At the Committee of the Whole Monday night, some South Gower residents expressed concern that the Municipality is allowing a Bell telecommunications tower to be installed within 450 metres of their homes. Director of Planning and Development Forbes Symon said the matter of appropriate location didn’t even come up in the discussion:
One man showed up at the Committee of the Whole last night with a special request for the municipal planning department. Barry Mayhew asked Symon to consider asking Bell Canada to put their telecommunications tower elsewhere.
The tower is planned for the South Gower industrial park. Symon said the municipality currently does not have jurisdiction on placement of telecommunications towers, beyond the 2009 Official Plan.
Mr. Mayhew said there is a template available for municipalities to set up site selection protocols. Symon said he would consider integrating that into our new Official Plan.