Newmarket council is butting heads with Rogers over a proposed cellphone tower outside the Magna Centre.
Rogers Telecommunications is proposing to use town land to build a 25-metre cellphone tower outside the facility. While the towers are federally regulated, companies have to find concurrence with the municipality.
Council has gone back and forth with Rogers staff over the appearance of the proposed tower and the improved cellphone coverage it could offer. Council again deferred on the matter Sept. 30, seeking more information on a potential alternative to the Magna Centre tower.
“If a tower is going to be attached to a major component of our town, then it needs to be somewhat attractive,” Councillor Grace Simon said.
Much of the dispute has been over getting Rogers to have shrouding on the tower — using material like fibreglass to mask the tower’s appearance.
But Rogers had said it could not happen for this tower over concerns about signal quality. The dispute has contributed to Newmarket council deferring approval at the past couple of meetings.
“Shrouding is unfortunately not going to work in this situation because of a combination of the space required at the tower height to being able to ensure the service requirements are met for Rogers,” spokesperson Kevin Long said to council.
To alleviate the “eyesore nature” of the tower, Long said Rogers is proposing to have the tower's antennas tucked in closer to the pole, rather than protruding, to blend in better.
Another proposal put forward by councillors was a flag at the top of the tower, but Long said that would not be possible. However, Long said Rogers could paint the tower a colour like white to better blend in with the sky.
But councillors still pushed back. Councillor Simon said driving around Toronto, cellphone towers are not typically near community centres. She proposed a different motion to approve the tower on the condition that Rogers implement shrouding.
Councillor Bob Kwapis also pushed back on the idea that shrouding would harm the serviceability of the tower, citing Canadian Spectrum Policy Research, which states shrouding should not impact tower signals.
Council also previously floated leasing land at the operations centre on Maple Hill Court as an alternative site. Long said Rogers would review the idea over two to three months but wanted to consider this tower in isolation from that.
But Taylor said a decision could wait a few months to see if the alternative site could work as well, in addition to getting further clarification around shrouding.
“I can’t believe after all these years, that two or three months more without cell coverage improvement is a make-or-break scenario,” Taylor said. “I’d rather look at all the information at once.”
