Saskatoon residents oppose cell tower precedent

SaskTel is proposing a new cell tower placed on the corner of a Saskatoon park to improve coverage and network capacity, but nearby residents say it’s too close to their homes, and against City of Saskatoon policy.

“Most cell towers in Saskatoon have been in either large parks, mostly in commercial, mostly near highways, but never near a residential area as close as this,” said Danny Boyer, a resident in the Holliston neighbourhood.

Residents say the Canon Smith Park that runs between Taylor and Isabella Street sees a lot of activity from the surrounding homes in the community, and recent city improvements were made in the form of a new playground and pathway.

“Tens and tens of thousands of dollars upgrading the park,” said Bob Lindsay, who lives down the street from the proposed tower site. “Now they’re going to turn it into some industrial site. It’s just, the one hand doesn’t seem to know what the other hand’s doing.”

People in the community got together to investigate their options, and found the City of Saskatoon implemented a policy surrounding antenna-supporting structures.

It recommends that structures be a minimum of 200 metres away from residential developments among other guidelines to minimize the impact on the surrounding development.

“The city strongly recommends the base of the antenna-supporting structure be located a distance of at least the height of the proposed antenna-supporting structure from the property line of any site zoned for residential development,” reads the City of Saskatoon policy.

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But neighbours say those policies aren’t being followed.

“It would be 35 metres from our property,” said Kristine Eggertson, who lives across the street from the proposed site. “It would be directly across from our front door. It would be visually offensive. It would be right where the only access point to the park is.”

Other residents feel confusion around the details of the proposal, which fell in the middle of both a provincial and municipal election made it difficult to reach their local leadership.

But the City of Saskatoon says it doesn’t have the final say when it comes to cell tower approval.

“While the city does work to ensure the guidelines are followed for cell towers, the approval for cell towers is provided by the Federal Government through Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada,” reads an email from the City of Saskatoon.

SaskTel says it considered alternative locations, but none matched the criteria needed.

“Several locations were considered but all others were deemed unsuitable as they were too far away from the area to have the desired effect, were too close to other overhead infrastructure and existing SaskTel wireless sites, or did not conform to the City of Saskatoon’s Antenna System Policy,” reads an email from SaskTel, which adds the company will work closely with the city to ensure any proposed project meets their expectations before proceeding.

But some fear that if this proposal gets approved, it would set a dangerous precedent for communities in Saskatoon.

“We looked at every cell tower in the city,” said Quentin Reschny. “There is no cell tower in green space and open green space right across from someone's front door like this, anywhere in the city.”

A public consultation is scheduled for Thursday night from 6 to 8 p.m. at Holliston School.