Public Comments Received at Hearing (5/27/15)

iZ4r register-iu~rd EUGENE. OREGON WEDNESDAY, .JANUARY 14, 2015 '51.00 Church's price to kill cell tower: $750,000 South Eugene pastor tells neighbors opposed to Hollow Road to AT&T. The long term, he said. the firm wants to build a 75-foot Otherwise, opponents can project that they can pay to make it go away W. 11TH GE ii cellphone tower disguised as buy the entire church and ----~--~--i-4 Eugene tm evergreen tree on the site. its 2-acre parcel for about •ti- IMAvE By EDWARD Russo tower at its south Eugene But Pastor Aaron Taylor on $2 million, Taylor said. The The Register-Guard church: Pay big bucks and the Tuesday said Crossfire would wood-frame, 7,200-square- tower proposal will disappear. drop plans to rent land for foot church building is 55 Crossfire World Outreach Nearby residents are upset the tower if opponents paid years old. K I `l Ministries on T1lesday made over Crossfire's plan to lease it $750,000. That is half the If Crossfire sells the an unusual, public offer to land next to its church at value Crossfire would receive opponents of a proposed cell West Amazon Drive and Fox from the lease deal over the 71irn to TOWER, Puge A4 CREIT PR. z r "7 don't know if it's completely ridiculous or if people will think of it as extortion." fir.: HGLIJvV F.D. - WILLI-;A COLLINGE, LELLPHONE TOWER OPPONENT Tom PE\-M-Fnv Register-Guard A4 Tr1E REGISTER-GUARD • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 2015 Tower: Pastor says he has received threats over tower plan Continued from Page AI church, it would find another one to buy in south Eugene, Taylor said. "I'm just saying if (oppo- nents) believe" that cell phone towers are harmful, "Ibi giving them options," he said. The church's offer was pub- lished Tuesday in a three- quarter-page advertisement in The Register-Guard that re- sponded to a Jan. 6 ad from tower opponents, also published in the newspaper. South Eugene resident and tower opponent William Collinge said he didn't know if opponents would consider ac- cepting the church's offers. Opponents will meet today to discuss it, lie said. "1 don't know if it's completely ridiculous or if people will think of it as extor- tion" Collinge said. Opponents worry that radio frequency emissions from the tower would threaten human health as well as wildlife in the nearby Amazon Creek corridor, and that the tower would de- press property values. lhylor and leaders of Cross- fire, a Springfield-based non- denominational church, say concerns about tower emissions are overblown. The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates tower emissions, has determined the towers are safe, they said. In their ad, Crossfire church leaders said the hypocrisy of op- ponents is "amazing." Only two or three opponents that church leaders have spo- ken to "refrain from using cell- phones," the ad said. Most tower opponents po- litely disagree with church lead- ers about the tower, but a few "liave threatened to teach us a lesson by coming to our per- sonal homes and churches to in- flict violence," the ad said. Thylor on Tltesday said two opponents. whom he would not name, sent him threatening messages by email. "One, in particular, said, 'if you put a cell tower nest to my house and try to kill me with m- dio frequency (waves), I'm going to come to your house and do the same;" he said. "1 get their rationale, but this is ridiculous" Collinge. a scientific reviewer for the National Institutes of Health, said lie "abliors the threats and hateful messages" that people have sent Taylor. Like many Americans, Taylor and other Crossfire church lead- ers have been led to believe that cell tower emissions are safe, mainly because of outdated FCC standards, Collinge said. The FCC regulations were written with the help of tele- communication firms, which are reluctant to have them changed, he said. The rules are faulty because they are based on the thermal, or temperature. effects of the emissions, Collinge said. However, more recent re- search is focusing on ]tow elec- tromagnetic radiation damages human tissue, DNA and chro- mosomes; Collinge said. Studies in European coun- tries indicate that people who live near cell towers run greater chances of developing cancer than other people, he said. "They are good people." Collinge said of Taylor and other church leaders. "But there is a knowledge gap. And it's not their fault. It's our society be- cause of the political system and the power we have given corporations." In 2013, Taylor told The Register-Guard that his churcli would only collect "several hun- dred dollars a month" from its AT&T tower deal. But on Tuesday he said the deal has the potential to gener- ate $1.5 million or more for the church over 25 years, or a min- imum of $5,000 a month. Taylor said the total in- cludes projected rent increases, the value of building additions that AT&T would make to the church, and potential lease agreements with other compa- nies that would put transmis- sion equipment on the tower. Under Eugene city code, cell towers are allowed on residen- tially zoned property, which includes the church site, if the spires meet conditions on height, screening, noise, light- ing and other factors. Tower proposals are subject to public hearings, and residents can raise objections and fight the structures in court. AT&T last year submitted a tower application to city of- ficials, who have approval au- thority. The firm is under a dead- line to revise its application by Friday. A public hearing on the request before a city hearings official has yet to be scheduled. The Jan. 6 newspaper ad from opponents was signed by 215 people, who asked the church to withdraw the tower application. "While land use processes are available to all citizens to oppose locations of cell towers, we would like to believe that, as neighbors, we should appeal to you on moral grounds." the ad stated. "Even if you reject the science and the precautionary actions now being taken in other countries, you can still change course out of respect and love for your neighbors in Eugene" Follow F-d on Pwitter @ed- raardrusso. Email ed.msso(Mreg- istergtard.com.