By Michael Howell
The company that has been looking to construct a cell phone tower on Hamilton High School property next to River Park has dropped the plan and on May 11, the Hamilton School Board of Trustees withdrew its application, pending before the Hamilton City Zoning Board of Adjustments (ZBA), for a Conditional Use Permit that would have allowed the construction.
The proposal drew a lot of resistance from the community when it was first considered by the ZBA at a meeting on March 23 of this year. Many people, including three City Council members, spoke against the proposal. No one but the company representatives from Digital Skylines (Verizon) and some school board members spoke in favor of the project. The proposal was tabled in order to get a legal opinion from the City Attorney about the request.
In the meantime, a petition against the project was circulated among the public and a group of people asked the school board at its April 13 meeting to reconsider and drop its request. The school board was adamant about supporting the project which could have brought in close to $10,000 a year in lease payments.
In her memo to the council, City Attorney Karen Mahar was critical of the request for a number of reasons, but, primarily, she noted that the application was actually incomplete. She also noted that once a complete application was presented it would still have to be reviewed to see if it was in compliance with city zoning regulations.
At the next ZBA meeting on April 27, the matter was again tabled until the application for the permit was deemed complete and a letter was sent to Ross and Julie Peabody of Digital Skylines informing them that more information was required before the request for a conditional use permit could be properly considered. On May 7, the Peabodys notified the Hamilton Building Department and the school that they were dropping the project.
The school district board of trustees made the decision to withdraw the application for the permit at its May 11 meeting without making any comment.