Salt Spring LTC Regular Meeting Agenda Addendum

Extracted text (beginning)

Salt Spring Island Local Trust Committee
 
Regular Meeting Addendum
 

Date:August 31, 2021
Time:9:30 a.m.
Location:Electronic Meeting
Pages
13.CORRESPONDENCE
12:20 PM - 12:25 PM
13.9.J. Clark to LTC - Dated August 21, 2021 - Concerning Rogers Channel Ridge
Cell Tower Proposal
2
For Consideration

From: Julian Clark   
Sent: Saturday, August 21, 2021 7:47 PM 
To: Peter Grove 
Cc: Laura Patrick; Peter Luckham 
Subject: Rogers Channel Ridge Cell Tower Proposal 
 
Hi Peter, 
 
Thank you for taking the time to attend and take questions at yesterday’s ASK Salt Spring forum. I fully 
appreciate that what you and your fellow Trustees do is a thankless task, and to put yourselves “in the 
line of fire” at an unscripted and unsupported event is courageous indeed! Your introductory remarks 
were insightful, heartfelt and clearly displayed your genuine concern for Salt Spring Island and its’ 
residents. Your remarks also made it clear that there are no silver bullets, no easy answers, but rather a 
web of complex issues where trade-offs and compromises must be weighed against the backdrop of 
societal demands and previously established community plans. 
 
In that regard, having to make a decision on where a cell tower should be located is no easy task. After 
my comments yesterday on the LTCs recent concurrence with the Channel Ridge Cell Tower proposal 
submitted by Rogers, you asked that I provide you and your fellow Trustees with my thoughts in writing. 
So here goes... 
 
First of all, it should be clearly stated that siting a cell tower is a very significant and substantive decision 
that should not be taken lightly. In the case of the Rogers Channel Ridge proposal, your concurrence 
means that: 
 

         
A 40 meter tower is to be built in the midst of a residential area with the closest property 145 
feet (43 meters) from the site and at least 10 homes within 300 meters of the site. 

         
As a result of the exclusion rules (Rule 6 of the Innovation, Science & Economic Development 
(ISED Cda) Antenna Siting Policy CPC-2-0-03), once the tower has been in existence for one year, 
Rogers is free to expand the tower by 25% of its height without any further approval. 

         
A 40 meter tower exceeds (and 50 meters will vastly exceed) the surrounding tree height and 
will most likely require an aviation warning system to including a flashing red light that is active 
24 hours a day – Rogers simply stated they will comply with Transport Canada safety 
requirements, but they did not clearly state what those requirements will be. 
 
The implications of this decision are immense for the residents of Channel Ridge and especially for those 
households close to the proposed site. We suspect that if this tower were going up within 50 - 150 
meters of your home you would readily agree with our concerns regarding: 
 
1.
       
Harm to our health. We understand that Rogers have stated the tower will be compliant with 
Health Canada’s Safety Code 6. Bu

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