La Broquerie Council has approved a variance for a homeowner to erect a 96 foot tall internet receiving tower on his property after a similar request was rejected last month.

Reeve Lewis Weiss explains the differences between the two requests: “During the last [public hearing] the request was for a sending and receiving tower by a commercial company and we would have had to vary the distance by a lot. This time, the owner of the property applied by himself for just a receiving dish.”

Another reason the former application was denied was due to public health concerns of the electromagnetic radiation that would come from an internet repeater.

One of the slides used at the public hearing by the homeowner to address public concern of radiation

“This was shocking,” comments Weiss, “because these things have come up in the past and nobody has seemed to care too much about them.”

According to La Broquerie’s by-law, a tower cannot be closer than double its own distance away from any neighboring lot.

Knowing this, the homeowner revised his original plans to more closely coincide with the by-law within the confines of his property. He also collected signatures from nearby neighbors who supported his tower and developed a portfolio of over 50 other towers in the community where exceptions to the by-law were permitted. This information was presented to council at the second public hearing on Wednesday.

After Wednesday’s hearing, council decided to vary the 192 feet, that would typically be required on all sides for a tower of this size, to 130 feet from the northern property line and 155 feet from the west.

Reflecting on the council’s decision, Weiss notes: “As an RM, if you don’t have a rule against something, but you try and tell one person he can’t do it when everyone else is allowed to, it just looks a little fishy.”

Still, there were members of the community who protested. While receivers, admittedly, emanate very little radiation, the continued opposition was based on the possibility of the new tower being used as a repeater in the future. If this happened, it would again pose a health risk.

Weiss clarifies that this discrepancy was not actually what the hearing was about, “This variance was for the distance of the tower, it has nothing to do with what is on the tower. What is on the tower is regulated by the government, that is not our issue to deal with.”

The new internet tower will be placed on the homeowner's property at 208 Wolf Drive.

 

Read more: Request For Internet In La Broquerie Denied