. He and others also wondered if the Telus tower could be upgraded to host Wind's transmitters. That's theoretically possible, said Erica Rigik, spokesperson for Wind, but it would mean replacing the current tower, which would temporarily knock out Telus's coverage in the area.
Stuart and others also questioned how the tower would affect students in nearby schools. There is a preschool in the mall.
"The jury is still out on the health effects from cell towers and cellphones," he said, and this tower should not be placed so close to schools.
Even at full capacity, Hachey said, this tower would expose a person at ground level to just four per cent of Health Canada's maximum exposure limit for electromagnetic fields. A person four stories up would receive a similar exposure. A cordless phone puts out more radiation by comparison.
SBA will take comments on the tower until Oct. 6, Cartwright said, and hold a second open house later this year. City council will then vote on whether to support the tower or not, with final approval resting in the hands of Industry Canada.
Questions on the tower should go to Cartwright at 403-538-3253.
